Washington State Wonders Where It's Headed

The Evergreen State is the nation's hottest housing market. With tens of offers rolling in within an hour of listing, and mere weeks of inventory available, some wonder what the market's future holds. 

Housing demand in Seattle especially has hit nearly every sector including condos, single-family homes, and rental apartments. James Young, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, says that Washington is not on the verge of a bubble since demand is rising with prices. For now. Meanwhile, Seattle-area real estate agent Jerry Martin says national concerns like tariffs and rising interest rates are of bigger concern to him than matters closer to home, telling CNBC, “If jobs are lost based on tariffs, or if we have these trade wars going back and forth, people are going to be skittish, because they don’t know if they’re going to have a job tomorrow."

Martin said he first entered the business in 1977. He remembers the days of double-digit mortgage rates and multiple booms and busts, including the bubble in 2006 and 2007 and the historic collapse that followed. None of that, he said, quite compares to the “craziness” going on [today]. “It would not be unreasonable for a three-bedroom, one-and-three-quarter bath, 1,500-square-foot home to go on the market and within the hour or two [getting] multiple offers. We’ve had situations where 20, 30 offers were coming in on a piece of property.”

Read more