Last month I told you the median price was the wrong number to watch. August proved it. The King County median slipped to $845,000, down 3.4% from a year ago, and the headline writers called it a cooling. That’s not the story.
The story is that King County crossed four months of inventory for the first time in years. Four to six months is what economists call a balanced market. For most of the last decade we lived below two. In August we hit 4.3, up from 2.9 a year ago. That is a different market than the one your neighbor sold in, and it changes how you should think about a move this fall.
More homes, fewer closings
There were 7,703 homes for sale in King County at the end of August. A year ago there were 5,925. That’s a 30% jump, and new listings kept coming, 3,416 of them in the month, up 21% from last August.
At the same time, closed sales fell to 1,791, down 13.6% from a year ago. So the supply side is rising fast and the demand side is committing more slowly. Across the whole Northwest MLS region, pending sales were off about 6.5%. Buyers have not left. They are taking their time, and with this much to choose from, they can.
What that does to your leverage
When there are two homes to see, the buyer moves fast and pays what it takes. When there are ten, the buyer compares, negotiates, asks for the repairs, and walks if the price is wrong. That is where we are.
I watch this play out on the ground every week. The homes that are priced right and presented well still sell in the first two weeks, and they still get their number. The homes that came out high in July are the ones sitting, and the price reductions on them are doing the work a sharp list price would have done for free.
If you’re selling this fall
- Price it to the market that exists in September, not the one that existed in the spring. The comps that closed in April were negotiated in a market with half this inventory. Your competition is the unsold homes around you right now.
- The first two weeks decide the sale. A buyer with choices does not come back to a home they passed on. Presentation, photography and pricing all have to be right on day one, not after a month.
- Do not confuse a correction with a crash. Prices are back to roughly where they were two years ago. That’s a market catching its breath after years of running hot, not a market falling apart. Sellers who read it as panic and pull their listing are usually the ones who end up selling into a worse market later.
- The next 60 days are the window. Every year the last four months bring a wave of activity from buyers who want to be settled before the holidays. If you are going to list, list now, and list right.
If you’re buying
This is the most room buyers have had in a long time, and I mean that especially for South and East King County. Kent, Auburn, Covington, Maple Valley and Renton are where buyers priced out of Seattle and the Eastside still land, and demand there is steadier than the county average. But even there, you can negotiate on price, on repairs, and on terms in a way you could not a year ago. If you are buying a home to live in for the next several years, you are not going to get a better opening than this.
The numbers at a glance
| August 2026, King County | Figure | vs. a year ago |
|---|---|---|
| Median sales price | $845,000 | -3.4% |
| Homes for sale | 7,703 | +30% |
| New listings | 3,416 | +21% |
| Closed sales | 1,791 | -13.6% |
| Months of inventory | 4.3 | 2.9 a year ago |
The bottom line
The market has moved from tight to balanced, and it did it in about six months. That is not a reason to sit still. It is a reason to be precise: price to today’s competition, present the home like it has to earn the sale, and move inside the fall window. Whether you are selling or buying, the people who do well in a market like this are the ones working from this month’s numbers instead of last spring’s.
If you are weighing a move before the end of the year, let’s look at your street, not the county headline. I’ll show you what is actually selling, what is sitting, and what that means for your number.
Stats as of end of August 2026, King County, sourced from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Market conditions vary by neighborhood and price point. This is general market commentary, not a valuation of any specific property.
