Washington housing market in a gridlock?
Market Update - May 2023
As we’re getting further into Summer, we’re hoping to see more homes on the market as home demand increases. For now, the real estate market is falling into a gridlock.
What do we mean by that? Check out the numbers below…
Key Takeaways
⚡️ Over this past month we saw a small dip in the number of available homes for sale going from 934 homes to 872 homes.
⚡️ The number of homes going under contract stayed around the same (987 to 997), this indicates a strong demand from homebuyers that’s still rising.
⚡️ Average price per sqft continues to rise as well going from $285 in March to $293 in April.
⚡️ The average amount of days a home is live before sold or taken off the market has dropped again from 47 days on average to 37 days on average.
After roughly a year of declining values and home buyers now acclimating to a new norm for mortgage rates, buyer demand continues to break that trend with rising home values in the last couple of months.
With that being said, both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have approved new changes for mortgage rates where fees will be lower for households with lower credit scores, but higher for households with higher credit scores.
This change could mean great news for those buyers with less-than-perfect credit who have struggled with the upfront cost of obtaining a mortgage, and tougher for highly qualified buyers who will have higher closing costs than they were looking at last year.
If you want to learn more about the new mortgage changes, here’s an excellent article from Mortgage News Daily that breaks it down further.
It will be interesting to see how this will affect buyer demand as it will be harder for some people looking to get pre-approved and easier for others.
What we’re hoping for is an increase in supply this upcoming summer, especially with anticipation that mortgage rates could get a little better soon!
The best thing for any person looking to buy in 2023 is to start the process early! Whether you’re fully prepared or not, talking with an agent and letting them know what your goals are doesn’t cost you a dime!
Homes For Sale VS Under Contract VS Sold
Avgerage Price Per SQFT
Average Days On Market
Sold Price/Original List Price
Looking to get a market report in a specific city in Pierce County? We do market reports for Puyallup, Bonney Lake, Lake Tapps, Sumner, and Tacoma.
