Seattle buyers continue to get good news in latest real estate report

Though we're still in what's considered "peak real estate" season, the doldrums of summer are giving way to better news for Seattle buyers -- namely that there's more balance to the market than there's been in a long time.

"Home sellers throughout the Seattle region are experiencing a reality check and the days of multiple offers are days of the past," was how one director with Northwest Multiple Listing Service summarized the mood of the region in the latest NWMLS report.

July saw an improving supply, with the number of active listings system-wide totaling 16,773 at the end of the month, the largest volume since September 2016. That translates to about 1.8 months of supply across the 23 NWMLS counties, which is the highest level since October 2016. During July, NWMLS got a 6.5 percent increase in inventory, and modest drops in both pending sales and closed sales (7 and 3.4 percent, respectively).

Not too shabby for what was supposed to be a hot hot hot summer for real estate.

"It has been a long time coming, but we finally have some solidly good news for buyers in the Puget Sound area," OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate, said in the latest NWMLS report. "The increase in listings is clearly having a calming effect on prices while also giving buyers in the region somewhat of a reprieve from the frantic market of months past."

5411 34th Ave. S.W., listed for $429,000. See the full listing here.

He noted the number of single family homes (excluding condos) for sale in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties in July was up 10.4 percent compared to June and up 20.5 percent year-over-year.

Of course during the month prices rose 8.64 percent across the 23 counties since the same time last year, meaning that despite any progress being made Seattle's market is still booming. Some take this as a sign that for whatever swing in the favor of buyers has come, it's still a seller's market.

12845 78th Ave. S., listed for $525,000. See the full listing here.

"An 8.64 percent increase in median sales price compared to last year is still much greater than inflation," Mike Grady, president and COO, Coldwell Banker Bain, Bellevue, noted in the NWMLS report.

"In the long term this is only sustainable in a growing employment market like we have in this region. Consider that through May more than 30,000 net new jobs have been created in just the Seattle-Bellevue area."

After all, while King County has doubled its inventory supply from 0.8 months to 1.5 months, that's still well below what analysts consider a balanced market of 4-to-5 months on inventory.

4211 78th Ave. S., listed for $638,500. See the full listing here.

To see some of the supply that's currently churning through the MLS system, click through the slideshow above to see three homes in the Seattle area. They're all well under Seattle's new median sales price ($735,000), as King County's new median ($629,000).

You can find the full listings at the links above; the homes start at $429,000.

SeattlePI reporter Zosha Millman can be reached at zoshamillman@seattlepi.com. Follow Zosha on Twitter at @zosham. Find more from Zosha here on her author page.