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Hi. I’m Jeff Tucker, principal economist at Windermere Real Estate, and this is a Local Look at the January 2026 data from the Northwest MLS.
So far in 2026, the housing market is still in the grips of a winter slowdown.
Across the Northwest MLS, there were 7% fewer closed home sales than in January 2025. However, pending sales suggest the slowdown may have bottomed out, as they were down only 1% year-over-year.
On the supply side, the flow of new listings was up 3% from last January’s pace. Finally, the month ended with 22% more active listings than last January, continuing a trend of more options, and more negotiating leverage, for home buyers.
That stronger negotiating leverage translated into lower home prices in January: down 2 and a half percent from last year, and even 1% lower than in January 2024.
Now for a closer look at the four counties encompassing the greater Seattle area.
Closed sales dropped by 9% from last January around the region, but that decline was most stark in Snohomish County, where sales fell 24%, perhaps due to weaker demand for longer commutes in response to more return-to-office mandates.
Median sale prices saw modest declines in most of the region: 1% lower in King; 3% higher in Kitsap; 2% lower in Pierce, and 7% lower in Snohomish County, which gave up all of last year’s price gains and more.
Looking ahead, pending sales dipped by 3% across the region in January, led by a 13% decline in Snohomish County and a 5% drop in Pierce, while King and Kitsap showed some pending sales growth.
On the supply side, the 4-county greater Seattle area had 27% more active listings than at the end of January 2025. While that pace of inventory growth has decelerated, we can see now that in most of the region there’s now a solid 2 consecutive years of inventory growth, pushing conditions into a buyer’s market.
That’s the main takeaway from this first look at 2026 housing market data: buyers have finally wrestled some price concessions out of sellers, and they’ve got more listings to choose from than in any recent winter. Still, we are on the verge of the busiest season of the year for housing, and that will absolutely mean an uptick in both sales and prices in the months ahead.
