“Its an ill wind that blows nobody some good” and the Washington Real Estate Market

Looking back today the statement” it’s an ill wind that blows nobody some good” might make more sense then we think especially in the Washington Real Estate Market.

Bit of a quantum leap perhaps…. but here is how I started

I was looking at real estate sales data for the  Washington Real Estate Market (sfr and condo) sales this year through July 31, 2026 or 7 months. Accordingly, here is what I found:

JULY 2026 Real Estate Market:

1. Closed sales 6,649

2. Median price $640,000

3. Inventory supply 3 months and average interest rate roughly 6.5%

So lets step back a few years to the first year of COVID or 2020 same time period and geographic area.

JULY 2020 Real Estate Market:

1. Closed sales 9,840

2. Median price $484,995

3. Inventory supply 1.04 months and average interest rate roughly 2.5-3%

My calculations mean this year in the Washington Real Estate Market we sold about 1/3 less homes at 1/3 higher median price.

This happened in the face of Governor Inslee declaring a state wide emergency in February of 2020 that lasted for 976 days ending in October 2022. Remember? I do! I could only take one person at a time into a house and owners had to be out. Also, everyone had to be masked and keeping 6 feet apart. Doesn’t sound like it would promote a lot of sales. But there were more things at play. The Federal Government passed 6 COVID 19 laws that pumped someplace between $4.6 and 5.2 Trillion into the economy.

That amount coming into the economy is something between $30,000 to $40,000 per household (of course it wasn’t distributed that evenly). Not part of  and at the same the the Federal Reserve engaged in quantitive Easing and Emergency Lending (personal observation even today I think the government and Fed can’t tell us the actual number as they simply don’t know).

During this period the government was trying to avoid a crash in the economy. As a result, the outcome was classic. Inventories were low when matched to today. We had too many dollars chasing too few goods and housing started to rise giving us 1/3 higher prices today and three month inventories. As Milton Friedman the Economist liked to say the Government has no money all they have is your or they print it. All in all, they printed plenty!

Enter inflation rates are high, housing prices rising and we have our current Real Estate Market. I think the unusual part is there is still enough demand to keep the inventory at its level without prices declining. Yes we have all seen every morning new inventory and some prices declining. But not a full blown decline which would also not be good. Gradually with more jobs, more income more investment and government revenues things should work out.  Or as we have heard before “it took awhile to get here it will take awhile to get out”. Enter the political class. I am concerned about what might happen but still more positive than negative. For additional information on the market in Washington and particularly North Central Washington check out my website and market reports. Another good source of information is Active Rain a local and national real estate community with all kinds of information open to public and agent alike