Facebook
X
Pinterest
Copy Link
Hi. I’m Jeff Tucker, principal economist at Windermere Real Estate, and this is a Local Look at the October 2026 data from the Northwest MLS.
Halloween is in the rear-view mirror, and it wasn’t the only scary thing about October. The housing market cooled off sharply, as buyers seemingly decided to wait out the sudden run-up in mortgage rates well above 7%.
Across the entire Northwest MLS, there were 13% fewer closed sales in October of 2026 than in October of last year. That’s a further sharp step down from the 4% decline observed year-to-date, and pending sales in October, down 17%, don’t give much reason to expect a turnaround in closings anytime before Thanksgiving.
On the supply side, new listings were flat against the same month last year, while as of Halloween, the end of the month, there were nearly 20,000 active listings around the MLS, or 25% more than last October. That continues a gradual acceleration in inventory growth since early summer, and it now leaves us with more than double the inventory level seen in October of 2023.
That higher inventory is starting to weigh down prices, which fell 2% at the median from the same time last year, although they are still up from 2023.
Now, a similar early winter freeze reached the Puget Sound region in October.
Closed sales fell 15% from last October, with double-digit declines in each of the four counties here. Year-to-date residential sales are now down 5% from last year.
Median sale prices for houses dropped 7% in King County and 6% in Snohomish County, while still staying roughly flat in Kitsap and Pierce Counties. Snohomish’s back-to-back declines have now brought prices there back to 2023 levels.
Looking ahead, pending sales fell 16% around the region from last October. That, again, does not give much reason to expect a turnaround anytime before Thanksgiving.
Inventory continued swinging toward a buyer’s market, as the 4-county greater Seattle area ended the month with 33% more active listings than last October, which has accelerated from a 16% growth rate as recently as June. Now, each of King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties has more than twice as many active listings as the same time in 2023.
So altogether this was a month where buyers pumped the brakes, and many sellers were left in the lurch waiting for an offer. That further strengthens the negotiating position for buyers who remain in the hunt, and at this point many sellers are probably considering their options, like maybe delisting before trying again in the spring selling season.
All right, that is all I’ve got for this local look at the latest Northwest MLS data! Thanks as always for watching!
