We Like Sending Postcards

You ready for some stats? What did the market look like in September? Anything new, surprising or exciting?

I was approached by a friend the other day. She had received a postcard from a broker and had a question about it. The card had said that multiple offer situations are not necessarily good for the person selling their home, meaning it does not guarantee you’ll get the best price. My friend wanted to know how I felt about that statement.

First, I turned the entire thing around saying that in my opinion not getting a gazillion offers does not mean you did not get a great price for your home. I mean you may have just one offer, and it’s a great one. So, I do agree that you shouldn’t get carried away and feel like you missed on something if you don’t get twenty some offers on your home. It comes to the fact that you listed your home for an amount that you hopefully felt like it was the right price. You should feel like you would be happy getting what you listed your home for, and if you end up selling it for that amount you did it. You got what you wanted and you can move on. Yes, there are homes that sell above the list price. Some homes by ridiculous amounts. And then there are homes that sell for their list price or… under the list price. Yes, it does still happen.  Some homes sell for less than what they were originally listed for. But do I really think a multiple offer situation could be a bad thing for the seller? Nope, unless the home was listed below market value in hopes to create a bidding competition.

Without seeing the postcard in question, I’m anticipating the agent may have implied to a situation where the seller is asking to get the best offer to begin with, instead of an offer combined with an escalator. With an escalation clause, the price climbs in increments until it reaches the max for the buyer in question. It works well, if you really have multiple offers and everyone really, really wants the home.

But. Back to the market. For the first time since May of 2016 the pending sales crossed lines with the current inventory on Seattle Eastside meaning we actually had more homes for sale than what was potentially sold. That being said, the absorption rate hit its lowest in 12 months, diving below 100%. I do want to remind you that at 94.6% we are still above the 89.8% of September of 2016 for the same area.

Okay, so finally we have a month when we sell less than what we have for sale, but a year ago the inventory for residential and condos was approximately 200 homes higher than it is this year, and two years ago we had over 300 homes more for sale than this year in September. One month. I mean really. One month. In a more normal market it is the norm that there is more to sell than what has been sold.

It will be interesting to see October numbers as when looking at prices through NWML we do see a steady incline. Since January 2016 the average home price (residential) in King county has increased by 12.6% or $129,000 and in Redmond we’ve gone up by 18.6% or $208,000. Equally, within the same timeline our supply has gone down by 36.4% in Redmond. Traditionally we are about to see a hike in our October numbers.