The Seattle area is still among the hottest home markets in the country, but the temperature lately has dropped from scorching to just warm.
King County median house prices increased 6.9 percent from the year prior in January, the slowest growth in a year and a half, according to new figures released last week. At some points last year, home prices were growing three times faster than that.
Home prices usually cool off in the winter, but this time the change is more pronounced. The median cost for a single-family house in the county was $525,000 in January, the cheapest it’s been in 11 months, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service data shows.
The slowdown hit Seattle especially hard. Single-family home prices in the city ticked up only 2.7 percent compared to a year prior, way down from 24 percent annual growth last winter. It’s the slowest home price growth in Seattle in nearly three years.
Seattle’s median house price of $635,000 is down about $31,000 from the record heights reached last summer.
