‘Is it a revolution?’: KIRO host probes housing shift as Seattle leads nation in pending home sales decline

Seattle just posted the biggest drop in pending home sales of any major city in the country, and KIRO host Ursula Reutin and KIRO fill-in host Angela Poe Russell said the numbers point to something deeper than a normal market cooldown.

Pending home sales in the Seattle area fell nearly 15.6% in July compared with a year ago, according to Redfin. Mortgage rates remain high, the median home price still sits around $900,000, and tens of thousands of tech workers have been laid off across the region. But Angela said the real question is whether this is a blip or something more fundamental.

“You have two problems going on here,” Angela said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “You have, first of all, the actual layoffs that have happened, and then the fear of: is this a temporary dip, or is it a revolution where we’re actually going to change what the jobs are that drive our economy?”

On the ground, stuff is sitting

Angela said she has been hearing directly from people in the real estate industry, and the picture isn’t good.

“I know a lot of people in the real estate industry, builders, stuff is sitting,” she said. “One developer has a bunch of, like, townhome-type places on the market, and it’s just well-priced and just quiet.”

She said the uncertainty isn’t just affecting buyers. It’s forcing sellers too.

“There’s the other case of a realtor I spoke with who, basically, the people were having to sell their home because they lost their tech job and there was no sign of getting another one,” Angela said.

Angela pointed to a KUOW report sourcing the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County, which found that while many industries are booming in the region, tech is moving in the opposite direction. Truck driver postings are up 200%, along with security officers and baristas, while software engineers and product managers are down in the double digits.

“They were kind of predicting that this could be the new norm,” Angela said.

San Francisco is surging while Seattle slumps

Ursula noted a striking contrast with San Francisco, a city with a similar tech-heavy economy that is seeing the opposite trend.

“San Francisco, which is very similar to Seattle in terms of high-tech jobs, they’re actually seeing a surge in home sales,” Ursula said. “They’re getting a lot of wealthy folks moving in because the AI boom is actually supporting the demand down there. Whereas up here, we had so many people come in for all these high-tech jobs that are now, I mean, tens of thousands of jobs are being cut.”

According to Redfin, San Francisco saw an 8.5% increase in closed home sales year-over-year in July. West Palm Beach, Florida, saw an even bigger jump, with closed sales up 17%.

“Well, you know who’s moving there,” Ursula said.

A silver lining for some buyers

Ursula acknowledged that the downturn could be an opening for people who have been priced out.

“If you’ve been someone who’s been on the sidelines waiting for prices to drop, where you’re not getting a teeny-tiny home in Seattle for over a million dollars, maybe you’re looking at this like this might finally be my time to jump in,” she said.

‘People had their choice of jobs’

Both hosts reflected on how quickly the landscape has changed. Not long ago, tech workers were being courted with free meals, massages, and laundry services.

“It was a situation where companies were having to do a lot to keep them, offering them these free meals, offering the perks,” Angela said. “Sleep here, get a massage.”

“How jealous I was of all those people telling me about the kind of food that they could get for free,” Ursula said. “We’ve got vending machines downstairs.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.