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Snohomish County Real Estate Trends and Insights for December 2023

Writer's picture: Joe FrankJoe Frank

The Snohomish County Real Estate market for December 2023 took a sizeable dip from November relative to home sale prices and the number of homes for sale (both down).


As you can probably imagine, this is not surprising based on the time of year. December is normally quite slow in the real estate industry due to the holidays, inclement weather, travel, etc.




In addition, homes remained on the market for longer in December - 27 days on average, which was an increase from November’s average days on market of 22, and again, no surprise here.


But let's also keep things in perspective, this is actually lower than December 2022 where average days on the market for a home was 39 days. If you're a potential home buyer, you want the average days on market of a home to be higher, and 30+ days is a signal of a more healthy and balanced market. The opposite is true of a seller, where a lower average days on market indicates a hotter housing market because homes are selling faster. In our current environment, housing inventory is low, so it's maintaining prices, and still considered a relatively "warm" market (for sellers).


Lastly, the lingering effect of high interest rates witnessed in October and November (a high of 8.03% on 10/19/23) , and even the first part of December is another factor that likely drove home prices and the number of sales downward. The high interest rates slowly retreated from October into early December where they hit the low 7% range and eventually hitting 6.6% on December 27th.


2024 Snohomish County Real Estate and Beyond

Looking forward into January 2024 and beyond, all current indicators point to the housing market picking up – meaning more homes listed for sale and more potential buyers. In turn this will likely drive home prices higher, which is normal for the start of a new year.


Further, with the current, lower interest rates (in the high 6% range as of mid-January), there's potential additional buyers will enter the market (beyond what may be considered normal for January) which may juice the market along with home prices.


snohomish county real estate predictions

Ultimately only time will tell what the housing market will do in 2024. It depends heavily on interest rate direction (and market sentiment), along with the health of the economy (are people confident the outlook is good and they’ll keep their jobs, get raises, etc).


Not to be a cynic, but there’s always potential for major world events that could impact the overall economy and spill into our local economy and housing market. Examples are a large scale war, elections, pandemics, etc. Potential for major events is helpful to be aware of, but shouldn't necessarily affect your buying and selling decisions. Real Estate is a long term play – if you’re planning to buy a house, chances are you will be living in it for several years (or renting it out as an investment) which tends to smooth out market bumps.


Please remember I’m only reviewing and providing opinions on Snohomish County housing data. Housing markets vary greatly from one market to the next. In fact, they can differ significantly from zip to zip, and even from neighborhood to neighborhood that are adjacent to one other.


If you’re looking for more specific Snohomish County real estate housing data (zip code, community, neighborhood), or if you’d like to look beyond Snohomish County or WA State, please contact me and I’d love to help!


You can view Snohomish County housing trends, mortgage rates, and more at: https://www.joefrankrealtor.com/data


Thank you for taking the time to read this article!


If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to comment below, email, text, or find me on social.


Cheers!

-Joe

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