NWMLS Real Estate Market Update for July 2024
The Northwest MLS released their monthly real estate market update for July 2024. Below is the text quote from their press release and their market snapshot video:
Published on: August 5, 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 July 2024.
Market Recap
High mortgage interest rates continue to be a drag on home sales, discouraging both potential buyers facing high-rate mortgages and would-be sellers wanting to keep their low-rate mortgages. However, there are signs that the housing market is loosening up and that interest rates are declining and likely to decline even further in the coming months. Home sales are up 5.9% year-over-year in the NWMLS market area, and the number of active listings increased 37.7% relative to last year at this time. According to Freddie Mac, 30-year mortgage rates are at their lowest since February 2024 (6.73% as of August 1st).
July 2024 Key Takeaways
Active Listings
- There was a 37.7% increase in the total number of properties listed for sale, with 15,122 active listings on the market at the end of July 2024, compared to 10,982 at the end of July 2023.
- The number of homes for sale increased throughout Washington, with 25 out of 26 counties seeing a double-digit year-over-year increase.
- The six counties with highest increases in active inventory for sale were Douglas (+80.8%), Pierce (+51.2%), Walla Walla (+49.6%), Lewis (+49.3%), Snohomish (+47.8%), and Mason (43.7%).
- July 2024 saw a 5.9% increase in the number of closed sales transactions year-over-year (6,615 in July 2024 compared to 6,247 in July 2023).
- 19 out of 26 counties saw an increase in the number of closed sales year-over-year, while 7 saw a decrease.
- Overall, the median price for residential homes and condominiums sold in July 2024 was $650,000, an increase of 5.7% when compared to July 2023 ($615,000).
- The three counties with the highest median sale prices were King ($880,000), Snohomish ($775,000), and San Juan ($740,000), and the three counties with the lowest median sale prices were Columbia ($270,000), Pacific ($290,000) and Ferry ($319,900).
“Although the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank did not lower rates at its July 31st meeting, it suggested that it might do so in mid-September,” Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, said. ‘“A weak jobs report, largely reflecting a growing labor force, combined with low inflation suggests that the Fed will indeed lower rates next month with additional rate cuts expected at subsequent meetings.”
Consumer and Broker Activity
NWMLS also provided insights into consumer activities during the month of July 2024:
In July 2024, there were 17,515 listed properties that were eligible for the Down Payment Resource (DPR) program offered by NWMLS, an increase of 19.8% over July 2023.
Keyboxes located at listed properties were accessed 156,268 times in July 2024, a 4% decrease in activity from June 2024 when they were accessed 163,536 times.
The total number of property showings scheduled through NWMLS-provided software saw a slight decrease from June 2024 (119,775 showings) to July 2024 (117,298 showings).
https://www.nwmls.com/high-interest-rates-still-a-problem-but-markets-are-improving/
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!
