January 2025 Market Update
December closed out 2024 in a typical fashion. Transactions and pricing both did their annual retreats as home buyers and sellers turned their attention to other things to close out the year. Not unusual, so not a trend, the end of year saw a slight price decrease from November. We won’t spend too much time looking at Decembers numbers as the year end data will give a better indicator for what has happened and what is to become.
Yearly pricing trends annual dips in pricing in the latter parts of the year. The end of 2024 shows overall price increases from previous years. The take aways are that there is just more demand then supply and that buyers have gotten used to the higher interest rates.
Inventory numbers took their typical dip in December. While some properties received accepted offers (52 West Seattle homes in December), many homes come off market during the holiday times. We likely will see those come back to market in the upcoming weeks and months and market themselves to a different set of eyes. The spring market typically sees a new, more urgent buyer pool. Spring markets typically see more demand and less inventory creating a seller advantage.
Closed Sales were steady but more reflective of Novembers market. Year end numbers (covered in 2024 Market Report) will be the better indicator of market health.
December Pending numbers show seasonal slowdown as buyers attentions turned elsewhere. Also interesting to note, there wasn’t a lot of new inventory. Only 41 new listings came to market in December (vs. 179 in September). So, buyers may have been out there, but not enough compelling choices hit the market. Pending numbers typically peak in early summer as thats when the most amount of new listings come to market.
West Seattle and Seattle Metro numbers mirrored each other. Down from the previous month but up YOY.
Other points of interest. Despite another Fed Rate cut, interest rates inched up to over 7%. Buyers are able to buy down the rate but still remain pretty high. The 700-799k and 1-1.25M price ranges remain the most active price ranges in West Seattle.
We are working on Year end numbers and 2024 fun facts. Stay tuned!