Builder’s Confidence

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National Home Builder Index – 83 (Jan. 2022)

*The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) (Scale 0-100)

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The Gardner Report Q4 2021- Click here to view

Interested in selling your land? Contact the TEAM for insights regarding your property!
Team@nwlandteam.com
206.639.9283

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Seattle’s Development Real Estate

Development news in Seattle

Over the last quarter, Seattle’s real estate market has continued to see lower housing inventory, never ending concrete strikes, and interest rates on the rise!

Ending the 4th quarter of 2022, Seattle is still sitting at around less than 1 month of inventory. This is mainly due to the normal seasonality of Seattle real estate. In addition, homeowners don’t want to sell because there is nothing for them to upgrade/downgrade. As we are seeing the bidding wars start to increase again heading into the early 2022 market, Seattle’s Seller’s market seems to be heating up. Only time shall tell us what will unfold in the fiscal quarter ahead. However, if you tend to follow the history of the Seattle real estate market, the next few months ahead will be saturated with bidding wars, record breaking sales, and frustrated buyers.

Now remember when absurd lumber prices were in the headlines on almost every news outlet back in the summer of 2021? Well now builders are dealing with another important component to building, and that is pouring their foundation! Beginning on November 19th, 2021, 34 dump truck drivers decided to go on strike which sparked hundreds of concrete union workers to strike as well which still hasn’t been resolved at the end of January of 2022 when writing this newsletter. Several construction projects in the Puget Sound area are on hold waiting for foundations, sidewalks, and streets to be poured. Many builders are going to the smaller concrete business in the region to start or finish jobs, and several of them are booked out for months causing frustration in the builder community. 

To finalize our brief summary of the Seattle market, we will discuss INTREST RATES. Say goodbye to those sub 3% mortgages you’ve seen in 2021. Interest rates have been steadily rising for the last 6 months. We saw 30 year fix mortgage rates in the 2.75% to 3% last summer, and we are now seeing them in the 3.25% to 3.5% as of January 2022. This is another cause of why the market is extremely hot right now. You have several buyers trying to secure a home before (in their minds) the rates continue to rise. The Federal Reserve made a statement that they will be increasing the interest rate in March which will have a direct effect on construction loans since they are based directly off of the prime rate. So if you are planning on using a construction loan from your local bank, be sure to reevaluate your proformas since you will be paying a higher cost for financing. 

That’s the news for this quarter, and we will see you next time!

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Top 10 Seattle Development Sales Q4 2021