Seattle homebuyers saw some reprieve in September, but perennial problems persist

In September, Seattle homebuyers found slight reprieve from some of the struggles that have been characteristic of the city’s hot housing market over the last year.  

Zillow’s latest monthly report — which examined housing trends between August and September — found that home prices only rose 1.2% between the two months.

“The housing market continued its gradual return to some semblance of normalcy in September, helped by the typical seasonal cooldown in shopping conditions that we expect to see every fall,” Jeff Tucker, senior economist at Zillow, said in a news release. “Homes are still selling quickly, and prices have not receded, but it’s not quite as extreme a sellers’ market as we saw back in the spring and summer.”

That 1.2% increase in Seattle home prices isn’t much considering home prices in the area have shot up a whopping 22.7% since September 2020.

Additionally, the number of listings with a price cut rose from 10.8% in August to 12.2% in September. Houses also tended to stay on the market for a little longer than they did in August.

However, some of the problems facing prospective homebuyers in Seattle continued in September.

Available inventory fell 2.2% between the two months. Inventory is down 25.2% since September 2019.

Rent prices are also still astonishingly high. The median rent in Seattle is $2,212 per month, which represents an 11.8% increase from this time last year.

The U.S. as a whole isn’t doing much better. Typical home value nationwide rose to $308,220 in September, which is up 1.6% from August but is a step down from a peak of 2% monthly growth in July. Despite this modest easing of appreciation, year-over-year home value growth is 18.4% — the highest in Zillow records dating back to 2000.