The Short Report - January 2022

Are you wondering what is happening in the local Seattle area, Bellevue east side real estate market, right now?

If that is a question that's been on your mind, or if you're thinking of buying or selling, I want to welcome you to my February 2022 short report.

And in every report I put together just a little snippet on what is happening right now in the market and what buyers and sellers need to know.

And so I just want to kind of delve into that.

We have not seen really a change in the market as we headed out at 2021 into 2022.

In fact, if anything it's intensified.

We're seeing buyers out there that are really in a way desperate to find homes, there still remains about 0.3 0.4 months supply of houses, which is historically low, it's incredibly low.

It means that these houses are selling right at their review dates, five six days on market and boom, they're going pending.

There's very few that are remaining on the market and prices are being affected by that, prices are continuing to escalate at really high rates.

Just in the last two weeks, we've sold two homes that averaged almost $600,000 over the list price.

The buyers gave up a significant amount of non-refundable money and these homes are escalating, 15- 20% over their list price, which is just incredible.

And it really is a predicament for buyers out there, you know, do you buy, is right now the height of the market?

Will we see some kind of a dip later in the year?

What will the effect of interest rates be as interest rates go up?

There's a lot of factors at play.

Of course there's a lot politically happening too, as well and with the economy and the questions are very legitimate.

What do you do if you're a seller?

Is now the right time to sell?

We believe that absolutely right now is the time to sell.

Not only do we need more inventory, but it's very possible that we could be at or near the top of our market, because we do have some of these headwinds out there, some unknowns out there with interest rates, with these escalating prices, with the economy and so forth.

And so if you're thinking of selling, say in the next two years, please, consider selling sooner rather than later, because if there's one thing I've learned over 20 years of real estate is that you can never predict the top or bottom of the market.

Now let's switch to buyers real quick.

If you're a buyer, do you buy right now?

Well, I think it's really important to be diligent and to be really selective in not only the homes that you're going out to see, but having patience along those lines, because we have seen these prices escalate there is that potential, we could get more inventory, you know, later in the year as these interest rates go up and you just have to trust that you will find the right home at the right time.

And I know that's easier said than done, but that's a lot of what our team does is help people with these questions of buying and selling real estate, tax implications, what's happening in the market, the market dynamics.

If you need good help, please reach out to us, schedule an appointment, and we'd be happy to get together with you.

So I want to thank you for listening to this short report for February.

Hopefully, we'll have some, different things to talk about next month, but I want to thank you for listening and we'll see you real soon.