Why It’s Still a Good Time to Buy a House in Seattle

If you have begun the process for buying a home in Seattle in recent months, you are likely to be well aware of the highly competitive status of the housing market. However, despite the low inventory and its resulting consequences of multiple offers on a single listing and buyers getting relentlessly overbid, it is still a good time to buy – especially as we head into the colder months.

The city’s housing market is certainly competitive. While housing prices dropped slightly in July, from a median of $500,000 to $485,000, buyers are still contending over an extremely limited inventory. The result has been a near frenzy of buyers and their offers – many of them in cash – being placed on a home almost immediately after the listing is made. The overage in demand and minuscule supply allows homeowners to continue to hike prices, and buyers don’t seem to react, likely because the continually increasing prices means buying a home is a good investment.

Inventory isn’t likely to increase very quickly, but we are on the edge of a seasonal housing market that is going to be friendlier for buyers. This, if the past fall and winter housing market in Seattle can be relied upon for a 2015 season’s forecast.

Consistently, winter is a better time for homebuyers in Seattle. The reason being, most sellers are waiting to list their homes until after the holiday season, since the market picks up again in the spring and they can list their home for more. If they do list in the winter, it’s typically because they have to due to timely instances such as divorce or an occupational move. Generally speaking, most homes on the housing market in the wintertime are listed at lower prices, and homeowners are more flexible and willing to negotiate with buyers for bigger discounts, since they are more desperate to sell.

Although the actual numbers to support this are broad, the common-sense of the Seattle housing market in the winter is that there are fewer buyers. If they are interested in buying a home, they typically reduce time and energy spent on their search over the holiday season. Aggressive buyers, or those looking for a good deal, will experience less competition during this part of the year than any other.