The October 2021 real estate market in Olympia, Washington continued the summer trends of breaking records.
In short, October was a record October for:
- new listings coming to the market
- number of closed sales
- number of pending sales
Here’s what the market is doing and how Buyers and Sellers can best navigate the market from now to the end of the year.
Supply – What this Means for Buyers and Sellers in the Olympia Real Estate Market
October 2021 had a record-breaking 546 new listings come to the Olympia real estate market. This is the highest number of listings in October ever. But keep reading, because there is still a historic imbalance (in favor of sellers) where supply is still too low to handle the current demand.
Although October by itself broke records, year-to-date numbers have not. You can see this year was the fourth highest year for the number of new listings.
For Buyers, the increase in supply is welcomed. October buyers still may have competed with other buyers for the same listing however they found there were fewer other buyers.
In looking at our own firm’s contracts, in the spring, 65 percent of the contracts had multiple offers while in October, less than half (46%) of the contracts had multiple offers.
For Sellers, the market is very much in your favor as buyers are clamoring for homes but not at the frenzied pace of this past spring.
Buyers are very well educated on the market. They are looking at homes online and in-person and can easily judge if a home is priced right or not. This can put sellers at a disadvantage at finding the right price. Pricing is still key, even in this hot seller’s market, for success.
The latest priced-right/price-reduced numbers show that 86.7% of sellers priced right and received an offer in 7 days with an average sale:list price ratio of 103.2%. Sellers who over-reached on price and needed to do a price reduction took 30 days to receive an offer and sold for less at a sales:list price ratio of 93.4%.
Demand – What this Means for Buyers and Sellers in the Olympia Real Estate Market
October shattered records for the number of pending sales and closed sales.
When our market can produce more listings, there are plenty of buyers to snap them up.
Median Sales Price
The trailing 12-month median home price in Thurston County is up 19.3% from last October to a record $445,024.
Market Conditions – A Seller’s Market
The Olympia area real estate market has been in a seller’s market for the last seven years and it’s estimated to continue on this trend simply because of low supply and high demand.
This supply and demand have caused home prices to steeply rise.
Buyer Trends – Spring vs Fall 2021
The spring market was a very frenzied market where there were many offers on a home that were pushing up home prices and buyers were becoming increasingly aggressive with their offers by waiving as many contingencies as possible in order to win the bidding war.
The fall market has eased up. The trends we are seeing now are:
- Lower sale:list price ratios. In April this year, the average amount over the asking price was 8.5%; for October, it was 3.2%. This can be a combination of sellers pricing their homes at or slightly above market value, which has created less of a bidding war. This also has resulted in fewer buyers needing to bid excessively over the asking price and therefore have not needed to include the additional down funds to cover a potentially low appraisal (remember when I was harping on the Form 22AD?! Here’s the link to that post and how that was absolutely necessary in the spring in order for buyers to win.)
- Fewer inspection waivers. Buyers who include a home inspection contingency are not automatically booted from the bidding war as they were in the spring.
- More sellers are open to accepting a contingent offer. If a buyer needs to sell a home in order to buy their next home, the spring advice would be to sell your home first or find a financing option where a buyer could buy first and sell their home later. Now, more sellers are open to buyers being contingent upon selling, however that is still a complicated and risky route for both buyers and sellers. Let’s chat if you are in this situation.
Seller Trends – Spring vs Fall 2021
Sellers have received mixed messages and potentially misunderstood the current market conditions, especially with some of the very misleading headlines (see my post about the clickbait headlines that cause confusion here).
The numbers state the case that the seller’s market remains strong.
- Buyers outnumber sellers more than 2 to 1 and prices are continuing to go up as a result.
- Home sales are at an all-time high.
- Buyers are coming to Thurston County for relative affordability compared to our neighboring counties along I-5.
- Homes actively for sale remain historically low. Although homes coming to the market have risen to a 13-year high, that is not enough to change the market conditions.
Call me if you are considering making a move and we can discuss the best strategy for you.
Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
VIDEO: October 2021 Real Estate Market Update | Olympia WA
Unless otherwise noted, statistics compiled by Coldwell Banker Evergreen Olympic Realty from NWMLS data. Statistics not published or compiled by NWMLS. Unless otherwise noted, statistics are based on our own proprietary market study. Information and statistics derived from NWMLS.