Greater Seattle Real Estate Report – December 2020

Real Estate Market Inventory Still Low

2020 was an interesting year for real estate across the 25 counties in the NWMLS.  Despite everything going on, the real estate market has been very strong throughout the year and December was no exception.  December is generally a slow time of year for real estate sales, but this December inventory increased by 5,260 (39.3% higher than the previous December) and pending sales outpaced the new inventory with 6,883 mutually accepted offers (15.8% increase).  Thus, even with more properties coming on the market, inventory at the end of December was down a whopping 44% (8,469 listings to 4,732) from previous year.  That means across the NWMLS, if no more homes came on the market, we would run out of inventory in 2 weeks!!!  A balanced real estate market is generally considered to have inventory that would last 4 to 6 months!

West Seattle

Real Estate Prices Continue to Increase

Home prices continued to rise.  9,008 homes and condos sold in December with prices up 12.2% from last December.  For the month of December, only 3 counties had a drop in price from the previous December, while almost all other counties had a double digit increase.  Furthermore, most of the gains came from home sales with a 12.9% increase while condos were up only 1.8%.  There was 7,848 home sales compared to 1,160 condo sales which accounted for the increase being much more closer to the home sales gain in pricing.

Summary of Number of Sales and Average Price

Average prices have increased in almost all counties although prices were down in 3 counties (2 shown) where there were limited amount of sales.

# of Sales Avg Sales Price ($)
Neighborhoods 2020 2019 2020 2019 %
King        2,448        1,880  $            920,501  $                 833,694 10.4%
Snohomish        1,148            942  $            631,901  $                 558,850 13.1%
Pierce        1,438        1,144  $            489,597  $                 420,870 16.3%
Kitsap            400            370  $            509,773  $                 454,236 12.2%
Mason            117            100  $            376,936  $                 296,117 27.3%
San Juan              40              20  $            971,312  $              1,557,503 -37.6%
Kittitas            100              72  $            619,380  $                 410,591 50.9%
Okanogan              46              34  $            289,347  $                 334,380 -13.5%
Whatcom            268            205  $            531,801  $                 426,491 24.7%
Pacific              48              37  $            330,396  $                 213,934 54.4%
Chelan              90              72  $            524,752  $                 406,420 29.1%
Walla Walla              46                5  $            387,272  $                 266,380 45.4%
Several Other Counties  Numbers not calculated.
All 25 NWMLS Counties        7,848        6,163  $            629,919  $                 554,441 13.6%

Is Seattle Real Estate Slowing Down?

Looking at December numbers, it shows the real estate market continues to be very strong, but real estate market can change quickly.  To get up-to-date information, contact one of Ewing and Clark’s Seattle real estate agent.  Ewing and Clark and its real estate brokers have been providing exceptional real estate service to Greater Seattle since 1900.


Sorry we are experiencing system issues. Please try again.