Seattle Housing Market Update: How September 2026 Compared to August

Month-over-month NWMLS numbers for Seattle houses and condos, plus what October's 7.40% mortgage rate changes.

Updated October 2026 | By Mark Popach, real estate agent serving Seattle, at Popach & Co.

Seattle house prices rose in September 2026 while Bellevue's fell. NWMLS put the Seattle single-family median at $960,000, up 4.3% from $920,000 in August. Buyers also wrote 21% more house contracts than in August, with mortgage rates climbing the whole second half of the month. Supply still grew faster than sales, and Seattle houses moved into the range NWMLS calls balanced. Condos stayed stuck above eight months of inventory.

Seattle Home Prices From August to September 2026

Seattle prices rose from August to September for houses and slipped slightly for condos. Across the NWMLS Seattle map areas, the house median climbed from $920,000 to $960,000, and the condo median eased from $535,000 to $530,000. The median for all homes combined rose 3.0% to $850,000, exactly where it stood in September 2025.

The house gain runs against last year's pattern. In 2025, the Seattle house median fell 2.5% from August to September. This year it rose 4.3%. It's still 1.5% below September 2025, so I wouldn't call it a recovery yet.

Zillow tells a calmer story. Its Seattle home value index slipped 0.2% to $822,572 in September, which leaves it 1.8% below a year ago. Redfin's three-month median of $854,593 sits 2.7% below last year. I lean on the NWMLS single-month numbers for the direction of the market and on Zillow's index for the overall price level. A one-month median can jump on a handful of big closings, and Zillow's index moves more slowly.

Information and statistics compiled and reported by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, King County map-area breakout reports for August and September 2026 (Seattle map areas combined). Change column calculated by Popach & Co.

Seattle House Supply: September's Listing Jump Was Mostly Seasonal

Seattle sellers listed 1,173 houses in September, up 49% from 785 in August, which looks dramatic until you check last year. From August to September 2025, new house listings jumped 66%, from 670 to 1,115. Last September brought the same post-summer wave. This year's ran only 5.2% bigger.

What did change is the pile of unsold houses. Seattle ended September with 1,671 active house listings, 24.7% more than a year earlier. Closings fell to 403, and months of inventory for houses rose from 3.41 to 4.15, compared with about 3.08 months a year ago. That puts Seattle houses inside the four-to-six-month band NWMLS treats as balanced, and out of seller territory.

Buyers showed up anyway. Pending house sales rose 21%, from 466 to 564, while rates climbed. Last year's August to September gain was 15.5%. Pendings still trailed September 2025 by 10%, which keeps this well short of a boom. But buyers beat last year's seasonal pace, and that tells me demand absorbed a good share of the new supply.

Seattle Neighborhoods: Where House Prices Moved

House prices moved in opposite directions across Seattle's NWMLS map areas in September. The five areas below cover most of the city's single-family sales.

Information and statistics compiled and reported by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Change column calculated by Popach & Co.

West Seattle stands out. Its house median jumped 11.7% to $897,500 on 82 sales. At 3.00 months of house inventory, it's the tightest Seattle map area with house sales. North Seattle went the other way. The house median there fell 6.1% to $930,000 and sits 10.5% below September 2025.

North Seattle surprised me. Pending house sales there jumped from 67 to 95, up 42%, in the same month the median dropped. I read that as buyers answering lower prices. Ballard, Green Lake, and Greenwood posted the biggest jump in raw count, from 132 pending house sales to 167. West Seattle was the exception, with pendings slipping from 106 to 99 despite its tight supply.

Queen Anne and Magnolia show why one-month medians mislead. Their blended house-and-condo median leapt from $840,000 to $1,250,000 on just 51 and 55 sales. No Queen Anne house got 49% more valuable in a month. September most likely closed a slightly larger share of houses. That was enough to move the middle sale from a condo price to a house price.

Seattle Condos: Still a Buyer's Market

Seattle condos ended September with 8.30 months of inventory, well past the NWMLS balanced range. The condo median slipped to $530,000, though it still ran 1.2% above September 2025. Pending condo sales fell from 175 to 167 while new condo listings rose from 437 to 493, so condo demand cooled as supply kept coming.

Downtown is the extreme case. NWMLS area 701, Downtown Seattle, is almost entirely condos. It carried 10.21 months of inventory, and its $539,975 median sits 16.3% below last year. Queen Anne and Magnolia condos sat even longer, at 11.12 months. That's nearly a year.

If I had a condo budget this fall, I'd be shopping hard. Supply like this puts a buyer in position to push on price, repair credits, and closing costs. Just make sure the building's reserves and HOA history hold up. Buyers still deciding on a property type can compare condo and townhouse ownership in King County first.

How Fast Seattle Homes Are Selling

Seattle homes still sell in under three weeks. Over the three months ending September, Redfin clocked a median 19 days on market, the same as a year ago. Zillow shows 18 median days to pending. Bellevue, by comparison, sat at 24 days on Redfin's count. Sale prices came in at 99.2% of list on Redfin's measure, and 22.6% of homes sold above list.

Price cuts are the warning sign. Almost a third of Seattle listings, 32.0% in Redfin's count, have taken a price cut, 5.1 points more than last year. So the market splits in two: homes priced to recent sales still move in a few weeks, and the rest wait for a cut.

Seattle Buyers Signed Contracts as Mortgage Rates Climbed

Freddie Mac's weekly 30-year rate went from 6.76% on September 10 to 7.03% on September 24. By October 8 it hit 7.40%, and it sat there again on October 15. No week this year has been higher.

So September's jump in pending sales happened during a rate climb, and October's buyers face a steeper number. On Seattle's $960,000 house median with 20% down, principal and interest run about $5,084 a month at 6.95% and $5,317 at 7.40%. That's roughly $230 more each month, or about $2,800 a year, for the same house.

Should You Buy a Home in Seattle This Fall?

Yes for condo buyers, as long as the building checks out. House buyers need to look neighborhood by neighborhood. Citywide, active house listings rose from 1,510 at the end of August to 1,671 at the end of September. That extra supply gives buyers time to compare. West Seattle still moves fast at three months of supply, while North Seattle, where house prices fell 6.1% in a month, gives buyers more room.

Get fully pre-approved before you tour, and find out from your lender what happens if your closing slips past the lock date. Browse homes Popach & Co. has for sale, then read our guide to buying a home in King County before you write an offer.

Should You Sell a Seattle Home Right Now?

House sellers still have buyers, but they now face far more competition. A Seattle house that hit the market in September competed with 1,172 other new house listings that month. Price against the homes that went pending in your map area in the last 30 to 60 days. Spring comps won't help you.

Condo sellers have it harder. At 8.30 months of supply, a buyer can pass on any unit priced above the one down the hall. Price below your building's other listings if you need to sell this year.

Popach & Co. is brokered by Real Broker LLC. We set Seattle list prices off the latest pending and closed sales in your NWMLS map area, house to house and condo to condo.

What to Watch in Seattle This Fall

Through November, my eye is on the race between new house listings and pending house sales. If pendings keep pace with the new supply at 7.40%, Seattle houses stay balanced and prices hold. If listings keep climbing and pendings fall, prices will soften before the holidays. Condos will likely stay a buyer's market either way.

If you're selling a house, October's pending count will matter more than September's price. If you're buying a condo, you can take your time.