Immigration and Millennials; The GSHMR for March, 2026

And welcome to the latest edition of the Greater Seattle Housing Market Review. As always, to skip right to the stats, you can do so by clicking here. For better, and hopefully entertaining information, continue reading below.

We've all heard the news, whether the reporting is fair or sensational, about Seattleites moving out of the Puget Sound region. This commentary was inspired by a recent ResiClub article that really blew my mind.

The article identified cities including Seattle, NYC, and Miami as being major metros losing American population each year, but making up for it (or getting close to it) with international immigration. See below:

To be fair, this data was collected between July 2024-July 2025 so the impacts of recent federal immigration policies might not be too visible in this data, if there has been any significant change there to begin with. To be determined. Regardless, the fact we're gaining equal or more international immigration at the expense of American emigration really blew my mind. I know we've always been an "international city" to some extent, but I wasn't thinking to that extent. This Seattle Times article touches on that.

As far as home values go, one might conclude that international immigrants replacing Americans moving into/out of Seattle would spell doom for the housing market. After all, how likely is it that someone brand new to a country can qualify to buy a home, let alone even have aspirations of doing so? Again, H1B visa drama aside, home values have been pretty flat over the past two years. Can we thank millennials?

Above is a snippet from an article from The News Tribune citing a SmartAsset poll that ranked Seattle and Bellevue as two of the top destinations for millennials. In fact, this Seattle Times article, published at the end of last year, reported that roughly one third of all Seattlites are millennials! Millennials and their strong incomes are helping to keep local home values supported, despite the exodus of American born Seattlites. 

Onto the stats - 

Seattle - The median sale price in March 2026 for a Seattle SFR registered $944,000. That is down 5.6% YoY and down MoM from $962,500. Inventory is up 28.6% YoY and the months of inventory statistic dropped to 1.99 months from 2.68 in February.

Eastside - The median sale price registered $1,325,000. That is down 1.23% YoY and considerably down MoM from $1,566,000. In fact, this was the lowest median sale price for the Eastside since January 2023! Inventory remains highly elevated at 60.2% more inventory YoY while the months of inventory decreased to 2.52 from 3.23.

King County - The median sale price registered $975,000. That is down just .26% YoY and up MoM from $936,000. Inventory remains elevated at 41.6% more listings YoY and the months of inventory decreased to 2.23 from 2.71 months.

That's it. Go out and have the best spring ever! We'll pick back up in May.
Onward!