Following typical seasonal patterns, the Seattle real estate market remained slow in January, according to the latest report from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS).

Across the counties covered by the NWMLS, there was a 3% increase in closed sales transactions year over year. That’s a significant improvement from December, when home sales decreased by 11% year over year. This occurred despite declines in active listings — there were 7,084 properties on the market last month, a 14% decline compared to January 2023, when there were 8,220 properties on the market.

“Seller reluctance has led to a continued decline in year-over-year inventory levels,” Mason Virant, associate director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, said in the report. “Encouragingly, year-over-year sales transactions saw a 3% improvement over January 2023. Low levels of for-sale inventory have led to increased competition among buyers, producing a nearly 7% year-over-year increase in median home prices across the Washington counties covered by the NWMLS.”

The median sales price increased year over year, reaching $593,500 last month. That’s a 6.5% increase over January 2023, when the median sales price was $557,250. On a county-by-county basis, the median sales price increased in 19 out of the 26 counties in the NWMLS region.

New listings failed to replenish inventory, which remained stagnant year over year. Realtors added 4,954 properties to the MLS, a 0.6% increase over January 2023, when 4,925 new listings were added. If sales were to continue at the same pace, Seattle’s housing inventory would be depleted in 2.1 months — a 16.4% decrease year over year. Even lower months of inventory were seen in four of the major counties in the Puget Sound region: Snohomish (0.84 months), Thurston (1.69 months), King (1.78 months) and Pierce (1.82 months).