Fall is officially knocking on the door, and this week’s numbers show a market that continues to shift as we move deeper into September.

New listings slowed noticeably this week, while pending sales picked back up. At the same time, price reductions climbed to their highest level we’ve seen in several weeks.

This Week’s Stats

New Listings: 212 ↓ from 261 last week
Pending Sales: 160 ↑ from 148 last week
Sold Homes: 102 ↑ from 101 last week
Price Reductions: 255 ↑ from 230 last week

What Stands Out This Week?

The biggest change was the drop in new inventory. We saw 212 new listings hit the market, down nearly 19% from last week’s 261.

That slowdown isn’t particularly surprising as we get farther into September. The summer listing season is behind us, kids are back in school, and homeowners who haven’t already listed often start thinking about whether they want to make a move now or wait until spring.

But while fewer homes came on the market, buyer activity actually improved.

Pending sales increased from 148 to 160, a little over an 8% increase. That’s an encouraging sign that buyers are still out there and making offers when they find the right home at the right price.

Closed sales were essentially unchanged at 102 compared with 101 last week.

Then there’s the number that really jumps off the page: 255 price reductions.

That’s up from 230 last week and means we had more price reductions this week than new listings.

What Does This Mean for Buyers?

For buyers, this continues to be a market where patience can pay off.

Not every seller is getting their original asking price, and the growing number of price reductions creates opportunities that may not have existed when a home first came on the market.

That doesn’t mean every home is negotiable. Well priced homes in desirable locations can still attract strong interest. But buyers have more room to evaluate the home, its condition, its pricing and the overall terms of an offer than they did in the frenzy of previous markets.

And sometimes the best opportunity isn’t the brand new listing. It’s the home that has been sitting for a few weeks and now has a seller who is ready to have a conversation.

What Does This Mean for Sellers?

The 255 price reductions are another reminder that pricing correctly from the beginning matters.

Buyers have access to more information than ever, and they’re paying attention. If a home feels overpriced compared with competing properties, many buyers simply wait.

A price reduction can absolutely generate renewed interest, but the goal should be to avoid chasing the market whenever possible.

That makes preparation, presentation and pricing especially important right now. A home that enters the market positioned correctly has a much better chance of getting buyer attention while it’s still fresh.

The Bottom Line

This week gave us an interesting combination: fewer new listings, more pending sales and significantly more price reductions.

That tells me buyers haven’t disappeared. They’re simply being selective.

As we head into fall, sellers need to pay close attention to pricing and competition, while buyers should keep an eye on homes that have been sitting on the market or recently adjusted their price.

The market is still moving. It just requires a little more strategy from both sides.

Fall may not officially be here quite yet, but the real estate market seems to have gotten the memo.

Across the areas I track in South Snohomish County and North King County, last week brought a noticeable jump in activity:

🏠 New Listings: 261
📝 Pending Sales: 148
🔑 Closed Sales: 101
💲 Price Reductions: 230

That’s a lot of new inventory hitting the market, and nearly as many price reductions.

So, what does that actually mean?

It’s a good reminder that the fall real estate market plays by a slightly different set of rules than spring and summer. And whether you’re thinking about buying or selling, understanding those changes can make a big difference.

Buyers May Have More Leverage, But That Doesn’t Mean Every Seller Is Desperate

One of the biggest changes I typically see as we head into fall is a shift in the balance between buyers and sellers.

There are usually fewer buyers actively shopping than during the spring and early summer months. Families have settled into the school year, vacations are over, and some buyers simply decide to put their plans on hold until next year.

But the buyers who remain tend to be serious.

At the same time, sellers who have been on the market for a while may become more willing to negotiate. Last week’s 230 price reductions are certainly worth paying attention to.

That can create opportunities for buyers to negotiate on more than just price. Depending on the property and situation, there may be opportunities involving closing costs, repairs, closing dates, or even strategies such as a seller paid mortgage rate buydown.

But there’s an important distinction here:

More negotiating room does not mean every seller is desperate.

Homes that are priced appropriately, prepared well, and located in desirable areas can still attract strong interest. The opportunity comes from understanding which homes have leverage and which ones don’t.

Sellers Need To Pay Attention to the Competition

For sellers, 261 new listings in one week should get your attention.

Every new home that comes on the market becomes another option for buyers. And when buyers have choices, they become much less forgiving about price, condition, and presentation.

This is where I see sellers get into trouble.

A home comes on the market slightly too high with the idea that, “We can always reduce the price later.”

Technically, that’s true.

But the first days on the market are when a listing generally receives its most attention. Missing the mark at the beginning can mean chasing the market with price reductions later.

And with 230 price reductions last week, there are clearly plenty of sellers already making adjustments.

Going into the fall market, pricing correctly from the beginning and properly preparing the home before it hits the market become even more important.

Fall Buyers Are Different Buyers

There’s another reason I like the fall market.

The people out looking at homes tend to have a reason for being there.

They may have a lease ending. They may have sold another home. They may be relocating. They may have experienced a life change. Or they may simply have decided that they’re ready to buy and aren’t interested in waiting until spring.

That doesn’t guarantee a quick sale, of course. But having fewer buyers isn’t necessarily the same thing as having no demand.

The goal for a seller is to make sure their home stands out to the buyers who are still actively looking.

And Buyers Shouldn’t Wait for Some Imaginary Perfect Market

I see the opposite mistake from buyers.

They start seeing price reductions and assume that if they wait another month, prices will fall even further. Then maybe they wait for mortgage rates to improve. Then they decide to see what happens over the winter.

Eventually spring arrives, along with a whole new group of buyers.

Trying to perfectly time the housing market is incredibly difficult.

Instead, I’d rather look at the individual opportunity.

What is the home worth?

How long has it been on the market?

Has the seller already reduced the price?

Are there competing offers?

What concessions might be available?

And most importantly, does buying the home make sense for you?

Those answers matter far more than trying to predict exactly what the entire housing market will do next.

The Fall Market Rewards Strategy

This is one of those times of year when the headline numbers only tell part of the story.

A home that has been sitting for several weeks with multiple price reductions is a very different negotiation than a well priced home that came on the market yesterday.

The same applies to sellers. What worked for a neighbor who sold in April may not be the right strategy for a home coming on the market in September or October.

The market changes.

The strategy should change with it.

If you’re considering buying or selling a home in South Snohomish County or North King County this fall, I’m happy to look at what’s happening specifically in your neighborhood and price range. Sometimes the numbers at that level tell a very different story than the headlines.

Well, that didn’t take long.

After Labor Day weekend gave us one of the quietest weeks we’ve seen in a while, sellers came back in a BIG way. New listings more than doubled this week, but buyers didn’t exactly come rushing back with them.

Stats

🏡 New Listings: 261 ↑ (124 last week)

🤝 Pending Sales: 148 ↓ (181 last week)

🔑 Sold Homes: 101 ↓ (145 last week)

💰 Price Reductions: 230 ↑ (180 last week)

Trend Overview

The headline this week is pretty obvious: 261 new listings.

That’s an increase of 137 homes from last week and more than double the 124 that hit the market during the holiday shortened week. Some rebound was absolutely expected after Labor Day, but this was a significant jump.

The more interesting part is what happened on the other side of the equation.

Pending sales dropped from 181 to 148, while price reductions climbed from 180 to 230. So while sellers returned to the market, buyers became more selective.

That combination matters.

We had 261 homes come on the market, but only 148 go pending. At the same time, 230 sellers reduced their asking price. That tells us there is plenty of competition for buyer attention right now, and simply putting a home on the market isn’t enough.

Sold homes also fell from 145 to 101, although closed sales are a reflection of contracts written weeks earlier, so I put much less weight on that number when evaluating what buyers are doing right now.

What This Means for Buyers

If you’re buying, this is the kind of week you want to see.

You just got a significant injection of fresh inventory, fewer homes went under contract, and 230 sellers made price adjustments.

That doesn’t mean every seller is suddenly desperate to make a deal. Well priced homes in desirable locations can still move quickly. But buyers have more choices, and in many situations, more negotiating room than they would have had in a tighter market.

This is also why I continue to tell buyers not to judge the entire market by one house. Some listings are priced correctly and generate immediate interest. Others sit, reduce their price, and become much better opportunities a few weeks later.

What This Means for Sellers

This week is a good reminder that your competition matters.

There are now a lot more fresh listings competing for the same buyers, while fewer buyers committed to homes this week. On top of that, 230 sellers reduced their price.

That doesn’t mean you need to be the cheapest house on the market. It means buyers need to understand the value of your home from the beginning.

Preparation, presentation, pricing and marketing all become increasingly important when buyers have choices. If a home misses the mark when it first hits the market, buyers have plenty of alternatives right now.

The post Labor Day market has officially arrived, and based on this week’s numbers, sellers showed up faster than buyers did.

Now we’ll see whether buyers take advantage of all these new choices over the next couple of weeks.

Spring gets all the attention in real estate.

More homes hit the market. More buyers start looking. Open houses get busier. And for years, buyers have been conditioned to think that spring is simply when you’re supposed to buy a house.

But if I were buying a home in South Snohomish or North King County right now, I wouldn’t automatically wait for spring.

In fact, this fall may offer something buyers haven’t had much of over the past several years: options and leverage at the same time.

The Market Has Changed

This isn’t the market of a few years ago when buyers were routinely competing against multiple offers, waiving contingencies and trying to figure out how far over asking price they needed to go just to have a chance.

We have considerably more inventory today, and buyers are being much more selective.

I’ve seen it firsthand this year. There are homes on the market that are well prepared, professionally photographed, located in desirable areas and priced where experienced agents believe they should sell.

And some of them are still sitting.

That can be frustrating for sellers, but for buyers it creates opportunity.

Price Reductions Are Everywhere

One of the numbers I’ve been watching closely in my weekly market updates is price reductions.

Recently, we’ve consistently been seeing roughly 180 to more than 230 price reductions in a single week across the areas I track.

Think about what that means.

Those aren’t necessarily 200 bad houses. They’re sellers responding to what buyers are telling them.

And once a seller has reduced the price, especially if the home has already been sitting for several weeks, the conversation can start to change.

Instead of:

“How much over asking do we need to offer?”

We may be talking about:

“What else can we negotiate?”

That’s a much better conversation to have as a buyer.

The Price Isn’t the Only Thing You Can Negotiate

This might be the biggest piece buyers overlook.

A seller doesn’t necessarily have to dramatically reduce the purchase price for you to get a better deal.

Depending on the home and the seller’s situation, we may be able to negotiate seller-paid closing costs, repairs or credits, or money toward a mortgage rate buydown.

I’ve seen seller credits become a very real part of negotiations in this market.

That’s important because sometimes using seller money strategically toward your financing can have a greater immediate impact on affordability than simply negotiating a little more off the purchase price.

Every situation is different, of course, and that’s something you’d want to work through with your lender before structuring an offer.

But the point is this:

There are more ways to negotiate today than just the number at the top of the purchase agreement.

What About Mortgage Rates?

They’re still a factor.

I’m not going to tell you rates don’t matter, because obviously they do. Your interest rate has a major impact on your monthly payment and purchasing power.

But I also wouldn’t look at the interest rate in isolation.

Imagine waiting for rates to improve, only to find yourself shopping next spring alongside considerably more buyers.

A lower mortgage rate sounds great.

A lower rate combined with five competing offers, less negotiating power and a seller who has no reason to give you a credit?

Maybe not quite as great.

Nobody knows exactly where mortgage rates will be next spring. What we do know is what the negotiating environment looks like today.

And right now, buyers have leverage they haven’t always had.

Don’t Automatically Skip the House That’s Been Sitting

This is another place where I think buyers can find opportunities this fall.

A home that’s been on the market for 30, 45 or even 60 days can start to feel suspicious.

“What’s wrong with it?”

Sometimes there is something wrong with it.

But sometimes?

Absolutely nothing.

Maybe it started too high. Maybe it hit the market during a slow week. Maybe the first few buyers passed because of something relatively minor. Or maybe it simply never found the right buyer.

Days on market can create leverage.

If I were shopping right now, I’d absolutely want to know which homes had been sitting, which had already reduced their price, and which sellers appeared motivated.

That’s where some interesting opportunities can be hiding.

Fall Has Another Advantage: Fewer Buyers

As we move deeper into September and toward October, some buyers simply stop looking.

School has started. The weather changes. The holidays suddenly don’t seem that far away.

People decide they’ll pick things back up next spring.

That’s precisely why continuing your search can make sense.

Fewer active buyers can mean fewer people walking through the same house, fewer competing offers and more time to actually evaluate what you’re buying.

You don’t necessarily need the entire housing market to become cheaper.

You just need the right seller, the right property and the right opportunity.

So, Should You Buy This Fall?

Not just because it’s fall.

If your finances aren’t ready, you’re unsure how long you’ll stay in the area, or buying would stretch your budget beyond where you’re comfortable, a seasonal opportunity doesn’t change that.

But if you’re financially prepared and you’ve been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the market to give buyers a little more breathing room?

I’d be paying attention right now.

The best buying opportunity isn’t always when mortgage rates hit the number everyone is waiting for.

Sometimes it’s when there are plenty of homes to choose from, other buyers aren’t paying attention, and the seller across the table is finally willing to negotiate.

And this fall, we’re seeing quite a bit of that across South Snohomish and North King County.

Thinking about buying this fall? Let’s take a look at what’s available, how long it’s been sitting, and where sellers may have some flexibility. You might have more options than you think.

Bill Jordan
CENTURY 21 Real Estate Center

Labor Day weekend did exactly what we thought it might do: it put a pretty serious dent in the number of homes coming onto the market.

New listings dropped sharply last week, while buyer activity held up surprisingly well. And with closed sales actually increasing, this looks much more like a holiday weekend slowdown than any sudden change in the direction of the market.

This Week’s Numbers

New Listings: 124 ↓ from 174 last week
Pending Sales: 181 ↓ from 190 last week
Sold Homes: 145 ↑ from 125 last week
Price Reductions: 180 ↓ from 192 last week

Trend Overview

The number that jumps off the page this week is new listings.

Only 124 homes came onto the market, down 50 from the previous week. That’s a nearly 29% drop in just one week.

But context matters.

Labor Day weekend typically isn’t the weekend sellers are targeting to launch a new listing. Between vacations, end of summer plans, kids getting ready to head back to school and the holiday itself, it makes perfect sense that many sellers and their agents would simply wait another week.

What’s much more interesting is what didn’t happen.

Pending sales only slipped from 190 to 181. So while new inventory fell nearly 29%, the number of homes going under contract declined less than 5%.

Meanwhile, closed sales actually increased from 125 to 145.

Price reductions also fell slightly to 180, although that number remains significant compared with the amount of new inventory entering the market.

What This Means for Buyers

If you were hoping Labor Day weekend would suddenly flood the market with new choices, well…not so much.

But I wouldn’t read too much into one holiday week. Some sellers who avoided launching over Labor Day will likely hit the market afterward, so the next week or two should give us a much better indication of where fall inventory is headed.

What remains important is that buyers are still writing offers. With 181 homes going pending against only 124 new listings, demand certainly didn’t disappear over the holiday.

For buyers who have been waiting for the market to slow down, this is another reminder that “slower” doesn’t necessarily mean “nothing is selling.”

What This Means for Sellers

Last week is actually a pretty good illustration of why timing and preparation matter.

There were significantly fewer new listings competing for attention, yet 181 homes still went under contract. Buyers are out there.

At the same time, 180 price reductions tell us that simply being on the market isn’t enough. Homes that are priced appropriately and show well can still attract buyers, while properties that miss the mark are increasingly having to adjust.

As we move out of summer and into the fall market, sellers need to pay close attention to the competition that comes online after Labor Day.

The Bottom Line

Labor Day clearly distorted this week’s new-listing number, so I’m not declaring the great inventory collapse of 2026 just yet.

What I am watching is the relationship between new listings and pending sales.

This week we had 124 new listings and 181 pending sales. Even during a holiday week, buyers continued to absorb available inventory at a healthy pace.

Now we get to see what happens when everyone comes back from the long weekend.

If you’re thinking about buying or selling in South Snohomish County or North King County, reach out anytime. I’m happy to help you make sense of what’s happening in your specific neighborhood and price range.

Bill Jordan
CENTURY 21 Real Estate Center

I’ll admit something right up front: I use AI.

Sometimes it does something that genuinely makes me wonder how we ever worked without it. Other times I spend 20 minutes trying to get it to make one simple change to an image of my backyard redesign, and I wonder if throwing my laptop out the window would be easier.

But there’s one area where AI is getting really interesting for homeowners: figuring out what a home could become.

A new 2026 Houzz study found that 22% of homeowners doing renovations are already using AI as part of the process. Among those homeowners, 64% are using it to gather renovation and design ideas, 58% are using it to visualize concepts, and half are comparing layouts, products and finishes.

That’s not some future prediction. People are already doing it.

And I think it could have some interesting implications for real estate.

The Ugly Kitchen Problem

Anyone who has looked at homes with me knows I say some version of this all the time:

“Don’t let the paint color scare you.”

Or the cabinets.

Or the flooring.

Or the light fixtures somebody installed in 1997 and apparently loved enough to leave there for the next 29 years.

The problem is that not everyone can mentally renovate a house while standing in it.

I can walk into a dated kitchen and picture different cabinets, counters, flooring and lighting. A contractor or designer can usually do the same thing. But for plenty of buyers, what they see is what they see.

And sometimes they walk away from an otherwise great house because of it.

AI visualization tools are starting to change that.

Take a picture of a dated living room and you can experiment with different flooring, paint colors, furniture, lighting and styles almost instantly. You can do the same thing with a kitchen, bathroom or even the exterior of a house.

It doesn’t mean the AI version can necessarily be built exactly as shown.

But suddenly that ugly kitchen isn’t just an ugly kitchen.

You can actually see the possibilities.

That Could Matter Even More in Our Current Market

Around South Snohomish County and North King County, buyers frequently have to make tradeoffs.

Maybe the house in Lynnwood has the location and yard you want, but the kitchen needs work.

Maybe the Shoreline house has a great floor plan but an interior that hasn’t been updated in 25 years.

Maybe the Bothell home checks nearly every box, except somebody made some very questionable design decisions along the way.

Historically, homes like these have required buyers to have some imagination.

Now technology can provide some of that imagination for them.

And in a market where a beautifully updated home may command a significant premium over the dated house down the street, being able to look past cosmetics can potentially create an opportunity.

Sellers Can Use This Too

There’s another side to this.

One of the most common conversations I have with sellers is about what they should do to their home before putting it on the market.

Paint this?

Replace that flooring?

Update the kitchen?

Change the light fixtures?

Leave everything alone?

AI can be incredibly useful for exploring those possibilities before spending any money.

Want to see what your kitchen might look like with white cabinets instead of cherry?

Easy.

Wondering whether a warmer wall color would work better with your floors?

You can see it.

Thinking about changing the exterior color?

You can experiment with ten versions before buying a gallon of paint.

That part is fantastic.

But this is also where I think people need to be careful.

AI Can Show You What’s Possible. It Can’t Always Tell You What Makes Financial Sense.

This may be the most important distinction.

An AI tool can create a gorgeous rendering of your remodeled $70,000 kitchen.

That doesn’t mean you should spend $70,000 remodeling your kitchen before selling your house.

Those are two completely different questions.

What makes sense depends on the home, the neighborhood, the price point, the competition and what buyers in that particular market are actually responding to.

Sometimes new flooring and paint make a huge difference.

Sometimes changing a few fixtures is enough.

Sometimes a larger renovation makes sense.

And sometimes my advice is going to be: don’t touch it.

That’s where technology still needs human judgment.

Interestingly, the Houzz study seems to show homeowners understand that distinction.

Even with AI becoming more common, 80% of renovating homeowners still hire a professional. AI use also drops significantly once homeowners move beyond brainstorming and visualization into things like budgeting, timelines, permitting and contracts.

In other words, people are using AI to help answer:

“What could we do?”

They’re still turning to people with experience to help answer:

“What should we do?”

I Think That’s Where This Is Going

I don’t think AI is replacing contractors, designers, architects or real estate brokers.

I think it’s becoming another tool.

And for homeowners, it may be a really useful one.

It can help someone visualize a renovation before committing to it. It can help a buyer see beyond an outdated interior. It can help a seller experiment with improvements before spending money. And it can make conversations with contractors, designers and real estate professionals much more productive because everyone can actually see what is being discussed.

The technology will get better. Quickly.

But whether you’re renovating a home, preparing one for sale or considering buying a house that needs some work, I’d still separate two questions:

What could this house become?

And does it make financial sense to do it?

AI is getting remarkably good at helping with the first one.

For the second one, there’s still a lot to be said for knowing the local real estate market.

The final full week of August brought a noticeable shift in the market, with fewer new listings and price reductions, while buyer activity actually picked up.

From August 24th through August 30th:

New Listings: 174 ↓ from 196
Pending Sales: 190 ↑ from 180
Sold Homes: 125 ↓ from 128
Price Reductions: 192 ↓ from 231

Trend Overview

New inventory continued to slow as we approached the end of summer, with 174 new listings compared with 196 the previous week. That’s a drop of roughly 11% in just one week.

But buyers didn’t follow sellers to the sidelines.

Pending sales increased from 180 to 190, meaning more homes went under contract this week despite fewer new listings hitting the market.

Closed sales remained remarkably steady at 125 compared with 128 last week, while price reductions dropped more noticeably from 231 to 192.

Put it all together and we’re seeing a market that is slowing seasonally on the listing side, but still showing plenty of activity from buyers.

Buyers Are Still Buying

The most interesting relationship this week may be between new and pending listings.

We had 174 new listings come onto the market while 190 homes went pending.

Those aren’t directly interchangeable numbers since the pending homes could have been listed days, weeks or even months ago. But they do give us a useful snapshot of what’s happening with available inventory.

Buyers are still absorbing homes even as fewer sellers are bringing new options to market.

That’s worth watching as we move into September.

Fewer Price Reductions, But Pricing Still Matters

Price reductions dropped from 231 last week to 192 this week, a fairly significant decline.

That’s encouraging for sellers, but 192 reductions against 174 new listings still tells us something important about today’s market: buyers remain extremely sensitive to price.

Homes that are positioned correctly are selling. Homes that aren’t are often sitting until the seller makes an adjustment.

This continues to be a market where the initial pricing strategy matters.

What This Means for Buyers

Buyers still have leverage in parts of this market, particularly when looking at homes that have accumulated market time or already reduced their price.

But the increase to 190 pending sales is a good reminder that you’re not shopping in a market without competition.

The best homes, especially those that are well prepared and correctly priced, can still move quickly.

With new listings beginning to slow, buyers shouldn’t automatically assume that waiting until fall will produce substantially more choices.

What This Means for Sellers

For sellers, fewer new listings means less fresh competition.

At the same time, the increase in pending sales tells us buyers are still out there and willing to act when the right home hits the market.

The caution remains pricing.

Even with fewer new listings, nearly 200 sellers reduced their asking price this week. Starting too high can cost valuable early market exposure and ultimately leave a seller chasing buyers instead of attracting them.

Looking Ahead to Labor Day

Now we head into Labor Day weekend, and that’s where things could get interesting.

Holiday weekends typically disrupt the normal flow of new listings and buyer activity, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see next week’s new listing numbers come in even lower.

The more important number may be pending sales.

If buyers continue putting homes under contract while new inventory slows further, we could enter September with a tighter selection of available homes than buyers might expect.

I’ll be watching that one closely next week.