BELLEVUE, Wash. — If you are looking to buy a home, you may have noticed fewer properties to choose from.
According to recent data by Northwest Multiple Listing Service, not only are the number of listings down but so is the number of people willing to pay for homes with mortgage rates of 6-7%.
That's having an impact on the median home price in King County which dropped 7% in February compared to the same time last year.
But it's Seattle's tech hub, the East Side saw one of the biggest drops plummeting 21%.
"Anytime there's uncertainty in your job as a buyer you're going to pull back," said Dan Edwards, managing broker at The Eastside Real Estate Team.
Between Twitter, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon - more than 5,000 tech workers in Seattle have been impacted by the wave of tech layoffs since October.
Edwards said that's now influencing Seattle's once-hot market.
"I got a phone call from somebody that was looking to get after buying their home they were like ok were ready for our permanent home and about two weeks later they said hey there's a re-org right now so we're going to hold off," Edwards said.
Edwards said it's not a mass drop, but more of a softening in the market after sellers enjoyed years of historically high prices and profits.
"The suburbs have had the biggest impact because they had the biggest spike in prices," said Edwards who is now seeing prices back to what they were in fall 2021.
The drop has hit hard for those looking to cash in on the surging prices.
Newly retired Mark Griffin and his wife Mary Gleason thought they would sell their Sammamish home at the above asking price and put a down payment on their new home in Nevada.
But by the time they updated and painted their home, which they bought in the late 1990s for $500,000, mortgage rates were soaring and tech layoffs were around the corner.
"We were watching it go up and up and up and up and up and up.. and then of course, we decided to take advantage of it and yeah, it just started coming down," Gleason said.
While Edwards said people on the East Side are still making plenty of profit, Griffin said he and his wife were hoping to make enough on their home sale to cover closing costs and retirement while leaving part of their investment to their adult children who still live in Seattle.
"You get older, you realize that eventually you're going to pass something on to your kids, right," Griffin said. "And equity in the house is one of the first things that people hang on to."
The couple ultimately sold their home at 20% less than the asking price and said it was not enough to cover what they wanted to pass on to their children.
But Edwards said the good news is that families like Griffin and Gleason are still able to sell, once the new reality hits home.
"You have to be realistic if you want to go out there and your expecting multiple offers, you better be priced at least 8% below the market," Edwards said.