Doron's Vlog

Hi, I’m Doron Weisbarth with Weisbarth & Associates. Welcome to my June 2023 Seattle Real Estate Market report. A year ago, I presented data showing just how far beyond the norm home sale prices were during 2021 and the beginning of 2022. I refer to this period of price aberration as the ‘Covid Price Spike’. This month, I’ll show you a similar graph, updated with another year’s worth of data, that is even more telling about what is going on in our Seattle area real estate market. Before I do that, I have to share with you a headline from the Seattle Time from June 5th. Really, Seattle Times? Really? Talk about attention grabbing headlines. This headline makes it sound like the sky is falling, when nothing could be further from the truth! Let’s look at some real data, shall we? The rising graph shows the median sale prices for single family homes (SFH) in King County going all the way back to January 2013. I used ORANGE to represent the portion of the dataset through December 2020, and BLUE to represent the portion of the dataset starting in January 2021 to the present. And by the way, these trends that I’m showing you are true for Snohomish County and Pierce County, and I wouldn’t be surprised if other counties in Washington as well. This next paragraph is a bit technical, so hang in there with me… I added to this graph two straight lines. The DOTTED ORANGE LINE represents the straight-line appreciation calculated using only the portion of the dataset from January 2013 to December 2020, and then extrapolated through May 2023. The DOTTED BLUE LINE represents the straight-line appreciation, calculated using the entire dataset, starting in January 2013, and all the way through May 2023. What these two straight lines represent are the rate at which single family homes appreciated in King County in the last 10 plus year. As you can clearly see, even with the large price increases during the ‘Covid Price Spike’, these two lines are very close to each other. What does all this mean? It means that despite the ‘Covid Price Spike’, the market seems to gravitate back to those straight-line appreciation rates. By the way, if you want to look at all this information and read my report at your pace and leisure, you’ll find all this information in my June newsletter . Incidentally, a similar price spike happened in 2017 and early 2018, although those spikes were not quite as pronounced. Although at the time, almost everyone thought that the end of the world was coming. So this kind of fearmongering is not new business. In the end, in all of these cases, the market eventually corrected itself back to the line. Again, I want to point out that these trends are true for Snohomish and Pierce counties, as other counties as well. So what we’re seeing now is the median home prices rising, although not quite as dramatically as they did last year. All this brings us back to the fundamental truths about real estate, that home prices are determined by two forces: supply and demand ! As long as the supply is low (which it is) and the demand is high (which it also is), then prices will continue to rise. Sometimes they will rise too fast, and then they will drop; sometimes they will be above the line, and sometimes below the lin. But these periods are generally short lived, as the market corrects itself very quickly. So don’t let misleading headlines confuse and scare you. As the old saying goes – numbers don’t lie! The market is very much alive and well. And when you understand the dynamics of all these market forces, you can make better decisions about buying and selling. Now if you know anyone who is considering buying or selling their home this year, please send them this video or refer them to us by phone, text, email or fill out the ‘referral’ form on our website . My team and I will make sure that they get educated on the buying and selling process, the things to do and not do, and, of course, on the market itself, so that they can make the best decisions and maximize their results. There is no cost for any of this and absolutely no obligation. The best way to reach me is by phone at 206-779-9808. Please remember to like, subscribe and follow for more great insights, charts and tips on my monthly vlog , and read our monthly newsletter . I’m Doron Weisbarth with Weisbarth & Associates. See you next month!

Hi, I’m Doron Weisbarth with Weisbarth & Associates. Welcome to my May 2023 Market Update report. The spring real estate rush is on! And so far it’s looking great – especially for sellers, but also for buyers. Despite the crazy weather, it is much closer to a normal spring sale than, perhaps, you have been led to believe. It’s easy these days to get caught up in the media’s narrative about real estate. But they tend to overlook the basic data in search of an attention-grabbing headline. As I had stated in past newsletters and vlogs , a year-over-year analysis, which is, pretty much, the only type of analysis you’ll find in the media, is inherently flawed, if one of the years considered in the analysis is abnormal – that makes sense, right? Well, guess what, the first quarter of last year, 2022, when the market was red-hot and out of control, was super abnormal. So any comparison to that time is going to give you the wrong picture of the real market right now. What makes more sense? Let’s look at the numbers since the beginning of this year, 2023. Here are the numbers for single family homes (SFH) in King County, comparing January 2023 to April 2023: Median sales prices are up 9.3% since January 2023, from $799,900 to $875,000 – nothing gloomy about that for sellers. New listings are up 6.7%. This is a smaller increase than you might expect, as sellers still seem a bit hesitant, and listings are still lower than pre-pandemic. But buyers are out there looking, and homes are selling fast. How fast? I’m glad you asked! The median number of days a home sits on the market for sale until it gets in offer has plummeted over 80%, from 34 days in January down to just 6 days in April. That’s fast! If you want to sell right now, you will likely sell very quickly, and get a good price on top of that! Closed sales nearly doubled from 793 homes in January to 1,443 homes in April, an 82% spike. And pending sales, meaning homes that receive an offer but the sale had not yet closed, are up 48.5% from January 2023 to April 2023. By the way, if you want to look at all this information and read my report at your pace and leisure, you’ll find all this information in my May newsletter . So the spring sale is definitely starting off on the right foot. Median prices, new listings, and closed sales are all decidedly up, and the time it takes to sell is dramatically down. These are classic seller’s market attributes. Next month we’ll have another data set that will be able to tell us if these trends are continuing, and if so, how strongly. In the meantime, make sure you take all the media reports with a HUGE grain of salt. Now, if you or someone you know is looking to sell a home, or buy a home – big decisions, no doubt, please refer them to us so that we can properly educate and guide them, so that they can get the most from their transaction. My team and I offer a free, no-obligation consultation. Which means that we’ll be happy to sit down with anyone who needs help, then combine our wealth of knowledge, experience and knowhow, to put together a plan and strategy for maximizing your results. Please call me directly at 206-779-9808, or send me a message through this site or send me a safe, secure, and confidential message through my website, at Weisbarth.com/refer. Thanks for watching this video. If you find this information useful and helpful, please share it with others. Please remember to like, subscribe and follow for more great insights, charts and tips on my monthly vlog, and read our monthly newsletter . I’m Doron Weisbarth with Weisbarth & Associates. See you next month!

Hi, I’m Doron Weisbarth with Weisbarth & Associates. Welcome to my April 2023 Market Update report. You’ve probably seen some recent headlines warning of the pending doom from the sharp drop in the real estate prices in our area, and how fewer homes are selling, and other signs of worry with Seattle’s real estate market that are supposed to keep you up at night. Well, if you’ve been reading my newsletters and watching my vlogs for a while, hopefully you understand that some of these dire predictions are based on narrow analysis and are out of context. For instance, a couple of months back I showed you some data revealing that while it’s true that prices have come down from their historic highs last year, prices are still higher than before that surge began. And remember that that surge happened when the market was red-hot and out of control, while interest rates were still at rock bottom, and before many of the market uncertainties, such as high inflation, high fuel prices, the war in Ukraine, and more, affected our collective psyches. I also showed you that the days-on-market, meaning the time between when a home is listed and when it sells, has dropped significantly since the beginning of the year, as have the inventory levels. By the way, if you want to look at these charts and read my report at your pace and leisure, you’ll find all this information in my April newsletter, available online and for download, for free, at Weisbarth.com/Newsletter, that’s Weisbarth.com/Newsletter. The point of all of this is that if you’re going to compare the recent data with that of last year’s, when the market was in a super surge, then of course things are going to look dire and depressing. For some odd reason, news outlets seem to only be able to do this simple, year-over-year analysis and won’t even consider doing a bit more of a deeper review. Maybe it sells more papers or something, I don’t know. Here’s what you need to know: the market is actually doing quite well, thank you very much! The buyers are out there, eagerly looking for a good home, and we’re seeing more inventory come on the market as we move deeper into the spring sale season. With recent drops in interest rates, and potentially better news on inflation and maybe employment and the economy in general, the market seems to be poised for continued growth. Here are two more interesting facts to consider. First, because of a shift in zoning laws that are pushing for higher density, builders have been getting creative with their lots. In Seattle, Kirkland, and other cities in our area, we’re seeing smaller homes, multiple homes, attached ADUs, and detached ADUs, become the norm. Lots that used to have only one large home built on it, are now hosting two or three smaller ones instead. What does this mean? It means that there are more new construction homes on the market, but these homes tend to be smaller. Of course, that means that they sell for less money than one larger home would have, which helps with the affordability issue. And it also means that the average and median sales prices are coming down, or at least not increasing quite as fast. But it does not indicate a depressed market. Take a loot at this graph. What I’m comparing in this graph are the median sale price for single family homes in King County, that’s the blue line, and the median price per square foot for those same homes, that’s the orange line. By the way, I use this data for King County, but the same things would emerge in other counties in our area. What you can see is that the average price per square foot has gone up decisively faster! In fact, you can see that it started rising even before the median sale price did. Why? Because the combined sales price of two homes that are 1,500 square feet each, will generally be more than the sale price of a single home that is 3,000 square feet. In other words, half the size doesn’t NOT mean half the price. Which means that the price per square foot is increasing faster right now. The second fact to remember is that interest rates are about double what they were a year ago. People who bought or refinanced when rates were historically low are now looking at these higher rates they’d have to pay, if they sold and bought a new home. That makes some people hesitant to sell, even when it might still be in their best interests to do so, for example to accommodate for a growing family, or, on the flip side, to downsize. This hesitancy is understandable and is contributing to our lower inventory levels. It’s not unlikely that, at some point, the family needs are going to prevail, which will make more homes available. When will that happen? That’s anyone’s guess. In the meantime, this is one of the factors that are contributing to our price increases. So if you, or someone you know, needs to make some big decisions like this, and is feeling stuck because of the lack of clarity, then the first thing to do is to get real information and get properly educated about the market and about one’s options, in order to create clarity. My team and I offer a free, no-obligation consultation. Which means that we’ll be happy to sit down with anyone who needs such help, look at all the available information, bring in our wealth of knowledge and experience, and then analyze and rate all the different options, including the options of staying put. The idea is to try and help create the clarity needed for one to make a good, solid, confident decision that is rooted in knowledge and real information. If this is something that you’re interested in, then please call me directly at 206-779-9808, or send me a message through this site or send me a safe, secure, and confidential message through my website, at Weisbarth.com, that’s Weisbarth.com. If you’d like to refer someone, then send me a message through this website, or go to weisbarth.com/refer, that’s weisbarth.com/refer/ Thanks for watching this video. If you find this information useful and helpful, please share it with others. Please remember to like, subscribe and follow for more great insights, charts and tips on my monthly vlog, and read our monthly newsletter at Weisbarth.com/Newsletter, that’s Weisbarth.com/Newsletter. I’m Doron Weisbarth with Weisbarth & Associates. See you next month!