Seattle-area housing market remains far from peak years despite pickup

For the Seattle-area housing market, 2024 marked a turning point.

After dipping in 2023, home prices rebounded and sales picked up. Still, last year wasn’t a boom year. 

While single-family home prices across the region hit records, sales volumes remained below the busiest years of the pandemic market, when low interest rates, stay-home orders and remote work drove a surge in home sales and prices across the region. 

The picture was different last year as stubbornly elevated mortgage rates made buying nearly impossible for many would-be shoppers. But even with less demand, prices climbed. With few sellers wanting to brave the market, the inventory of single-family homes remained slim by previous standards, keeping prices high.

Year-end data released Friday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reflects the stalemate. 

The median King County single-family home sold for $950,000 last year — a record-high annual median and the highest cost in the state — up 8.5% from 2023.

Prices also climbed in nearby counties. Median home prices hit $790,000 in Snohomish County, up 7% from 2023; $565,000 in Pierce County, up 6%; and about $553,000 in Kitsap County, up 2%. That’s a turnaround from 2023, when prices fell or stayed flat in all four counties. 

Add to those high prices high interest rates. 

Mortgage rates barely budged last year. While buyers enjoyed a brief dip to just above 6% in September, rates ended the year at nearly 7%, slightly above where they sat when 2024 began. Most economists expect rates to remain in the 6% range this year.

Nationwide, home price growth picked up in the final months of 2024 while inventory remained limited, according to Fannie Mae. And just 1 in 5 consumers say they feel it’s a good time to buy a home, an improvement from a year earlier but still a gloomy outlook. 

“The higher mortgage rate environment is not only hurting affordability but it’s also exacerbating the lock-in effect by further reducing homeowners’ incentive to move,” Fannie Mae Chief Economist Mark Palim wrote in an analysis this week. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage climbed above 7% this week for the first time since May.

The struggle to afford housing in the Seattle area spans neighborhoods and income levels, with even the region’s many well-off residents facing a daunting reality.

To afford the $5,700 monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home in the Seattle area, a household making the median income of $126,000 would still have to spend more than half of their income on housing costs, according to Redfin. The analysis assumes a mortgage rate of 6.7%, a 15% down payment and monthly costs that include taxes and insurance.   

Despite affordability struggles, there were some signs of revived market activity in the Seattle area. 

The number of new single-family home listings in King County increased 15% from 2023 to 2024. But zoom out to get the full picture: Aside from 2023’s low, the number of new listings of all types hitting the market last year was at the lowest level in more than a decade.

Over the last year, homeowners began to accept that “a low-rate time to sell is not right around the corner” and listed their homes for sale despite high rates, said Jeff Tucker, Windermere principal economist.

For buyers able to afford the cost, that was a welcome move. 

The number of closed single-family home sales increased 8% in King County last year. Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties also recorded more sales, a notable shift after two years of decline.

Higher sales volumes show that in some ways “we’ve turned the corner” from a super-sluggish year in 2023, but the data “does still reflect a market where a lot of people are staying put,” Tucker said.

The condo market tells a different story.

In King County, the number of condos listed for sale in 2024 surged 25% from 2023.

As rents have held steady amid an influx of new apartment construction, would-be condo buyers may find the prospect of renting cheaper than taking on a mortgage and HOA dues. 

“Condos in the city are plentiful. In fact, I would even say it’s a buyer’s market with regard to condos,” said Seattle Coldwell Banker Bain broker Blair Stacks.

Even amid a glut of supply, more condo sales closed last year and prices climbed.

The median King County condo sold for $549,950, up 8% from 2023. Seattle’s median condo price reached $575,000, up 3% from a year earlier. Seattle condo listings include apartmentlike homes in multifamily buildings and backyard cottages that resemble small single-family homes and typically cost more. 

King County buyers and sellers made 8% more condo deals last year than the year before. 

Brokers hope Amazon’s return-to-office mandate could boost demand for condos in Seattle neighborhoods close to the tech giant’s South Lake Union campus, but buyers could also turn to single-family homes in the city or nearby suburbs.

“(Amazon’s mandate) could be sort of pulling things back toward the core of the region, but that’s not an exclusively downtown Seattle phenomenon,” Tucker said.

As 2025 begins, Seattle-based Redfin reports a nationwide uptick in shoppers requesting home tours, though that hasn’t yet resulted in surging sales.

“Some buyers are getting serious about their search because they’ve come to terms with 7% rates and they’re worried that if they wait longer, home prices will just keep rising,” Eastside Redfin agent Emily Lam said in a written statement. “Others are starting their search in hopes that rates will decline soon.”