January Stats Video

Inventory remains at the same, jaw-droppingly-low level as last month—0.2 months/6 days of inventory. The back-to-back months of record-low inventory resulted in 75% of the homes selling a whopping 15% above asking price (based on median). Usually December is a sleepy month, not this year. It will be interesting to see what the 1^st quarter holds. Typically, pre-pandemic, first quarter is where we experience the bulk of our appreciation. I don’t expect that for this year. We are, per usual, starting the year with low inventory, but affordability is dipping with both prices and interest rates rising—interest rates crept up to the high 3’s the first week of January. Given our strong housing demand, especially on the Eastside, I don’t think the market will dramatically shift, but I do expect prices to level off. Speaking of prices, year-over-year appreciation was 37% (based on median prices). That is also a jaw-dropping number, which I think is higher than actual—appreciation is very tricky to measure—but appreciation is definitely over 20%, which makes me think of capital gains, but that is a talk for another day…