April 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 March 2025.
Market Recap
March’s market activity showed some expected seasonal growth as we move into spring, but an imbalance still lingers between buyers and sellers.
30-year mortgage rates dropped from 6.76% to 6.65%, a slight enticement for buyers who are keeping a diligent eye on the market. Sellers looking to take early advantage of seasonal transitions boosted NWMLS’s active listings nearly 44% year-over-year from March 2024.
“Easing of mortgage rates into spring home buying season has helped bring some home buyers off the sidelines,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist at Cotality (formerly CoreLogic).
Still, sellers and buyers alike will have to contend with continuing rising prices impacting the market. The median price for residential homes and condominiums rose 3.2% from $630,000 in February 2025 to $649,999 in March 2025.
“Rising median house prices continue to exacerbate affordability issues,” said Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER). “In the first quarter of the year, median sale prices increased by 9.5%, which would translate into nearly 44% if compounded over the course of a year.”
Hepp also foresees that “home buying activity [will remain] muted amid a lot of economic and policy uncertainty and fears of future job losses”
March 2025 Key Takeaways
Active and New Listings
There was a 43.7% increase year-over-year in the total number of properties listed for sale in the NWMLS service area. There were 11,640 active listings on the market at the end of March 2025, with 21 out of 26 counties seeing a double-digit increase compared to March 2024. When compared to the previous month, active inventory increased by 1,192 listings (+11.4%), up from 10,448 in February 2025….