January 2019

The latest data and estimates from a handful of Northwest Multiple Listing Service real estate professionals paint a picture of a much friendlier housing market for buyers in 2019.

As 2018 rolled to a close, the housing market in the Northwest saw a noted increase in eager sellers.

“Buyers in December were reaping the benefits of market-weary sellers who were willing to give up part of their bloated home equity to make a deal and move on,” said John Deely, principal managing broker at Coldwell Banker Bain, in the NMLS report.

That was confirmed by members across the NMLS, including Windermere Real Estate President OB Jacobi.

“The year ended with more of a splutter than a bang as home price growth continued to slow in December,” he noted.

Home prices on the Eastside have now dropped on a year-over-year basis. In Seattle, the median house is nearly $100,000 cheaper than last spring. And across King County, the number of condos available for buyers has more than quadrupled in the past year.

The cool-down in the local housing market continued in December, ending a topsy-turvy year for real estate, according to new figures released Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

King County’s median single-family home price ticked up just 0.6 percent in December from a year before, and condo costs rose at the same rate — the smallest annual gain since early 2012, when the market was bottoming out.

It’s a huge shift from the prior six years, where the average year-over-year increase

After launching a home-sharing revolution, Airbnb’s founders started asking themselves, “What’s next?” They successfully created a global network of more than 5 million homes, castles, and treehouses for rent, and their business is worth an estimated $38 billion. But what else could Airbnb become?

It’s a question that led chief product officer and cofounder Joe Gebbia to start Samara, a futures division of Airbnb, in 2016, meant to develop new products and services for the company. Gebbia’s answer to what Airbnb can be next: architect and urban planner. Not just the company that provides the housing–the company that provides the houses.

Today, Samara is announcing a new initiative called Backyard, “an endeavor to design and prototype new ways of