September brought double-digit increases in both active and new listings in Seattle, according to new data from the NWMLS. At the same time, the area saw single-digit price increases, which hints that while it’s still a seller’s market, some balance is happening.

Throughout the NWMLS region, 22 of 26 counties experience double-digit increases in listings year over year. Overall, there was a 31.4% increase in the total number of properties listed for sale, with 15,748 active listings on the market at the end of September; 8,508 new listings were added, a year-over-year increase of 12.7%.

The five counties with highest increases in homes for sale were Douglas (up 67.8%), Pacific (up 42.2%), Clallam (up 41.6%), Grant (up 40.5%) and San Juan (+39.8%).

Meanwhile, sales were up a modest 1.9% with 5,828 total sales. Eleven NWMLS counties saw a sales bump while 15 saw a decrease.

Among those sales, the median home prices were up by 5.8%, hitting $635,000 in September. The three counties with the highest median sale prices were King ($859,995), San Juan ($829,000), and Snohomish ($760,000), and the three counties with the lowest median sale prices were Ferry ($209,500), Adams ($270,000) and Columbia ($325,000).

In a press release from the NWMLS, the service cites lowered interest rates as the driving force behind September market activity. “However,” the report says, “experts caution that without deeper cuts to interest rates, housing affordability will remain out of reach for many would-be buyers.”

“Interest rates remain over double what they were just three years ago … This continues to have a major impact on affordability,” Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER) at the University of Washington, said in the press release. “It seems unlikely that the volume of transactions will pick up substantially without some significant improvement in affordability.”