Buyers Are Refusing To Overpay in This Tech Hub—and Home Prices There Are Falling Faster Than Any Other Big City

Home prices are falling faster in Seattle than in any other major U.S. metro, as buyers there gain the upper hand and sellers are forced to accept reality. 

The Pacific Northwest city—where the median home listing price is $776,232—saw a 2.5% annual decline in single-family sales prices in March, according to the latest data from the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index data.

"Supply is outpacing demand, but demand hasn't collapsed. Buyers are still buying. They're just no longer willing to overpay," area real estate agent Chris Reis with Pacific Northwest Residences at Compass tells Realtor.com®.

Housing inventory in Seattle has exploded over the last year, giving buyers more options and more power at the negotiating table, Realtor.com listing data shows.

"Over the last year, there has been roughly a 35% rise in single-family listings, while condo and townhome listings rose about 28%," says Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith. "However, the non-single-family component has increased since 2016, rising from 13% of the inventory to 37% now."

Smith says Seattle listings typically peak in the fall, around September and October, with the 2025 peak of 10,112 listings up 26% from a year earlier, and 45% higher than in 2022, when the city was starved for inventory.

Homes are also taking longer to sell across both the condo and single-family segments, according to Smith, who says it's another sign that demand has not kept up with the new supply entering the market.

"Single-family homes sat on the market for a median of 31 days in April 2026, up from 27 days a year ago," he says. "Condos and townhomes are also moving slightly slower, reaching a median of 38 days in April 2026, compared to 36 days in April 2025."

Why Seattle homebuyers are gaining power

Reis says the recent drop in prices can be largely attributed to whiplash from pandemic gains.

"King County median went from the mid-$600s in 2019 to over $900K at the 2022 peak," he says. "That's one of the steepest run-ups any U.S. metro saw, and when rates jumped past 6% and tech hiring froze, the math just stopped working at those prices. So this isn't really a crash story. It's a slow correction back to where the numbers actually pencil."

Layoffs due to AI restructuring are also affecting the real estate market in the tech mecca, according to Reis—just not in the way you might think.

"Layoffs at Amazon and Microsoft are real, but a smaller factor than the headlines made them sound," he explains. "The cuts hit headcount but didn't really thin out the buyer pool. Seattle is still adding tech jobs in biotech, gaming, and AI—just not at the FAANG [Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google (Alphabet)] scale of a few years ago. What the layoffs actually did was kill the buyer psychology. People who used to waive inspections in 24 hours now take 30 days and ask for repairs."

While a crime surge in one of north Seattle’s main transit corridors made headlines over the weekend, Reis says that's not making a big impact on the real estate market.

"Like any city, there are pockets where it's a serious consideration, but in Seattle that's limited to select downtown blocks and along some of the transit lines," says Reis. "It doesn't touch the residential areas where most buyers are looking."

Property crimes are the most common, according to Reis.

"The car prowls and porch-theft-variety crimes are a hassle, but not something that changes whether someone buys a home," he adds.

Is now a good time to buy in Seattle?

In addition to plunging prices, Reis says this is the best negotiating position buyers have had in five years.

"Inspection contingencies are back," he says. "Financing contingencies are back. Sellers are negotiating on price and credits, which basically didn't happen at all from 2020 through 2022."

It’s an especially favorable time to negotiate condo prices, as buyer interest continues to cool.

"HOA dues are up, special assessments on older downtown buildings keep landing, and post-COVID, nobody really wants to live in a high-rise the way they used to," explains Reis.

However, Reis points out that across single-family homes, condos, and townhomes alike, mortgage rates remain the key constraint.

"Freddie Mac's 30-year hit 6.51% last week, the highest in nine months," he says. "But the buyers who win in this market are the ones who stop trying to time rates and instead push hard on price, repairs, and seller concessions. You can refinance the rate later. You can't go back and renegotiate a contract you were too timid to push on."

What this means moving forward

Reis says he thinks the price drops in Seattle are getting close to a floor.

"New listings are now rising faster than buyer absorption, which usually means sellers are starting to price more realistically," he says. "That alone takes some of the air out of the year-over-year declines."

Meanwhile, Reis says the true state of the Seattle market depends upon how a seller approaches their listing.

"Well-prepped, well-priced homes in established neighborhoods are still selling in under two weeks," he says. "Overpriced or condition-compromised listings are sitting 60-plus days. So the 'Seattle market' number you see in the headlines is really hiding two completely different sub-markets, and which one a buyer or seller is in matters more than the citywide stat."