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 $40,000 below what they paid after a job loss made carrying the mortgage untenable.

The Pacific Northwest market has been contracting since interest rates jumped from under 6% toward 7%, killing the momentum that defined Seattle real estate for years. What followed is a surge of inventory, a condo and townhome crush, and sellers who simply cannot afford to wait for conditions to improve. Foreclosure fear — not market optimism — is now driving listings.

Tech layoffs have deepened the damage. Companies that over-hired during the pandemic boom are cutting headcount and pointing at AI. Seattle's job market uncertainty is bleeding directly into its housing market, and the new millionaire's tax is giving longer-term sellers one more reason to exit before conditions deteriorate further. Rising months-of-inventory and a stalled absorption rate tell the same story: this market is not bouncing back on its own timetable.

The next real inflection point may not come until spring 2027. Until then, peak buyers are trapped, and the inventory pile keeps growing.

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.

First Look gives sellers a pre-marketing window to generate broker and buyer interest before going fully live on the MLS. During this phase, agents can market the property, schedule showings, and build momentum — without hiding the listing behind a private wall. All First Look properties must still hit the open MLS, preserving the marketplace transparency Washington buyers and sellers depend on.

Sean walks through the three core rules — a 60-day cap, a 21-day active-marketing window, and IDX display requirements — plus four practical seller use cases, how to input a First Look listing in Matrix, the new Form 7U public-marketing requirements, and the shift from DOM to DA in market-time terminology. His take: when sellers aren't quite picture-ready but want to get out ahead of a competing listing, First Look is a smart tool for a hot market.

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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 price explosion and the "transitory" inflation that's still hanging around like a bad houseguest, first-time buyers are priced out of starter homes that somehow cost $1-2 million. Remember when they told us all that government spending would reduce inflation? How's that working out? We're still dealing with the aftermath of dumping trillions into an overheated market while being told it was all temporary. Is anyone surprised that mortgage rates are stuck above 6% when we're still cooling off from that inflation bonfire? What's it going to take – a good old-fashioned recession – to get this market moving again? Drop a comment and let me know what you think happens next. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell!

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.

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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 access. But the FTC says it’s “obviously anticompetitive” and is seeking structural relief, which could include divestiture or breaking apart parts of the deal.

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 access. But the FTC says it’s “obviously anticompetitive” and is seeking structural relief, which could include divestiture or breaking apart parts of the deal.

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 is holding firm, accusing Zillow of monopolizing listing access and limiting seller freedom.

Even Redfin and Homes.com are picking sides. Could this shape the future of how homes are marketed in America?