Puget Sound housing supply dwindles as prices continue to climb
Jan 17, 2020, 12:03 PM | Updated: 12:09 pm
Puget Sound's housing prices continue to rise. (AP file photo)
(AP file photo)
Despite seeing a dip at the start of 2019, housing prices increased in the Puget Sound region in 2019, all while supply continued to dwindle.
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“Inventory shortages persisted throughout 2019,” said the Northwest Multiple Listing Service in a newly-released report on 2019’s housing market.
The NWMLS reported the addition of 110,040 listings in 2019, a 5.3 percent decrease over the previous year. All while the median price of single-family homes sold by NWMLS brokers jumped from $410,000 to $435,000 between 2018 and 2019.
According to a recent report from Redfin, that trend persisted in Seattle city limits as well, punctuated by a 6 percent increase in the median price of a home year-over-year, while seeing a 39.7 percent decline in available homes for sale.
Median home prices in Tacoma climbed 9.3 percent, paired with a massive 44.3 percent decline in inventory.
“Prices heated up in West Coast metros like Seattle and Los Angeles, which indicates the slowdown of 2019 has officially ended in these markets,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather.
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That trend started in late 2019, when inventory began to dip dramatically across King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties.
“The most recent data certainly appears to bolster the idea of a ‘new normal,’ as we see the same trends continuing,” Coldwell Banker Bain President and COO Mike Grady predicted in November.
