KIRKLAND – Home buyers are in “full sprint” mode while sellers are stalling, according to brokers from Northwest Multiple Listing Service. As a result, MLS members are juggling inventory shortages and multiple offers in many Seattle neighborhoods and beyond.
MLS figures for May show double-digit drops in inventory compared to a year ago and double-digit gains in both sales and prices.
Last month’s volume of 11,425 pending sales across the 23 counties in the latest report nearly matched the 11,862 new listings added to the database. At month end, the total number of active listings stood at 19,515, a drop of more than 18 percent from a year ago when members reported 23,917 active listings.
“We are definitely feeling the squeeze on inventory levels with sellers holding off until they can find a home,” said George Moorhead, designated broker and owner at Bentley Properties.
MLS figures for May show supply has dwindled to about 1.2 months in King County and 1.6 months in Snohomish County. Several neighborhoods near Seattle’s job centers have less than a month of supply.
For Kitsap County, there are 950 active listings with an average sales price of $329,709. The median price of a Kitsap home is $265,000. There were 2.7 months of inventory in Kitsap in May, but in May 2014 there were 4.1 months of inventory in Kitsap.
For the MLS service area overall, there is about 2.4 months of supply – well below the 4-6 month figure used by many industry watchers as an indicator of a balanced market. About half the counties reported less than four months of supply.
For the Central Puget Sound region encompassing King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties, the MLS recorded 8,620 pending sales – the highest total for the month of May in at least 15 years.
J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott, Inc., called 2015 “the best start ever for sales activity.” Citing MLS figures, he noted cumulative pending home sales in the four-county Puget Sound area for the first five months of the year are outpacing the previous record year of 2005. “This time the housing market is built on a strong foundation of qualified buyers,” he said.
“This is a supply-demand-distance type of market,” said Frank Wilson, branch managing broker at John L. Scott in Poulsbo. “They have run out of inventory in the Seattle market so now it’s just a matter of how far a buyer needs to drive to find a home that is available and affordable. Kitsap is seeing that demand increase with a bit of a lag as the market rolls from east to west into Kitsap and beyond,” said Wilson.
In King County, the median sales price for single family homes and condos (combined) was $434,000, an increase of 9 percent from twelve months ago when brokers reported a median sales price of $398,000. Prices on single family homes (excluding condos) that sold in King County jumped to $480,942, about the same as April ($480,000), but up nearly 8.8 percent from the year ago figure of $442,250.
“Locally, home prices are continuing to rise at a steady pace, and they continue to outpace both inflation and wage gains,” said Mike Gain, CEO/president at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest. Pent-up demand is pushing inventory lower, he said. Gain believes the supply challenges could be alleviated if more sellers put their home on the market.
