Where Did All the Houses Go?

When I started as a realtor a few years back - yes, gosh it has been years already – the market was hot. We had a full-blown seller’s market and that’s how I learned this business. It was all about escalation clauses and tight timelines. If you wanted to see something, you better be there quick cause it would be pending later the same day. The hottest price point was between 600K and 900K, expensive for most areas in the country, yet considered affordable for most Seattleites, Californians and some East Coasters. Back then, I wrote blog posts on how low the inventory was, especially when it came to the most wanted price point. I wrote how the market was top heavy with most homes in my area being priced above the $1 million mark.

And then, as the schools ended in 2018 things changed. We started gaining inventory and sellers got antsy.  Most people don’t really follow the real estate market unless they have a reason, reason being, needing to buy or sell or both, hence a lot of people don’t even know that for little over a year, we were approaching a calmer, seller leaning, but more balanced market. Buyers had options, and they were able to negotiate. Yes, it was still expensive. Yes, there were still multiple offers at times but there were also homes that sold under asking price and slowly the days on market got a bit more buyer friendly and buyers no longer had to make decisions in fifteen minutes. For a brief moment there was time, and we even thought we had found a new normal. Not a nation wide normal, normal, but our normal, a somewhat balanced market.

It’s hard to pinpoint when things started to change again. It’s almost as if one morning we woke up and the seller’s market was back. Our inventory was rapidly shrinking and when there are less homes on the market, one has more potential buyers for their home, and KaBoom! There we were; Sold in two days, sold in a day, sold in three hours. Five offers, ten offers, fifteen offers. I’ve seen offer instructions suggesting waiving everything, including appraisal if one wants to be considered as a serious buyer. Two days later, the home was pending. We’ve been top heavy the entire time, ever since I started but it seems as if the starting price keeps climbing higher and suddenly the price for a family home can well be a million, luxury doesn't start until we get closer to the $2 million mark.

So, where did all the houses go? The houses sold and new listings never hit the market. If ever, now is the time that I would really want to have that crystal ball, the one that would give me a sneak peek into the spring market… is this it? Is there going to be a tidal wave of new listings around the corner and come spring all the sellers should have listed earlier, and the buyers should have waited instead of getting into the frenzy. I wish I knew. So, how is the market? It’s very interesting, that’s what it truly is.

The struggle is real and the struggle is spreading. Tacoma area has seen home prices unheard of, and there are neighborhoods that have seen price growth in triple digits in past two years. Like I've said multiple times, our area is aching for affordable homes, homes for the real American middle class. Good homes at an affordable price. Maybe it's time for Seattle to start thinking condos instead of single family homes and create a new American dream. 

This is Tacoma!