'Vanishing' Buyer Demand in Seattle

Bidding wars are down to an eight-year low nationally, and are disappearing in Seattle. The share of Redfin offers facing competition in the Emerald City fell 75 percent annually in the first half of December.

Within the City of Seattle, offers facing a bidding war are down to 10 percent in the first half of the last month of 2018. By contrast, Redfin offers facing a bidding war hit 81 percent in the first quarter of 2018. North Seattle neighborhoods that had 90 percent of offers facing competition in the first quarter were down to 28 percent in the fourth quarter of the year.

“The last time I had multiple offers on a condo was in May,” said Redfin agent Jessie Culbert. “Sellers are learning that expecting a bidding war on their home is no longer a reasonable assumption, so they’re more often pricing where they’d be happy to receive one offer at list price, versus pricing lower and hoping for an escalation. For buyers, the home-buying process isn’t as frenzied as it was at the beginning of the year, with more time for the decision-making process and more opportunities to preserve financing and inspection contingencies.”

Read more