Inventory grew annually but decreased monthly as prices softened in the Northwest Multiple Listing Service area last month, according to the group’s December Market Snapshot.

Active listings in the area rose 23% year over year, with 11,718 properties on the market, but declined 24.7% month over month.

Closings rose 4.1% year over year, with homebuyers purchasing 5,010 homes during the month. In King County, closings rose 2.59% with 1,582 sales; in Snohomish County, they declined 6.24% with 753. Pending sales fell 1.7% year over year across the region.

The median sales price declined 1.8% to $612,250, down from $623,500 in December 2024. Prices also declined 2.8% from November. In King County, prices inched up 1% year over year to $808,500, the second-most expensive median home price of any county in the NWMLS service area; in Snohomish County, the median declined 2.01% to $730,000.

“Although 30-year mortgage interest rates ended 2025 at their lowest point for the year — 6.15% — buyers continued to face significant affordability constraints,” Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, said in a press release.

Given the rate of sales, the region had a 2.34-month inventory, with the lowest months of inventory seen in Snohomish (1.61), Kitsap (1.68), King (2) and Pierce (2.09) counties.

Among new-construction sales, brokers sold 749 properties, down 0.4% from December 2024. Those homes had a median sales price of $724,900, which decreased 1.5% year over year.