Homebuyers beware: Seattle Beyond A Seller’s Market

If you’re thinking about buying a place, you’d best put that off for a while.

Redfin’s “Real Time Housing Market Tracker” report reveals that it’s not only slim pickings out there, it’s getting downright ugly in Seattle. The real estate agency reports that Seattle has the lowest inventory of homes for sale — ever.

In March, “Seattle (2.2) pulled even with chronically supply-starved San Francisco for the first time,” Redfin states.

Nationwide, Redfin reports that home sales went up just over 10 percent in March compared to last year, with new listings increasing by 9.2 percent: “Increased supply has so far kept competition and prices in balance…While 18.5 percent of homes sold above the asking price, that share is down year over year for the 17th month in a row. It was 19.5 percent in March of last year.”

The outlook is not so sunny in the Seattle area. In March, the median sale price for a home was $385,700, an 11.8 percent increase from last year at this time. Update from Redfin: “We consider the Seattle metro area as King and Snohomish counties, which is why the median price is lower. The median price for Seattle proper is in the $400,000s.” More.