If we were grabbing a beer and you asked how the market’s doing, I’d probably say it feels like we’re in a housing recession; some mix of high interest rates, tariffs, and layoff uncertainty holding things back.

You can feel it: townhomes, condos, and luxury homes are tough to sell right now. But there’s still a price range of single-family homes that’s very hot.

Case in point: a Phinney Ridge home last week got 23 offers and is expected to close for nearly 30% over asking. That’s 22 buyers still in the market for a home.

And somehow, Seattle’s median home price hit an all-time high in October. Granted, most of those sales went pending in September, before news of the Amazon layoffs and government shutdown.

Curious, I dug deeper and found that 44% of Seattle homes sold in October went pending within a week (we did just help a seller close on a townhome that was on the market for only one day.)

📍 Seattle (SFH + townhomes)

• $1,042,000 median price — a new all-time high
• ⬆️ Up 8.3% month-over-month
• ⬆️ Up 8.6% year-over-year

Meanwhile, the Eastside is telling a different story, with prices still well below their peak.

📍 Eastside (SFH + townhomes)

• $1,580,000 median price
• ⬇️ Down 4.2% month-over-month
• ⬇️ Down 4.2% year-over-year
• Still well below the 2022 peak of $1,874,000

🎥 New on YouTube:
We just uploaded a boat tour of Lake Union’s floating homes and a look inside the last two penthouses at Spire, which is now down to just 20 units.

Noteworthy sales last week

• Most expensive pending: Medina Mediterranean at $10.5M
• Highest % over asking sale: Carkeek rambler for 25% over
• Most expensive sale: Kirkland contemporary for $6.6M
• Least expensive sale: Mercer Island condo for $325K
• Most popular Seattle listing on Redfin: Fremont investment opportunity for $450K (again)

Links

• Seattle homeowners won’t let go. Here’s what that means for buyers (Seattle Times)
• Massive mixed-use project planned for Bellevue’s Auto Row (PSBJ)
• Amazon layoffs chill outlook for Seattle-area home sales (PSBJ)
• Seattle fails to crack top 20 in latest ranking of real estate markets to watch (PSBJ)
• Seattle house flipping isn’t what it used to be. Here’s why (Seattle Times)
• Does your house need a name? (NYT)
• Involuntary retirement is coming for Seattle’s seasoned tech workers (Seattle Times)
• James Beard Award-winning chef Matt Dillon lists Vashon Island home (PSBJ)

New listings by week

Seattle: 226 new listings last week, up 22.8% w-o-w
Eastside: 122 new listings last week, up 29.8% w-o-w

Homes going pending by week

Seattle: 152 pending last week, down 11.6% w-o-w
Eastside: 90 pending last week, down 18.9% w-o-w

Eye candy

$3.7M Lake Sammamish waterfront

$2M View Ridge midcentury modern by Charles Morgan

$1.95M Laurelhurst MCM

$995K Wallingford modern

Check out last week’s market update, Rate whiplash + big wins for our buyers this week

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