Real Estate
Nearly $64B In WA Home Sales Last Year, Despite Slowing Market
After a banner year in 2021, home and condo sales tumbled by double-digits last year, but prices continued to rise. Here are the highlights.
![King County ended 2022 with Washington's second-highest median price for a home, trailing only San Juan County.](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/getty/23562256/20230119/055914/styles/patch_image/public/gettyimages-1436579415___19175831327.jpg)
KIRKLAND, WA — House and condo sales tumbled nearly 22 percent across Washington last year, making for the lowest total since 2014, according to real estate brokers. The Kirkland-based Northwest Multiple Listing Service released its annual recap report this week, including data from more than 34,000 brokers working in 26 counties.
Despite a slower year, and a continued cooling trend, brokers reported more than 84,000 sales valued at nearly $64 billion. Single-family homes accounted for roughly 87 percent of sales, with condos making up the remaining 13 percent.
Brokers reported 23,317 fewer sales than in 2021 — a year that topped 100,000 sales for the first time on record, netting $75 billion.
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While activity slowed, prices continued to rise. The NWMLS found the statewide median price reached $615,000, up nearly 9 percent. Single-family homes were 8.1 percent more expensive, and condos cost 11.3 percent more. Prices also varied significantly between regions.
Real estate experts pointed to a few factors influencing the slowdown, including a steady rise in 30-year fixed mortgage rates, peaking above 7 percent in November. Bloomberg said higher borrowing costs, growing economic uncertainty and the Federal Reserve's approach to cooling inflation likely "sidelined" many potential buyers.
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Prices rose in all but one of the 26 counties monitored by the NWMLS, with 14 seeing double-digit growth over 2022. Realtors said just 29 percent of all buyers paid less than $500,000 for a home in King County. About one in five of every sale last year cost buyers at least $1 million, including nearly 36 percent of King County purchases.
The median price for a King County home peaked near $1 million in May and ended the year at $825,000 in December. The Eastside accounted for more than half of high-end property sales, with more than 4,700 homes sold valued at $1 million or higher.
Even amid a cooling market, brokers sold 136 homes for $5 million or more. The property that fetched the highest price of the year, at $23 million, was a waterfront home on Medina's Gold Coast, the NWMLS said. The most expensive condo, a penthouse in downtown Seattle, sold for $7.15 million.
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