Snohomish County Real Estate Market Report for July 2020

We’re now about four months into COVID and we have a pretty good idea of what's going on, and I've got some pretty good data that you're going to want to make sure you see. Watch until the end and I'll share with you a few mistakes we're seeing a lot of buyers and sellers making right now. So, if you're thinking about buying or selling, you can avoid making those mistakes as well.

First of all, where's our sales price at? We're at $550,000. It's our average sale price in Snohomish County for residential real estate. That's an increase of about 4% year over year. It's pretty normal increase, but that has not gone down, which is kind of the big thing. What does that tell you? Well, it tells you the market's pretty stable right now, even with a pandemic going on. It also tells you that if you're looking in the high 300s or low 400s, you're going to have a very difficult time finding a home. It's just so far below what our average price point is right here in Snohomish County.

Second of all, new listings. We're down about 8% on new listings, and there's a reason why. The reason why we're down on new listings is because sellers have hunkered down a little bit with COVID going on. A lot of people have sheltered in place, they spend a lot more time at home, they've decided not to list their home until this passes, so it's resulted in our inventory level going down and less new listings coming on.

Homes for sale

They're down 24%, an eye-popping number. There's way less homes for sale than there was one year ago today. There's a lot less options to look at out there. The reason why, like I said, less sellers listing and still just as many or more buyers because of lower interest rates out there buying homes right now.


Days on market

How long does it take to sell a home from the day it goes on the market until the day gets an offer accepted? We're at an average of around 28 days, which is a decrease of about 6% year over year. So that means homes are selling a little bit faster than they were a year ago right now, even in the middle of the pandemic. I know it's crazy, but in the really low price ranges, 450 and less, homes are selling in one day or two day. Super fast if they've been priced right and if they're in a good location.

Months of inventory supply

This is kind of the leading indicator I always look at, and this means how many months would it take to sell every home that's on the market right now if no other homes came on. A neutral market is going to be about a six-month inventory supply. We're at 1.3 months of inventory supply right now. So definitely still a seller's market. It's going to take us a long time to even get back to a neutral market with where inventory levels at. That's a decrease of about 27% year over year. Shocking numbers, I know.

If you look at the news right now, you're hearing one story. If you look at the actual data in Snohomish County, it's totally different. There's a huge contrast happening, but you have to look at the data to know what's going on.

Some other market dynamics, I just want to share with you. First of all, like I said, the buyer demand has remained extremely strong. This is fueled by low interest rates and high rental costs. It's expensive to rent a house here, so a lot of people can buy a home for the same monthly payment as renting. The other dynamic we're seeing is with new construction. New construction is making up a lot of our sales right now, but new construction is so far out. A lot of new construction is now being completed in October, November, even December, and it's July right now, so just kind of keep that in mind. If you're thinking about buying new construction, be thinking it could be November, December before you could move into your home and plan accordingly for that.

And then I promised you I would share with you a couple of mistakes we're seeing right now. The biggest one, and I say this all the time and now it's more important than ever, is you have to take the time to develop a plan before you start running around looking at homes. What does this mean? It means do a buyer consultation. Sit down with your agent. Make sure that you understand the steps to buying a home. Make sure you understand our market conditions and make sure you've identified exactly what you're looking for in a home. You're going to have a way better home buying experience.

The other thing, the big mistake we're seeing is people need to buy and sell at the same time. They're not really thinking through their strategy. They're just getting out there and looking at homes. Huge mistake. You have to think about your current home and how that's going to affect your ability to buy a house.

If you've got any questions about these strategies, if you would like to have a buyer consultation with me direct, send me a direct message or you can text me at the number on the screen.