Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas doesn’t see 2018’s housing market slowing down much around Seattle.
“If you look over the next 6-12 months, it’s still going to be a very strong housing market,” he said. “Beyond that, some slowdown, but this area has undergone a structural transformation, if you will, over the past two decades. It’s no longer a manufacturing employment base, it’s a white-collar service employment base and that increases what people are willing to pay and what people are able to pay to be close to their jobs.”
Terrazas said a lack of inventory is still the market’s main issue. Terrazas appeared on KING 5’s The Sound Podcast.
“The number of homes in the market is down 30 percent in the last year,” he said.
Terrazas added the market could see slightly lower gains due to higher mortgage rates. For a home buyer, that means $60-100 more for your mortgage, he said. He said some companies are asking themselves if it makes sense to locate employees in this area because of the cost.
Longer term, Terrazas believes transit investments would help costs.
"If you were to reduce the commute time in the Seattle metro five minutes, you’d generate about $76 billion dollars in people’s time," he said. "Investments in transit and shortening commutes do have real dividends."
