Resilient Home Values; The GSHMR for July, 2026

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 and here for the condo stats. For more, and better information, keep reading below!

I touched on it in my last report, but the media is getting sensational (again) in their reporting of our housing market. 

To their credit, the data they're referencing isn't incorrect. It's just, as I touched on last month, not telling the full story. Don't get me wrong, there is definitely some newsworthy data that isn't positive for homeowners, but it's not universal doom and gloom spreading throughout the entire market.

The chart above isn't the most visually easy to read, I'm sorry about that. Below are the main points I want to focus on (these stats are related to single family homes within King County).

- Active inventory (the blue line) is at it's highest level in 8+ years, just barely surpassing 2018 levels. People forget that 2018-19 was a normalizing year as we saw lots of stabilizing pressure on home values given the increase in inventory before values skyrocketed starting in 2020.

- Pending/Sold inventory has really dropped off since mid 2022 and the margin between available inventory and pending/sold homes is larger than it's been during this time. 

- Given the above, anyone would assume that home values must have declined. As the great Lee Corso would say, "not so fast my friend"! (can you tell I'm ready for football around the corner)?

Four of the seven months this year have posted record high sale prices for those specific months. Granted, it hasn't been by much. Many of the values have more or less remained unchanged over the last 2+ years, but that's exactly what makes this metric so impressive; despite active inventory up significantly and pending and sold units down significantly, King County home values are essentially brushing these off and continue to sell at, or near, all-time highs.

I've talked about this time and time again, but the distinction between traditional SFR's and townhomes has been fascinating to watch. At the beginning of 2018, the median sale price of a King County townhome exceeded that of a traditional SFR. Fast forward to today and traditional SFR's are now hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead. 

Why is that? Because people demand space! And as we're desperately trying to add inventory, the only inventory we can create is vertically built, townhome style housing and builders can only create that style of home by demolishing existing traditional single family homes. So one type of home is only growing more prevalent as the other is becoming increasingly scarce. We don't have the luxury of empty, flat, buildable land like real estate markets in Texas, Nevada, Arizona, etc have. There builders can just go 5 miles out of town in any direction and put up hundreds of new homes. Our topography naturally limits supply and size.

In my eyes, we're finally getting back to a normal market where things like what and where you buy real estate matters! Personally, I much prefer markets like what we're in now compared to the frenzy of 2020-2022. Compared to that time, both my buyer and seller clients have more time to be calculated in their decision making process.

Onto the bad news; the condo market just suffered some new lows. 

For just the seventh time in almost 15 years, active Seattle condo inventory surpassed 800 units in a single month.Not since October through December of 2011 have we seen three consecutive months with 800+ active listings and we just achieved that in the most recent three month span (May-July). 

Unlike the single family housing market, condo values are, at best, staying afloat since the beginning of 2018. And certainly more so than the single family market, geography plays an immense role in the Seattle condo market. For example, Belltown has over 11 months of inventory whereas Ballard/Green Lake/Wallingford/Greenwood, etc is under 5 months. I think it's going to be a very, very slow climb out of this hole for the condo market. Factor in changes to conforming lending standards coming up in January and even more condo projects might run into issues when seeking financing, thus increasing difficulty in selling. I wish I had a less bleak outlook, but it is what it is.

Speaking of bleak, last month both the Seattle SFR and condo market hit all time lows (since my reporting started in 2019) in regard to absorption levels. The condo market has posted new lows in each of the last 3 months, with each consecutive month reaching a point lower than the month before. Yikes. 

Onto the stats:

Seattle - The median sale price for a Seattle SFR registered $999,500. That is down 1% YoY and down $10,000 MoM. Inventory was higher YoY by 16.5% and the months of inventory rose to 3.08 from 2.42 months in June.

Eastside - The median sale price for an Eastside SFR registered $1,575,000. That is down .3% YoY and up $15,000 MoM. Inventory was up 38.5% YoY and the months of inventory increased to 3.94 from 3.5 months.

King County - The median sale price for a King County SFR registered $995,000. That is down .5% YoY and up MoM from $986,250. Inventory is up 25% YoY and the months of inventory increased to 3.34 months from 2.83 in June.

Seattle Condo - The median sale price registered $525,000. That is down 4.6% YoY and down from $557,475 in June.Inventory is higher YoY by 11.7% and the months of inventory increased to 6.24 from 5.8 months. Only twice in the last 3.5 years has the median sale price been lower than it was last month. September of last year and February of 2023.

That's it for now. Enjoy the last 30-45 days of summer. Football is around the corner! Onward!!