Temporally, that upward trend halted after the pandemic hit.
Real estate brokers and salespersons were forbidden to do in-home showings and had to rely heavily on technology instead, which limited their ability to sell homes. Buyers were reluctant to make purchases with the uncertainty of the economy. After the pandemic hit in April 2020, the market showed a significant decrease of 45% from the same time last year, according to data published from Redfin. Since then, the weekly home sale pushed ahead of last year’s pace.
The good news is that the Seattle area’s real estate market is holding, and most real estate agents remain optimistic. With the number of available homes for sale is just below last year’s pace.
As we enter the third month under COVID-19 restrictions, web traffic data from listing platforms like Zillow and Redfin are showing that traffic is starting to normalize, as we are seeing new pending sales move above last year.
With the help of incredibly low mortgage interest rates, mortgage applications are on the rise for the third straight week as of May 2020. Buyers are locking down these low mortgage rates, hoping to get a deal which is more good news pointing to a recovery.
In addition, Seattle has been deemed as one of the areas that are projected to have one of the quickest and strongest recoveries in the nation, according to a report published by Yahoo. This is great news for both buyers and sellers.
As Restrictions Lift
Overall housing demand in the Seattle’s metro area is starting to show steady improvement. As social distancing restrictions start to lift, confidence is slowly gaining towards more real estate opportunities to become more readily available for both buyers and sellers as we move towards June 2020.