Is relief in sight for Pierce County home buyers? Signs indicate a cool down is coming
Prices are still rising, but Pierce County saw an increase in active home sale listings compared with 2021 and a slight slowdown in sales, according to a May report from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
Rising interest rates and inflation are definitely cooling the market, with at least some buyers taking a break, according to the report.
“Home sellers really need to re-think their expectations,” said Mike Larson, a member of the board of directors at Northwest Multiple Listing Service and managing broker at Compass in Tacoma, in a statement accompanying Monday’s numbers.
He warned that the days of “multiple offers and waived inspections, at least in Pierce County, are behind us,” adding that “we’re slowly easing back into the kind of market we had pre-COVID.”
Pierce County’s median closed single-family residential home sale price for May was $582,000, compared with a year ago when it was $510,000 and April’s $579,980. The county saw a 73.64 percent increase in total active listings for homes compared with a year ago, with 1,909 new listings for single-family residential homes in May.
Pending sales were down more than 6 percent from a year ago, while closed sales were up 5.49 percent.
Pierce County has seen a double-digit percentage increase in median closed single-family residential home sale prices from a year ago each month this year but still remains a relative bargain behind King County, at $998,888 closed median sale price, and Snohomish County at $815,000.
Kitsap County was at $554,550, Mason County at $410,000, and Thurston County at $520,000.
“Homes are staying on the market a few days longer. We are still receiving multiple offers, but not as many,” said Frank Wilson, Kitsap regional manager at John L. Scott Real Estate, in Monday’s report.
Numbers from Pierce County’s condominium market also showed a definite cool down from the same time a year ago, with listings down more than 16 percent, pending sales down more than 20 percent and percentage of closed sales down more than 22 percent.
The median price for condos in Pierce County was at $410,000, compared with King County at $530,750 and Snohomish County at $545,000.
Increasing home inventory was seen in more places statewide, NWMLS noted, though the Puget Sound area still remained the tightest in supply at 0.85 months or less.
“At the end of May, buyers could choose from 8,798 active listings system-wide, up a whopping 59 percent from a year ago when there were only 5,533 properties in the database,” NWMLS said in Monday’s release. “That is the largest selection since September 2020, when there were 9,099 single family homes and condominiums offered for sale across the 26 counties served by Northwest MLS.”
Listings in Snohomish County increased from 500 to 1,182 listings. Cowlitz, Island, and Walla Walla counties also nearly doubled their inventories from a year ago, according to NWMLS.
“The significant increase in the number of homes for sale has some speculating that the market is about to implode, but that is very unlikely,” said Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere Real Estate, in Monday’s release. “What’s more likely to occur is that the additional supply will lead us toward a more balanced market, which after years of such lopsided conditions, is much needed.”
Dick Beeson, managing broker at RE/MAX Northwest Realtors in Gig Harbor, noted some signs of normalcy returning.
“Sellers are now more often required to consider offers contingent upon financing, inspections or the sale of the buyer’s home. Things that were normal in purchase contracts just two years ago are making their return,” he said.
NWMLS noted that last month’s sales “fetched 105.7 percent of the asking price, down from April when it was 107.7 percent and March when it was 108.2 percent.”
As the overage on asking prices seems to be cooling off, the demand for higher end homes in the state has not.
NWMLS reported that there were 95 sales of properties “priced at $2 million or more in January. That number rose to 136 in February, 325 in March, 389 in April and 353 in May.”
This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
