January Eastside Stats

Stats this time of the year are always a bit wonky, as there aren’t many new listings and many homes expire/cancel, so the data isn’t ‘typical’. New and pending sales were about equal, but several listings expired/cancelled (many of these will be relisted), so inventory went down. Lower inventory is good for sellers but not terrible for buyers, as we are still in a balanced market with 2.5 months of inventory. Pricing is an interesting story. Month-over-month, prices are down 1%, so small depreciation for 2 months in a row. The seemingly shocking news is year-over-year prices are down 15% (!), but we knew this was coming. We are still up 17% since 2020, so the sky isn’t falling—just a little correcting. Also, interesting, about a third of the homes sold in 2 weeks for an average of 2% below list price (6% sold in less than a week for an average of 2% over asking price). After the first 15 days on the market, homes consistently sell for 5% below asking. As for January, buyer activity appears strong, so I’m cautiously optimistic for a healthy first quarter, but time will tell.