May 2025 Market Update
West Seattle April residential numbers came more back in line with typical seasonal trends. We had seen a decrease in Median price in March (dipping to 805k from 824k in February) but April pricing came in strong at 887k. Closed and pending sales slightly increased and were consistent with numbers from last year. We also saw more homes hit the market this month as there were 160 ‘new’ listings in April (vs. 140 in March). We did see more competitive offer situations with about half (54) of this past months sold homes receiving over 100% sales price/list price ratios. The average Sales Price/List Price ratio in April was 104.7% for West Seattle.
April trends followed recent past pricing trends. Typically prices rise coming out of winter as there are more buyers (demand) and less inventory. Inventory tends to increase as we get later into the spring and prices level out. There are lots of wildcard factors this spring (higher interest rates, economic uncertainty, inflation) but so far this spring is similar to years past.
Inventory numbers are slowing rising in West Seattle. If you are actively looking to buy, you might notice more new listings out per week (in your price range) vs. what we were seeing earlier in the year. We historically see more inventory as we get into May and June. This can generally be attributed to better weather (time used to get house market ready) and nearing the end of the school year. On average there were about 150 homes available per week in April vs. 115 per week in March. About 100 of the available homes were previously owned meaning 1/3 of the available inventory is a New Construction (NC) Townhome/ADU/DADU. So, inventory is increasing but previously owned home numbers are still low. Of note, there are 174 residential homes available this am,5/6/25, (about 50 NC) so will be interesting to see if inventory, especially previously owned, keeps building.
Homes hitting the market were getting offers and closing. Closed sales inched up to 106 last month. Previously owned homes were the driver for West Seattle sold homes in April. 94 of 106 sold properties were previously owned (up from 76 in March).
Despite higher interest rates and economic uncertainty, buyers remained active this past month. 111 homes went under contract last month. Days on market trended down averaging just about 2 weeks. The median days on market was just 5 days. It is typical to see a home hit the market on a Thursday, go pending the following Tuesday and close 2 weeks later.
We definitely saw a lot of homes take ‘early offers’ the past couple of months. Most listings hitting the market will list an ‘Offer Review’ date several days out where they will review, if any, offers. However, the Seller has the option to review offers prior to the review date. We saw quite a few listings go to Pending status before the weekend open houses.
Seattle Metro saw its Median Price at 1M. It is the highest Monthly median since May of 2022. The overall market is still hot and sales price/list price ratios were at 103%+. There is more inventory hitting the market but it seems to be a lot of town home/ADU/DADU products. The higher price is being driven by Previously Owned homes with a Median of 1.025M vs. 840k for New Construction.
Interest rates continued their bumpy ride in April. We saw rates near 6% at the beginning of the month, up over 7% in the middle and now at mid to high 6’s.