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For April 2020, our year over year closed sales inside King County is down 30.1% or in clear terms, we sold 1/3^rd less homes this April vs April 2019. Astoundingly however, throughout the whole Northwest Multiple Listing Service area, we are seeing price increases of 6.4% from the same time last year! As expected, the pandemic is the root cause of this, as fear of the unknown for many home buyers either halted or temporarily delayed their pursuit of home ownership. Real estate will be one of the driving forces in our economic recovery however and we are poised to make a strong comeback possibly as early as late this year based on economist predictions.

“With the first full month of post-COVID-19 data in hand, it’s clear the Puget Sound housing market has been hit but not knocked out,” stated Economist Matthew Gardener. “The normally active spring market is significantly slower than normal due to COVID-19, but it has not come to a halt,” he observed, adding, “In my opinion, it is responding to the current circumstances exactly as expected.”

We are still lacking inventory as it is down 27.5% from April 2019. Again, much of this is due to the pandemic and shelter in place and we expect to see more inventory added to the market in the months ahead but we have seen the King County median price increase 3.3% from April of last year as well.

SELLERS:

Keep your eye on the endgame, lack of inventory does not mean you can be complacent in your approach to preparing your property for market. Get your home looking sharp and picture ready so you can maximize your potential to attract the highest prices when competing against other properties that are similar in area and characteristics. We have begun to really focus more advertising toward online with targeted placement ads on social media and web sites, we’ve ramped up our use of video with our voice-over walk through tours and our virtual walk through tours as well and have shown great results in recent listings with fellow agents even loving the voice over videos!

BUYERS:

Mortgage interest rates have continued to blow our minds! This is a prime time to get into the market and get serious about purchasing a home. 🏡 Our continued advice to buyers is to stay consistent, maintain a positive outlook, and be prepared to jump on the right property when it presents itself. We are seeing more and more inventory come on slowly for our current buyers, but we are still seeing multiple offer situations as well.

If the right thing for you and your family is to purchase a home or sell your current one this year, get in touch with our team today and let us help you reach your goals!