NWMLS Real Estate Market Update for September 2024:
Lowered mortgage rates provide boost but affordability remains elusive
The Northwest MLS released their monthly real estate market update for September 2024. Below is the text quote from their press release and their market snapshot video:
Published on: October 3, 2024
Northwest MLS, the source for the most current, accurate market listing data in Washington state, today released its Market Snapshot for the month of September 2024.
Market Recap
The further reduction of interest rates in September by the Federal Reserve provided a positive end-of-the-summer boost to the market. Double-digit increases in active and new listings and single-digit increases in median home prices demonstrated a tentative balance between the ongoing seller’s market and newfound buyer confidence.
However, experts caution that without deeper cuts to interest rates, housing affordability will remain out of reach for many would-be buyers. “Interest rates remain over double what they were just three years ago (6.08% at the end of September versus 3.01% at the same time in 2021 for 30-year fixed rate mortgages). This continues to have a major impact on affordability,” said Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER) at the University of Washington. “It seems unlikely that the volume of transactions will pick up substantially without some significant improvement in affordability.”
September 2024 Key Takeaways
Active and New Listings
- The number of homes for sale increased throughout the NWMLS coverage area, with 22 out of 26 counties seeing a double-digit year-over-year increase.
- There was a 31.4% increase in the total number of properties listed for sale, with 15,748 active listings on the market at the end of September 2024, compared to 11,983 at the end of September 2023.
- NWMLS brokers added 8,508 new listings to the database in September 2024, , an increase of 12.7% compared to September 2023 (7,551).
- The five counties with highest increases in active inventory for sale were Douglas (+67.8%), Pacific (+42.2%), Clallam (+41.6%), Grant (+40.5%) and San Juan (+39.8%).
Closed Sales
- The number of closed sales increased by 1.9% year-over-year (5,828 in September 2024) compared to 5,722 in September 2023.
- 11 out of 26 counties saw an increase in the number of closed sales year-over-year, while 15 saw a decrease.
Median Sale Price
- Overall, the median price for residential homes and condominiums sold in September 2024 was $635,000, an increase of 5.8% when compared to September 2023 ($600,000).
- The three counties with the highest median sale prices were King ($859,995), San Juan ($829,000), and Snohomish ($760,000), and the three counties with the lowest median sale prices were Ferry ($209,500), Adams ($270,000) and Columbia ($325,000).
Consumer and Broker Activity
NWMLS also provided insights into consumer activities during the month of September 2024:
In September 2024, there were 16,668 listed properties that were eligible for the Down Payment Resource (DPR) program offered by NWMLS. scheduled through NWMLS-provided software saw a slight decrease from June 2024 (119,775 showings) to July 2024 (117,298 showings).
The total number of property showings scheduled through NWMLS-provided software remained steady, with 119,927 showings in August 2024 and 119,900 in September 2024.
https://www.nwmls.com/lowered-mortgage-rates-provide-boost-but-affordability-remains-elusive/
Monthly Statistics
View infographics and PDF reports comparing the amount of active inventory, number of pending and sold listings and median price last month compared to same month last year.
Market Trends
View data reports of the market including listings, sales and inventory over the last five years. Data can be filtered by county, year-over-year or year-to-date and property type.
Entire MLS
This real estate market update and stats are for the entire Northwests MLS, so all of Western Washington and some Eastern too. So it’s really intended to just give a general idea about what the market is like as a whole. Good to know and good to then compare to the more local neighborhoods. So what about your neighborhood, specifically?
Stay tuned. I will be posting these NWMLS updates every month AND doing a market update for more local neighborhoods. 7 Lakes and Marysville are upcoming, but please feel free to call or contact me to get your specific neighborhoood stats, I’m happy to oblige!
