The industry group issued its housing-market forecast along with its monthly Pending Home Sales Index for June. 

Luxury views are on the menu with this month’s batch of the most expensive new listings for sale in the Emerald City.

Back in 2018, Freddie Mac stated that the country still needed about 2.5 million extra homes in order to meet demand. Then the pandemic homebuying boom depleted already-low inventory levels and high mortgage rates in the second half of 2022 chained many homeowners to their existing low rates.

The median existing-home price for all housing types in June rose to $410,200, 0.9% less than the all-time high of $413,800 reached in June 2022, the National Association of REALTORS® said. 

Low inventory and high demand are buoying builder sentiment in the face of several headwinds. 

The drop in the pace of new-home construction follows a significant surge the month before, according to government statistics. 

Despite the declining rate of increase, home prices have risen for the last 136 months, CoreLogic said. 

It takes the average Seattle resident 13 years to save up for a 10% down payment on a home, according to a recent Axios analysis.

Transactions that do go through are typically seeing multiple offers, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. 

A third consecutive month of increases in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index lends new evidence to claims that previous declines could be behind the market. 

Demand for newly built homes has remained strong as high interest rates keep many would-be sellers of existing homes off the market. 

At the same time, the median existing-home price for all housing types slid 3.1% year over year to $396,100. 

Three of the most expensive new listings this month are luxury penthouses — two of which are located at The Four Seasons Private Residences.

The larger-than-expected increase comes as homebuilder sentiment rose for the sixth month in a row. 

The area also saw some of the biggest year-over-year decreases in new listings and median sales price.

A second consecutive month of increases in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index could indicate a reversal of the negative trend that began last year.