More Seattle-area homeowners are selling at a loss
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A growing share of Seattle homeowners are selling their homes for less than they paid for them, per data Redfin shared with Axios.
Why it matters: Home prices skyrocketed in Seattle and elsewhere during the pandemic, but losing money on home sales is becoming more common.
By the numbers: Some local homeowners lost as much as five figures on homes sold between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31.
- In the Seattle area, 2.74% of homes sold at a loss in that time period, almost double the percentage in the same three months last year.
- The local median loss this year was $51,600.
The big picture: Nationally, more than 3% of homes sold at a loss in August–October 2023, up from 2.4% a year ago.
- The median loss was around $40,000, per Redfin data.
- The largest losses were in San Francisco, where roughly one in seven owners lost money on their home sale, with a median loss of $122,500.
Zoom in: Seattle has also seen some of the largest declines in the number of home sales, according to the most recent Re/Max National Housing Report.
- With home sales in the Seattle area down 15.5% this year over last, the region is among the five U.S. metropolitan areas with the biggest year-over-year decreases, per Re/Max.
- Seattle also had the second-largest decline in new listings, with 3,607 new listings added this October versus 4,374 in October 2022, per Re/Max.
Details: Home prices in Greater Seattle are up 0.7% over last year, with an average selling time of 51 days — five days faster than last year, said John Manning, managing broker of Re/Max Gateway in Seattle.
- The current median home sale price in the Seattle area is $680,000, per Re/Max.
- Zillow said a Seattle-area home that was worth $775,000 in May 2022 is now worth just under $705,000.
Yes, but: While Seattle home values have fallen from their pandemic peak, they are still up 7% from two years ago and roughly 39% from October 2019, said Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow.
- "Anybody who bought their home before February 2022 has likely seen their home's value increase," Divounguy said, and "the gains from a sale would be massive for anybody who's owned their home for quite a while."