Seattle’s increased housing inventory in 2022 was the second-highest among major cities, the RE/MAX National Housing Report showed.

Active listings in Seattle jumped 279.1% from 1,378 homes in December 2021 to 5,224 last month. Only Salt Lake City had a higher percentage increase year over year. 

Seattle’s estimated months of inventory in December was 1.2, a jump from 0.3 the year before. Both of those numbers are still considered low and representative of a sellers’ market. A balanced market generally has four to six months of inventory, real estate experts have said. 

While inventory nearly tripled, Seattle was also a leading city for median closed sale price and close-to-sale-price ratio declines. 

December’s median closed sale price was $629,975, down from $655,000 during the same month in 2021. The 3.8% drop was the fourth-steepest decline among major U.S. cities, behind only San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu. 

Closing prices were 97.3% of list price in December, dropping from 104% the year before. The percentage point drop in Seattle was the second-sharpest in the nation, behind only San Francisco.

“As strong believers in the advantages of homeownership, we think the ongoing market rebalance is actually a good thing,” RE/MAX President and CEO Nick Bailey said in a news release. “It’s putting buyers and sellers on more equal footing, which is refreshing after so many years of sellers having the upper hand.”