Number of homes for sale rises. Does this give Thurston County buyers hope?

The Thurston County home seller has been in the catbird seat a long time as the number of homes for sale sunk to new lows and median price continued to rise.

But is that finally about to change?

Well, at least in July it did because the total number of active listings rose nearly 50%, increasing to 872 units last month from 588 units in July 2024, according to new data released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Why did that happen? Recent sales here just haven’t been very brisk, the data show. Year-year-over-year sales in July inched up 4%, but sales for the year-over-year period in June were flat.

The overall result is that months of inventory rose to 2.5 months, a level not seen in some time. That’s not quite a buyer’s market, but it is getting closer. A market that doesn’t favor either party, buyer or seller, is thought to have inventory in the range of four to six months.

“Buyers are getting a little more leverage and it’s nice to see,” said Steve Garrett, the owner of Windermere Olympia.

Some Western Washington housing markets have already achieved that balance between buyer and seller, according to the Northwest MLS data.

Months of inventory was more than six months in Grays Harbor County, four months in Mason County and five months in Lewis County, the data show.

There was one other statistic that stood out: The median price of a home in King County in July was $1 million. The median price here was $545,000.

A closer look at the Thurston County data

• Single-family residence sales rose 4.49% to 349 units last month from 334 units in July 2024.
• Single-family median price rose about 1% to $545,000 from $539,750 over the same period.
• Single-family pending sales rose 11.5% to 415 units from 372 units over the same period.
• Condo sales rose to 17 units from nine units over the same period.
• Condo median price fell 15% to $314,000 from $370,000 over the same period.
• Condo pending sales fell to 13 units from 15 units over the same period.

3 counties with the highest median price in July

• King County: $1 million.
• San Juan County: $946,250.
• Snohomish County: $805,000.

Source: Northwest MLS.