Seattle's housing demands are raising through the roof as places for new construction are becoming scarcer over time.
According to cnbc.com, the number of active listings in Seattle dropped with 33 percent leaving with less than one month of supply for the city and two months for surrounding areas. These figures are considered as unbalanced as four to six month- supply of home for sale is what considered to be balanced market.
John Deely, principal managing broker at Coldwell Banker Bain in a monthly release from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS), said "The velocity of sales activity continues at a very fast pace with pending sales eclipsing new listing inventory. This sales activity is keeping the selection of available properties at historic lows."
Despite of the rise in median price last August when a Seattle home was sold for $536,000 and a 23% jump from August last year's media price, housing market in the area is still on a roll.
Robert Macdonald, a Realtor with Lake & Company Real Estate in Seattle, said "Buyer's aren't pushing back, they're paying new historical highs for Seattle real estate because they see the value. While some sellers are aggressively pricing their homes going into the fall, the buyers for these homes are savvy. They've likely already made two or three offers and they know the value."
In addition to scarce supply, the housing market is expected to rise even more due to the mayor's latest proposal of making Seattle housing more affordable.
In a report by seattlepi.com, Mayor Ed Murray is proposing a new to expand "an affordable housing tax-exemption program." Murray's goal, through the proposal, is to produce 50,000 new housing units with 20,000 units considered to be affordable for the next ten years. He said "We must ensure that there are affordable homes for people looking to raise families in walkable, mixed-income neighborhoods near transit and job centers."
The city is projected to receive 120,000 people moving into the city in the next 20 years thus, calls for the need of additional affordable housing units.
