Why Isn’t My House Selling?

You’re Probably Not the Only One Asking

If your house has been sitting on the market without the activity you expected, you are probably asking the question “Why isn’t my house selling?” I myself am asking that question with the listings I have on market right now.

Homes that are well maintained, professionally photographed, marketed well, and seemingly priced appropriately aren’t necessarily getting the showings we would expect. Sellers are making price adjustments hoping to bring a new group of buyers through the door, and sometimes…nothing happens.

It is incredibly frustrating, especially when we have been conditioned by years of a strong seller’s market to think that if a home isn’t selling, something must be wrong with the house or the price. Price is always important. But what we are seeing right now across the greater Seattle area is bigger than any one house.

There Are A Lot More Homes to Choose From

The biggest change in our market is inventory.

According to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS), at the end of July there were 7,836 active listings in King County, compared with 6,337 at the same time last year. That’s an increase of nearly 24%. In Snohomish County, inventory increased almost 35% year over year.

Think about what that means from a buyer’s perspective. A buyer who may have had five homes to seriously consider a few years ago might now have eight or ten. They don’t necessarily have to choose between the house with the busy street, the house with the dated kitchen, or the house that stretches their budget. They can wait to see what comes next week. And increasingly, they are.

That creates an entirely different experience for sellers.

More Homes Doesn’t Mean More Buyers

More inventory wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if we had enough buyers to absorb it, but we don’t.

While King County inventory increased nearly 24% from last July, closed sales decreased almost 12%. Across the NWMLS market, pending sales were down approximately 7%.

In other words, we have substantially more homes competing for fewer transactions. That may be one of the most important statistics for sellers to understand right now.

Interestingly, prices haven’t fallen off a cliff. King County’s residential July median sales price was $999,000, an increase of 0% compared with July last year. That can make this market particularly confusing. You may hear that Seattle-area home prices are holding relatively steady and understandably think, Then why isn’t anyone coming to look at my house?

Because price and activity aren’t the same thing.

Interest Rates Are Still a Big Part of the Equation

We also can’t talk about today’s housing market without talking about mortgage rates. Rates have remained stubbornly high and have recently been affected by renewed inflation concerns, energy prices, and geopolitical uncertainty. For buyers, every movement in interest rates changes the monthly payment.

On an $800,000 purchase, the difference between a rate in the 5s and a rate in the mid-6s can mean hundreds of dollars every month. However, this isn’t only about whether a buyer qualifies for a mortgage. There is a difference between what someone can technically afford and what they are comfortable spending every month. A buyer may qualify for the house. They may even really like the house. But when they look at the payment, they may decide they would rather wait.

Buyers Are Nervous

Then there is something that is much harder to measure: confidence.

There is a lot happening in the world right now. War and geopolitical uncertainty. Gas and energy prices. Inflation. Questions about interest rates. Concerns about employment. And here in the Seattle area, where technology employs so many people, there are very real conversations happening about layoffs, restructuring, and what AI may mean for jobs in the future.

That doesn’t mean everyone is losing their job.

Washington’s unemployment rate was 5% in July, up from 4.6% a year ago, but the state also added jobs during the month. So, what it does mean is that people are uncertain. You don’t have to lose your job to decide this might not be the moment to take on a $4,000 or $5,000 monthly housing payment.

Buying a home is both a financial and emotional decision. When people aren’t confident about what the next year will look like choosing to wait feels safer, and today’s market is giving them permission to do exactly that.

And Yes, It’s Also the End of Summer

We also have to acknowledge the calendar. We’re heading into the last week of August. Families are squeezing in final vacations. School starts next week for many districts. Labor Day is around the corner. People’s attention is understandably somewhere other than open houses. Real estate has always been seasonal. Activity typically begins slowing as we move away from the spring and early-summer market.

So yes, some of what sellers are experiencing right now may simply be timing, but I don’t think we can blame all of this on back-to-school week.

When King County has nearly 24% more inventory than it did a year ago while closed sales are down almost 12%, something bigger is happening.

Does This Mean You Need to Drop Your Price?

Maybe.

But not necessarily.

This is where I think sellers need to be careful.

Price absolutely matters, and an overpriced home is going to have an especially difficult time in this market. Buyers have too many choices to overlook a home that doesn’t feel like a good value.

But a price reduction doesn’t magically manufacture a buyer.

If there are very few people shopping for your particular type of home, in your location, at your price point right now, reducing the price $10,000 or $15,000 may not suddenly result in a flood of showings. That’s why I don’t believe the answer to every slow listing is simply, drop the price again. We have to look at the entire picture.

What new competition has come on the market? What has actually gone pending? Which homes are getting showings? Which aren’t? What price reductions have competitors made? How does your home compare in condition and presentation? Are buyers looking at the listing online but not scheduling a showing? Has anything changed since we originally established the price?

And sometimes the answer may simply be that what the listing needs is more time.

This Is the Other Side of the Buyer’s Market Shift

Back in May, I wrote about what I called a “sigh of relief” for buyers. Inventory was growing. Days on market were increasing. Buyers finally had a little room to breathe instead of making a life-changing decision within hours of walking through a house. By mid-summer, it was becoming clear that wasn’t just a spring blip. Buyers really did have more choices and more time to think.

Now we’re seeing the other side of that shift.

The breathing room buyers wanted has become the patience sellers now need.

That doesn’t mean homes aren’t selling. They are.
It doesn’t mean every seller needs to slash their price.
And it certainly doesn’t mean there is something wrong with your house because it hasn’t sold yet.
It means we are in a different market.

For sellers, success right now requires realistic expectations, careful pricing, strong presentation, good marketing, and a willingness to continually evaluate what the market is telling us.

Because sometimes the market isn’t telling us your house is bad.
It’s telling us buyers have more choices, they’re feeling cautious, and they aren’t in a hurry.
And right now, that may be the biggest adjustment sellers have to make, being willing to wait.