No slowdown in sight for hot real estate market. Lack of inventory forecast into ’22
Pierce County once again saw home prices leap upward nearly 21 percent in October over the previous year, with inventory still abysmal at less than a month’s worth on the market.
In his monthly recap, J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, forecast that buyers “will face constrained inventory until March 2022” in the Puget Sound region.
According to October sales figures released Thursday from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, Pierce County’s median closed home sale price was $520,000, the highest yet this year. That compares with $506,650 in September and $430,000 a year ago.
The county first hit $500,000 median closed sale price for single family homes in April.
King and Snohomish counties are consistently more expensive than Pierce, and October was no exception, with King County’s median closed sale price at $824,270, up 10.64 percent from last year, and Snohomish County at $695,000, up 19.83 percent from 2020.
Kitsap County was at $508,250, up 16.30 percent from last year, and Mason County rounded out the top five at $380,000, up 14.86 percent from a year ago.
Both of those counties were mentioned in Thursday’s NWMLS release in reflections of different market trends.
“Some buyers are not buying now because they think there will be a price collapse in our future, but the nagging question is what would cause one?” said Frank Wilson, Kitsap regional manager and branch managing broker at John L. Scott Real Estate.
NWMLS director Frank Leach, broker/owner at RE/MAX Platinum Services in Silverdale, said in Thursday’s release: “Kitsap County continues to have restricted inventory and a multitude of buyers outstripping supply.”
He noted that investors “are contacting everyone who owns a home or land in Kitsap and Mason counties offering cash and a quick close (and intending to convert some properties into rentals) because they know the value of this market.”
Scott, in his analysis of Pierce County, said sales were “approaching spring 2021 levels,” and the market was “virtually sold out to the $1.5 million price point.”
The county also is seeing “strong luxury sales activity above $3 million.” Scott wrote.
In the Gig Harbor area, 100 percent of the homes for sale between $250,000-$300,000 had contracts pending in the first 30 days, according to Scott’s report. For most other price points, contracts were pending in the first 30 days among 70-75 percent of homes. For those priced at $1 million or more, it was nearly 75 percent.
For Pierce County as a whole, 83.7 percent of homes priced $250,000-$350,000 had contracts pending in 30 days or less.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
