by Calculated Risk on 6/07/2021 06:12:00 PM

Remember - sales slumped in April and May 2020, so the year-over-year sales comparisons are crazy.

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported May marked a month of new records for some Northwest MLS market indicators

May was a month of record-setting highs and lows for some key housing market indicators tracked by Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Northwest MLS director Robb Wasser, branch manager at Windermere Real Estate/East in Bellevue, noted the number of active listings for single family homes dropped from April to May for the first time in at least 20 years. The month-to-month decline was small (only 83 listings), but compared to 12 months ago, May's inventory plummeted by 4,824 listings (down 46.6%).

Months of inventory of homes and condominiums fell to just over two weeks (0.59 months) system-wide, which encompasses 26 of Washington's 39 counties. Only March 2021 and December 2020 have been lower when both months ended with only 0.53 months of supply.

Year-over-year price increases measured by percentages appeared to hit a new high with the median price on last month's 9,374 closed sales soaring 30% from a year ago.
emphasis added

The press release is for the Northwest MLS area. There were 9,374 closed sales in May 2021, up 57.4% from 5,957 sales in May 2020.  Active inventory for the Northwest is down 46.6%.

In King County, sales were up 83.3% year-over-year, and active inventory was down 42.5% year-over-year.

In Seattle, sales were up 104.5% year-over-year, and inventory was down 16.9% year-over-year. (inventory in Seattle was extremely low last year).  This puts the months-of-supply in Seattle at just 0.85 months.