Market activity is increasing, but affordability remains questionable

Published on: February 5, 2025

Northwest MLS, the source for the most current, accurate market listing data in Washington state, today released its Market Snapshot for the month of January 2025.

Market Recap

Traditionally a quieter month in the winter season, January’s activity continued the year-over-year growth trends observed in market activity over the last twelve months. The number of closed sales increased by 10.8% year-over-year (3,727 in January 2025 compared to 3,364 in January 2024), and NWMLS brokers added 6,693 new listings to the database in January 2025, an increase of 35.1% compared to January 2024 (4,954).

“For-sale inventories are continuing to rise from historical lows, and that’s helping bring some life to housing market activity in the NWMLS area,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic.

But questions still abound regarding one of the most critical aspects of today’s market – affordability – and the political and economic factors that influence it.

“Both prices and interest rates continued to increase, having a negative effect on affordability,” said Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER) at the University of Washington. “The median price rose by nearly 4% to $615,000, while interest rates rose from 6.69% at the end of January 2024 to 6.95% now.”

“Moreover, new immigration policies are expected to have an inflationary impact on home construction costs,” he continued, “And the National Association of Home Builders has warned that tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico would have a significant impact on materials such as lumber and gypsum, while multiple researchers have documented the possible impact of immigration policy on labor supply for home builders.”

“All of this suggests that the affordability of homeownership, which has been declining, will continue to do so,” said Bourassa.

January 2025 Key Takeaways

Active Inventory for Sale

• The number of homes for sale increased 44.6% year-over-year throughout the NWMLS coverage area, with 22 out of 26 counties seeing a double-digit increase compared to January 2024. There were 10,241 active listings on the market at the end of January 2025, compared to 7,084 at the end of January 2024.
• The five counties with the highest increases in active inventory for sale were Snohomish (+96.9%), King (+62.6%), Skagit (+54.4%), Kittitas (+53.8%) and Grant (+48.8%).
• At the current rate of sales, there are less than three months (2.75) of available inventory.

Closed Sales

• There were 3,727 closed sales of residential homes and condominium units in January 2025, an increase of 10.8% when compared to January 2024 (3,364).
• The total dollar value of closed sales in January 2025 for residential homes was $2,471,486,679 and $377,558,816 for condominiums ($2,849,045,495 in total), an increase of 17.4% when compared to January 2024.

 Median Sales Price

• The median price for residential homes and condominiums increased by 3.6% year-over-year from $593,500 in January 2024 to $615,000 in January 2025.
• The three counties with the highest median sale prices were San Juan ($850,000), King ($799,000), and Snohomish ($748,752), and the three counties with the lowest median sale prices were Ferry ($239,000), Okanogan ($318,000) and Grays Harbor ($329,000).

New Construction

• NWMLS brokers reported 722 closed sales of new construction units in January 2025. This was a year-over-year increase of 17% when compared to January 2024 (617 units).
• The median sales price for new construction homes sold in January 2025 was $760,500, an increase of 8.6% from the January 2024 price of $700,000.

Consumer and Broker Activity

NWMLS also provided insights into consumer activities during the month of January 2025:

• Keyboxes located at listed properties were accessed 115,922 times in January 2025, a 40% increase in activity from December 2024 when they were accessed 82,655 times. Keybox activity increased by 10% year-over-year, with keyboxes being accessed 105,253 times in January 2024.
• The total number of property showings scheduled through NWMLS-provided software increased 57% from 63,610 in December 2024 to 99,979 in January 2025. This was a year-over-year increase of 7% from the number of showings in January 2024 (93,530).
• In January 2025, there were 12,785 listed properties that were eligible for the Down Payment Resource (DPR) program offered by NWMLS, a 12% year-over-year increase from January 2024.