Seattle Real Estate Podcast

Population growth in the Puget Sound region is abandoning Seattle — and the numbers don't lie. Sultan, a Snohomish County town of just 7,500 people, grew 45.4 percent between 2020 and 2026, making it the third-fastest-growing city in Washington State. Seattle managed less than 12 percent over the same period — and its pace is now collapsing, from nearly 19,000 new residents in one year to just 6,8...

New Zillow data ranks Seattle among the five most expensive metros in the country to buy a home — and the $3,511-per-month penalty over renting tells you everything about where this market stands. Sean walks through the numbers, the fine print behind the Fox 13 headline, and why the comparison isn't as apples-to-apples as it looks. Renting frees up capital you can invest elsewhere; buying builds e...

One of Sean's brokers at Summit Properties Northwest sent a message: low activity, need help with a price improvement. That's the setup for this walkthrough — a Bothell listing in Snohomish County that the market has quietly been saying is priced too high. The ask was clear: where does this thing actually need to land? While NAR data shows national median single-family home prices at record highs,...

The Federal Reserve just raised its benchmark rate to 3.75–4%, and Washington mortgage rates have already crossed 7%. For real estate professionals in the Pacific Northwest, the psychological damage landed before the ink dried on the FOMC's unanimous 12-0 vote — and Sean Reynolds is here to explain why the Fed funds rate and your mortgage payment are two completely different things. Sean breaks do...

Seattle's real estate market is unraveling for homeowners who bought near the top. About 5% of Seattle-area single-family homes sold in 2025 went for less than their owners paid — a small but growing share of sellers taking painful losses, according to ATTOM data cited by The Seattle Times. One couple in Fremont bought a four-bedroom townhome for $945,000 and were forced to drop their asking price...

Northwest MLS just dropped Legal Bulletin 233 introducing a brand-new listing option called "First Look," available September 4th. The move is a direct response to a national brokerage's plan to share listings exclusively within its own closed agent network — a scheme that would have given its clients an unfair early edge while locking out every other buyer and agent in Washington state....

Here we go again – homeowners are pulling their properties off the market rather than dropping prices, creating a housing deadlock that's making everyone scratch their heads. With 38% more delistings since the start of 2025 and sellers sitting pretty on their 2-3% mortgage rates, they're basically telling buyers "take it or leave it." Meanwhile, thanks to the Biden-era housing pr...

The latest Northwest MLS (NWMLS) September 2025 Market Snapshot is out — and the data shows a clear shift! 📈 Active listings jumped 27.3% year-over-year , giving buyers more options. 💲 Median home prices slipped 0.7% from last year , sitting around $630,700 . 🏡 Closed sales were up nearly 6% , showing steady buyer demand despite higher inventory. 🔔 Subscribe for monthly housing market updates...

The FTC just filed a major antitrust lawsuit against Zillow and Redfin over a $100 million rental listings deal . Regulators claim the agreement was designed to eliminate competition in multifamily rental advertising — with commitments lasting up to nine years and layoffs of 450 Redfin employees . Zillow and Redfin deny wrongdoing, calling the partnership pro-consumer and a way to expand renter ac...

The FTC just filed a major antitrust lawsuit against Zillow and Redfin over a $100 million rental listings deal . Regulators claim the agreement was designed to eliminate competition in multifamily rental advertising — with commitments lasting up to nine years and layoffs of 450 Redfin employees . Zillow and Redfin deny wrongdoing, calling the partnership pro-consumer and a way to expand renter ac...

August 2025 brought cooler housing activity across Washington state, according to the latest NWMLS report. While closed sales dropped month-to-month, inventory is up nearly 31% year-over-year , giving buyers more options than they’ve had in years.

Seattle’s housing market is sending mixed signals in 2025. 🏡Metro median prices hover around $765K–$767KSome data shows the first year-over-year dip in nearly 2 yearsLong-term appreciation remains strong at +24% since 2020Inventory is rising, but it’s still a seller’s market

The Seattle housing market is undergoing a significant shift, offering the highest inventory levels seen since 2015! This game-changing trend is creating unprecedented opportunities for buyers in what has long been a fiercely competitive region.

The clash between real estate giant Zillow and Bay Area brokerage Compass just hit a new level. Starting June 30 , Zillow will begin banning certain "pocket listings" —exclusive properties marketed privately by Compass before hitting the open market. Zillow’s new policy gives agents just two strikes—violate the rules three times and your listings could be banned from Zillow indefinitely. Meanwhile...

Compass, a major real estate brokerage, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS), accusing it of monopolistic and anti-competitive practices. The lawsuit focuses on restrictive rules that ban pre-marketing and exclusive listings outside the MLS.

The King County housing market saw a significant jump in inventory in January, with active listings rising 62.6% year over year, according to the latest report from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. While increased supply is giving buyers more options, affordability remains a concern as median home prices continue to climb. Keep reading to learn more about this latest report, and what this m...

Dan Chapman, from Fairway Independent Mortgage, provides insights into the 2025 housing market. Key predictions include national home price growth of 4%, with Seattle expected to see a 6-7% increase, driven by limited inventory and robust demand. Rising mortgage rates, currently around 6.75%, continue to challenge affordability, keeping many potential buyers on the sidelines. High rent costs, exac...

The $418 million settlement against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) was predicted to disrupt the real estate industry, slashing agent commissions and housing prices. However, real-world data shows minimal impact. Average buyer-agent commissions barely budged, holding steady at 2.62% before the settlement and 2.59% afterward. Critics argued this would foster transparency and competition,...

Northwest MLS, the source for the most current, accurate market listing data in Washington state, today released its Market Snapshot for the month of September 2024. Market Recap The further reduction of interest rates in September by the Federal Reserve provided a positive end-of-the-summer boost to the market. Double-digit increases in active and new listings and single-digit increases in median...

Just 2.5% of homes in the US changed hands this year in the first eight months, the lowest turnover rate in at least 30 years, according an analysis by Redfin. The latest data from the real estate brokerage underscores just how much the housing market has stalled in 2024 as Americans faced a toxic combination of record-high home prices and elevated mortgage rates, creating one of the most unafford...

High mortgage interest rates continue to challenge the housing market, with both buyers and sellers hesitant to engage in transactions. Despite this, the market shows signs of loosening, as recent data suggests a potential decline in rates. As of August 13th, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate stands at 6.49%, the lowest in over a year. Although home sales have increased by 5.9% year-over-year, they...

The US housing market has officially entered bizzaro world. The law of supply and demand is a basic principle of any free market, and right now, it's being subverted by strange happenings in the real-estate market. The supply of homes for sale is rising while demand for homes is falling. And yet housing prices continue to hit record highs. "When it comes to the housing market, the laws of...

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service, where thousands of Western Washington real estate agents share information on properties for sale, will not opt into a national settlement that brought new attention to agent commissions this year. Following a series of legal challenges accusing the National Association of Realtors of inflating agent commissions, the association in March agreed to a $418 mil...

While mortgage rates remain higher than they were during the housing market's booming pandemic years, Moody's Ratings has predicted them to finally start declining over the next few years in a new report. Exactly a week ago, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac, reported that the average rate for a 30-year-fixed mortgage—the most popular among U.S. borrow...

Sold a home in the last four years? Congratulations. You’re entitled to a piece of the $418 million Realtor settlement fund. But don’t expect a big windfall. Since you will be among 21 million other Americans who are part of the “settlement class,” the amount per seller — after deducting attorneys’ fees — could be as low as $13. That’s a pittance compared with the $18,000-$22,000 commission Southe...