Are Home Prices About to COLLAPSE?

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

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Michael Zuber (0:31)

Alrighty, folks, what the hell is going on in Seattle? We have prices down $150,000.

I will say that again. Prices are down $150,000 and inventory is exploding. And if you haven't checked yet, rates are at a year high and we are heading into the winter. So hold your breath. It's going to get ugly. Beth, thank you very much for coming back, giving us these numbers. Where do you want to start? September appears to be ugly.

Beth (1:00)

Is it real estate Armageddon?

I don't know. Time will tell.

Michael Zuber (1:05)

But at least we know September wasn't good.

Beth (1:08)

September wasn't great. Nope. But I think October, we'll see. It feels like October is a little better.

Michael Zuber (1:15)

Oh, really?

Beth (1:15)

None of this is any surprise to any of us that are living in here. Like we've seen this kind of coming and been dealing with it for a while. But I want to clarify that in Seattle, proper, it's a different thing. But where those numbers were for the East side, which is the tech-heavy area.

Michael Zuber (1:30)

The tech-heavy area. All right.

Beth (1:31)

The tech-heavy area is the more tech-heavy the area, the harder it has been hit.

Michael Zuber (1:37)

Interesting. I wonder if that's true across the country. Folks, if you're in the Bay Area, you're in Cupertino, or maybe you're out in Phoenix or some of these other tech-heavy markets, are you seeing things like King County? Again, King County down 150 grand. Ouch.

Beth (1:51)

Yeah. So that was median home price of 1575 a year ago, now to 1425

Michael Zuber (1:58)

Still a million bucks, still 1.4.

Beth (2:00)

Yeah, there's 4.36 months of inventory, but prices are down 9.52 percent year over year.

Michael Zuber (2:08)

Okay.

Beth (2:09)

And will they continue to go down? Only time can tell. But I do know that my business is primarily on the East side. And so we have seen, I had like nine listings go under contract in the last three weeks. So it's okay, they're moving.

SPEAKER_1 (2:28)

Interesting. Homes are moving.

Beth (2:29)

This has been a year characterized by fits and starts, like nothing and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, a bunch of activity and then those clothes, and then they're like biting our nails and waiting, and then another wave of pennies and sales. And so I think a lot of it has to do with coaching clients, like coaching seller clients, the ones I talk to now, so same for a while that...

Michael Zuber (2:55)

Let me ask you a question. And if you can't say for legal reasons, just tell me that. But I'm curious, when you talk about the nine houses that you went under contract, I'm assuming you're the seller on all, if not most of those, were they all like what percentage of the nine were below the original list price?

Beth (3:13)

I would say probably seven or eight, seven.

Michael Zuber (3:16)

So a decent percentage. Okay.

Beth (3:18)

So what I'm seeing, and I coach my clients this too, is that if there's a buyer that's circling looking for exactly what you have, they will be the ones that are the first ones through, maybe the first day, you might get a great offer right out of the shoot from them.

Michael Zuber (3:32)

Makes sense.

Beth (3:33)

And that will be in the first 10 days or so. And we did have a couple of those in the last couple of weeks. I mean, those are like the couple that sold at this price and sometimes waived inspection, etc. And, or I coach people, it could take seven, or sorry, 90 to 120 days.

We're gonna need good houses to go under market. Doesn't mean anything's wrong with your house. It's just the function of the market.

Michael Zuber (3:59)

Yeah, I think what, I think, especially in King County, and I think it's true in a lot of different markets, some properties are the one of a kind unicorns.

And, you know, they have the view or the land or the garage or whatever its thing is, and there are people circling for that thing. And they will pay up for that thing, because it's rare. And then there's the, oh, it's another five bedroom, three bath, two story. It's like, it's another one. And those ones are going to sit for the most part.