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In a normal year as we move into December, we see a slowdown in our local real estate market. While we expect to see some slowdown compared to the fall, we also expect homes to continue to sell quickly. With extremely low inventory of homes for sale and extremely high demand to buy homes, we expect that there will be competition for most new listings that come on the market.
NWMLS-wide, closed sales in November were up about 23% and sales prices were up nearly 14%, compared to November 2019. In Seattle, prices were up 10.6% from a year ago and stayed flat compared to October 2020. For King County prices were up 13% from a year ago and were down about 1% from October.
When you move outside of King County, the numbers tell a story, reflecting the change we've been seeing all year, of people moving out of King County. Snohomish County had a 14.5% increase in prices year over year and prices remained flat from October 2020. And in Pierce County prices were up 17.4% year over year and 1.8% since October.
Buyers in our current market need to be ready to compete. That means buyers should be pre-approved with a local lender or be cash buyers. Interest rates below 3% mean that buyers are trying to take advantage of this opportunity to buy. Buyers should also be willing to consider homes that have been sitting on the market longer and may be overpriced. In fact, the percentage of homes on the market for more than 60 days is increasing each month.
Also for buyers, there are down-payment assistance programs that can help you with your purchase. Check out this article and reach out if you’d like to learn more about down payment assistance programs. I work with several lenders who offer these programs.
For sellers, there truly is no better time to bring your home on the market. While I don't generally recommend listing in the last 2 weeks of December, I believe that the first week of January will kick off a busy year in our local real estate market. If you're thinking of selling in 2021, we should be talking now and lining up any necessary repairs or staging that should be done prior to listing.
On a COVID note - the Governor's latest Stay at Home order means no open houses until at least January. But as a real estate broker, I can still show you homes that are for sale.
For more information on the market or what it means for you as a buyer or a seller, please reach out to me at (206) 790-0081 or Jamie@JamieFlaxman.com.
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