For the first time this year, all three readings moved the same direction at once. In August the median house sold for $920,000 across Seattle, down 8% from a year ago, for $920,000 across King County, down 7%, and for $792,450 in Southeast Seattle, down 7%. Underneath those figures is the most selection any August has offered in at least ten years: 1,510 houses for sale citywide, 5,230 countywide, and 3.2 months of supply in the city, the highest August reading since at least 2017. Two things keep this from being a correction story. Citywide sales under $1M were nearly flat from last August, so most of the median's drop is the high end thinning, and more than half of August's sales still found a buyer inside 15 days at full asking. This is a market with real buyer leverage and a still-fast lane for the right house.
Southeast Seattle: Four Months of Supply, and a Split Market
Southeast Seattle (Mt. Baker, Columbia City, Beacon Hill, Seward Park, Hillman City and Rainier Beach) posted an August median of $792,450 for houses, down 7% from $850,000 last August and down from July's $818,000. That is the lowest August median here since 2020, but as always with this area, the composition matters more than the headline.
Only 36 houses closed, down 20%, so the median moved on a small pool. The thinning was at the top again: 6 closings above $1M against 13 last August, while sales under $1M slipped only from 31 to 27. Year to date, the steadier read, the median is $832,178, down 3%, on 2% more closings than the same stretch of 2025. The market for a given house has softened a little. It has not fallen 7%.
The supply number is the one to take seriously. There were 149 houses on the market at the end of August, up 22% and the most in any August in at least a decade, and months of supply reached 4.0, up from 2.7 a year ago. That is the highest reading here in ten years and the first time Southeast Seattle has touched the four-month line, where the region's own scale flips from balanced to buyer's advantage. In July this area was the tightest of the three geographies. In August, on a small pending count of 37, it was the loosest.
What the pace data shows is a market splitting in two rather than sliding as a whole. Of the 35 sales in the timing data, 17 (49%) found a buyer in under 15 days at a median of 101.8% of the original asking price, and 31% of sales closed above list, up from 20% in July, at a median of 4% over in 4 days. The other lane got slower: 54% of sales needed a price change before selling, up from 33% in July, and those averaged 76 days. The four houses that passed 90 days settled at 84% of where they started. Priced right, this is still a fast market. Priced to 2025, it is a long one.
For buyers, the math still runs in your favor here. The payment on the median Southeast Seattle house is $5,098, about $325 a month less than last August, or $3,900 a year, even though rates ticked up to 6.67% from 6.59%. One caution to price in: 18% of local sales that reached contract over the past year failed to close, the highest share of the three geographies, so clean terms carry weight on both sides of the table.
Seattle Citywide: An 8% Drop That Is Mostly Mix
Across all Seattle neighborhoods the median house closed at $920,000, down 8% from $1,000,000 last August and the fourth-highest August of the past ten years. Before reading that as an 8% loss of value, look at what sold. Closings under $1M were nearly unchanged, 242 against 248 a year ago, while closings above $1M fell 32%, from 272 to 185, with the $1M to $2M bands down 26% to 35% each. Fewer expensive houses changed hands, so the middle sale fell. Year to date the citywide median is $968,578, down 3%, on 4% fewer closings.
Selection is the real story, and it is a ten-year record. There were 1,510 houses on the market at the end of August, up 27% year over year, and months of supply reached 3.2, up 48%. Volume softened accordingly: closed sales fell 16% and homes going under contract fell 14%. On a trailing 12-month basis, though, closings are down just 5%. Demand is cooling, not collapsing. What changed is how much buyers can choose from.
The two-speed pattern shows up citywide too. In August, 55% of sales found a buyer inside 15 days at 100% of the original asking price, and 23% sold above list, at a median of 4% over asking in 7 days. The cost of starting high grew: 41% of sales needed a price change first, up from 28% in July, and those averaged 83 days on market. Homes that sat past 90 days closed at 88.8% of their original price, which on a $920,000 house is a gap of roughly $100,000 between the fast lane and the slow one. Roughly 15% of accepted offers citywide fail to close, near the decade high, so managing a deal to closing matters as much as getting one signed.
The affordability picture improved despite rates. The payment on a median Seattle house is $5,918, about $462 a month less than last August, or $5,541 a year, because the price decline outran a small rise in rates to 6.67%. Measured against King County median household income, payments remain near a cycle peak, and August was the mildest form of the way those peaks resolve: softer prices. One seasonal note: August normally runs right at the annual average, with medians easing modestly through the fall.
Condos: Nearly Seven Months of Supply
Seattle condos now carry 6.8 months of supply, up from 4.7 a year ago and from 6.2 in July, which is deep into buyer's territory. There were 1,189 units on the market at the end of August, up 19% and another ten-year August high. The median slipped 10% to $535,000, though that is up from July's $525,000, and closings fell 21%.
Pricing power is close to nonexistent. Only 4% of August condo sales closed above list. More than half (55%) needed a price change before selling, averaging 139 days on market, and 1 in 5 took more than 90 days, closing at 87.5% of their original price. For buyers, that is leverage: the payment on a median Seattle condo is now $3,442, roughly $354 a month less than last August, and credits, contingencies and price are all reasonable asks. If you are weighing formats, my condo, townhouse and house comparison covers what each one actually costs to own.
Southeast Seattle condos are a much smaller pool and should be read with care. Six closed in August, against three a year ago, so the 13% drop in the median to $569,500 is sample size, not a market signal; year to date the local condo median is $629,619, up 3% across 40 sales. The signal is supply: 29 active listings against 19 a year ago, up 53%, at 5.8 months of inventory, and every August sale here took more than a month. Sellers need sharp pricing and patience.
King County: The Same $920,000, and the Deepest Selection in a Decade
Zoom out to the whole county and August lands almost exactly where the city did. The countywide house median came in at $920,000, down 7% from last August's $990,000 and down from July's $995,000. Choice hit another record: 5,230 houses on the market at the end of August, up 33% year over year and the highest August count in at least a decade. Supply held at 3.1 months, the same as July, which for the first time this year is tighter than the city's 3.2 and Southeast Seattle's 4.0.
Buyers got more selective rather than leaving. Closed sales slipped 9%, pendings only 4%, and 46% of August's sales needed a price change before closing, averaging 78 days. The homes that got it right still moved: 48% sold within 15 days at full asking, and the 16% that went above list did so at a median of 3% over in 7 days. The pullback in volume was, again, top-heavy: sales between $750,000 and $1M rose 5% from last August, while every band between $1.5M and $5M fell 16% to 37%. About 15% of accepted county offers failed to close over the past year, in line with the city.
County condos are the loosest corner of the whole market: 6.0 months of supply, up from 3.8, with 2,473 units for sale, up 25% and another decade high. The median eased 6% to $515,000 while closings fell 28%, and 55% of sales took a price cut first, averaging 115 days. The payment on the median county condo is now about $3,313 a month, $190 less than last August.
Put the three geographies side by side and July's supply gradient has flipped. Southeast Seattle sits at 4.0 months, the city at 3.2, the county at 3.1, with condos everywhere looser than houses. Read the local number with its small denominator in mind, but do not dismiss it: seven of the 36 King and Snohomish county areas now sit at or above four months of supply, and for the first time Southeast Seattle is one of them.
August 2026 at a Glance
| Median (houses) | YoY | Median (condos) | YoY | Months of supply (houses) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southeast Seattle | $792,450 | -7% | $569,500* | -13%* | 4.0 |
| Seattle (all areas) | $920,000 | -8% | $535,000 | -10% | 3.2 |
| King County | $920,000 | -7% | $515,000 | -6% | 3.1 |
The Southeast Seattle condo figures cover six closings, so treat them as noise rather than trend.
What This Means for You
- 01If you're selling a house in Southeast Seattle: the buffer this area enjoyed all summer is gone for now. Half of August's sales still went in two weeks at or above asking, but the other half took a price cut and 76 days. Price to August's comps, not to a neighbor's 2025 sale, and be one of the two or three most compelling choices a buyer sees.
- 02If you're buying a house: this is the most leverage buyers have had in a decade, with county inventory up 33%, 3.2 months of supply citywide, and nearly 60% of Seattle sellers negotiating on price one way or another. The leverage applies to the average listing, not the standout one, which is still gone in about a week.
- 03If you're a move-up buyer: the steepest sales pullbacks were between $1M and $2M, down 26% to 35% citywide. That is less competition exactly where you shop, and my guide to whether now is a good time to sell covers how to sequence the two sides.
- 04If you're condo shopping: 6.8 months of supply, 55% of sales cut before closing, and a median payment down $354 a month. Ask for terms as well as price.
- 05If you're a first-time buyer: prices fell faster than rates rose, so the median payment is down year over year in every segment here, and the under-$1M market is the part that held its volume. My first-time buyer guide covers Washington's down payment programs and how to use a market like this one.
The Bottom Line
August is the month the rebalancing showed up in the price column, and in every geography at once. Medians fell 7% to 8% across Southeast Seattle, the city and the county, inventory set a ten-year August record in all three, and Southeast Seattle reached four months of supply for the first time. Most of the median drop is a thinner high end rather than a broad repricing, and the fast lane is still open: half of August's sales found a buyer in two weeks at full asking. But the slow lane got slower, and the gap between the two is now roughly $100,000 on a typical Seattle house. Strategy, not the market, will decide most outcomes this fall. For last month's picture, see the July update.
Wondering what this market means for your home's value? I'll run a free, no-obligation valuation using live neighborhood data, not a Zestimate. Or, if you're buying, reach out and I'll set up alerts for the neighborhoods and price bands where the data favors you.