Where did All the Homes Go in Seattle?

Dreary, rainy Seattle’s housing market is going through some rough times; single-family homes, townhouses and condos are harder to find. There seem to be less of them being sold on the market nowadays. Homebuyers searching for a new home or apartment in Seattle are probably going to find themselves out of luck.

For example, in Northwest Seattle, there is barely a month’s worth of single-family homes being sold. Times have become tough for this city as the housing market sees no future betterment of its situation.

There is probably going to be a mad scramble of people trying to scrounge up the last properties being sold before there are no more left.

Why is there suddenly so few houses being sold in Seattle? There are few reasons as to why this phenomenon is occurring. First of all, home owners will not be able to sell when they have an accumulation of negative equity on their properties.

Another reason is that people selling their homes are finding it harder to find other homes to move into once they have put theirs on the market. Many are also unaware of the benefits to selling their home right now and hold on to their property with a death grip. There has also been talk about homes increasing in price over the next few years while the rate of new construction has definitely decreased.

People believe that prices will increase even though the values of their homes might suddenly go down. Nothing in real estate is set in stone. Incredibly low interest rates also drive people to prefer buying houses to selling them.

Unfortunately, fewer are selling their properties, which will make it more difficult for people looking into buying a house to find anything. An equal balance between supply and demand must be met in order for there to be a healthy housing market.

If you are curious about buying a house now, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to think about doing it in the near future. There is going to be new inventory coming in and interest rates will most likely remain stable. Unless you want to pay more on a house than is needed, plan ahead now for your next home purchase. Who knows? You might get lucky and find a real gem in the mess that is Seattle’s housing market.