It takes an average of eight days to sell a home in the Seattle area, making it the fastest and most competitive market in the country according to a new report from Redfin for the month of April.
While demand and prices have increased in Seattle, the number of sales year over year fell 10.9 percent and overall inventory remains at a historic low with only 1.2 months of supply. The lack of new listings made that inventory number the lowest for any market in April, according to Redfin.
Other highlights for the region:
- The median sale price in Seattle was $429,950, an 8.7 percent increase year over year.
- There were 3,940 home sales for the year.
- There are 4,697 homes for sale, a 25.9 percent decrease year over year.
- Seattle saw the largest increase in the average sale-to-list percentage, up 1.9 percent to 102.9 percent, which was the highest level recorded in the market. Portland also reached a recorded high of 101.6% average sale-to-list price.
Seattle-based Redfin saw declining home sales in many markets in the West. With a median price of $1.2 million in San Francisco in April, sales there were down 24.3 percent year over year.
Doing whatever takes to get into a home in Seattle means being prepared, according to Redfin agents who saw bidding wars reach their highest level on record in April with 77.9 percent of agents’ offers facing competition.
“I recently helped a couple of buyers in Oakland win a bidding war in [Seattle’s] Upper Queen Anne by being prepared and acting fast,” Redfin agent Karlyn Goetz said in a news release. “On a Friday night, they received an Instant Update alerting them that the home had hit the market. They couldn’t make it into town that weekend, so we did a video tour of the home on Saturday morning and presented an offer after an open house on Sunday when the sellers said they’d begin reviewing. The sellers accepted the offer that day, which was only possible because my clients were well prepared, both with documentation from their lender and having considered in advance how far they were willing to go in terms of price and other conditions to win a home in this neighborhood.”
