Are We Out of the Seller's Market?

By Matt Stark

Matt Stark is a top 1% REALTOR® in Seattle with over 19 years of experience. A Seattle native, he began his career in 1999 as an investor before transitioning to full-time real estate.

Is it a buyer’s market now? Are we officially out of the seller’s market, past that balanced middle ground, and into something that genuinely favors buyers?

It’s the question I keep asking myself, and one a lot of my clients are asking too. Here’s where I land on it.

Inventory has been climbing for about a year and a half straight. We’re currently sitting at just over three months of supply across the market, and active listings are running about 30% higher than they were at this same time last year. That shift hands buyers a lot more negotiating power than they’ve had in a long time.

If you’re buying, you finally have room to breathe. When supply is outpacing demand, you don’t have to make snap decisions. You get the time to actually evaluate a property, think it through, and put together a clean, calculated offer, instead of getting swept into a bidding war or a multiple-offer scramble the way you would have a couple of years ago.

If you’re selling, overpricing is fatal. There’s simply no room for it, and since I work primarily with sellers, I spend most of my attention there. You can’t list high to test the water, because the market won’t play along. It’ll just ignore you. You have to be genuinely realistic and genuinely strategic about your initial list price. Miss the mark at all, and your home sits, and then you’re forced into a much steeper price reduction just to get back to where buyers see value against everything else they can choose from.

So where does that leave us? It’s an interesting stretch. My honest read is that we’re out of the seller’s market and back into a balanced market, maybe tipping slightly toward buyers.

If there’s ever anything I can do for you, whether it’s a question about the market or about your own property, reach out anytime. Call or text me at 206-940-4557, email me at matt@mattstarkrealestate.com, or visit searchhomesnw.com.