Residential housing inventory has doubled in the last year within the Northwest MLS footprint, August data shows.

At the end of the month, there were 14,683 active listings of single-family homes and condominiums across the 26 counties in the NWMLS. Despite the increase, that equates to about 1.84 months of inventory. A traditional balanced market generally has four to six months of inventory, industry experts have said.

Pending sales and closings were down 22% and 24%, respectively, in August compared to the same month in 2021.

“Last month’s housing numbers certainly are eye-opening,” Windermere Chief Economist Matthew Gardner said. “However, I believe they are simply indicating the market is trending back to the more normalized conditions that we were seeing before the pandemic.”

The median price on single-family homes and condos that closed during August was $600,000, a 3.6% hike from a year ago but down from July when the price was $625,000.

The median price on single-family homes in the Puget Sound region’s four counties increased from 5.9% in King County up to 9.2% in Kitsap County, year over year. Median pricing on single-family homes and condos was $815,000 in King County, $700,000 in Snohomish, $550,000 in Pierce and $547,380 in Kitsap.

The median condo price system-wide increased 3.3% from 12 months ago, from $435,625 to $450,000. In King County, where nearly 60% of NWMLS condo sales occurred, the median price increased from $458,000 to $485,000.

J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, is optimistic about the latest data. “The resilience is clear as a steady cadence of homes going under contract continues,” he said. “In the more affordable and mid-price ranges, demand remains strong as buyers look to get settled before fall.”