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Selling A Home? You’ll Have To Be Patient.

Listings are up significantly, but buyers remain wary

By Rob Smith May 8, 2025

A red and white "For Sale" sign is posted in front of a large white house with a lawn and a cloudy sky in the background.

Home sales across Washington state are off to a slow start during a typically active spring season.

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service says homes for sale in 26 of the 39 counties in Washington state it monitors rose 47.4% year over year, but buyers remain wary because of high interest rates. Interest rates were 6.76% at the end of April.

The median price for residential homes and condos was $650,000, a slight decrease from a year ago.

“As the number of sellers continues to outpace buyers, it is not surprising that price growth has slowed,” says Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research.

The six counties with the highest increases in active inventory were Snohomish (+84.8%), Columbia (+76.9%), King (+71.3%), Clallam (+70.7%), Whatcom (+68.1%) and Grant (+59.8%).

At a median sale price of $907,000, King County remains the most expensive area in the state to buy a home, followed by Snohomish and San Juan counties.

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