🏠 “We’re so f—–” but buyers haven’t given up

🏠 “We’re so f—–” but buyers haven’t given up

Matt Goyer

October 1, 2026

3 min read

“We’re so f———.”

That was the email I got from another agent after last week’s newsletter. At the time, mortgage rates were at 7.17%. Today, they’re at 7.6%.

You’d expect buyers to hit the brakes. But did they?

Last week, buyers across Seattle and the Eastside put 314 homes under contract. Compare that to 351 during the same week last year, when mortgage rates were floating in the 6.3s. A 10% dip in activity given today's rate environment is a far smaller hit than I would have guessed.

Three weeks into our eight-week fall market, here’s what we’re seeing:

  • Pending homes year-to-date (fall season): 881 homes
  • Same period last year: 1,081 homes

But the big question remains unanswered: What is the buyer-seller imbalance doing to home prices? The official September stats come out in a few days; tune in next week!

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✨ Featured Listing: Leeward in Mt. Baker

1417 36th Ave S, Seattle -Listing sponsored by Ron Rubin.

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🏠 Listings That Caught Our Eye Last Week

📰 Must-read real estate news

Pace of new listings hits the brakes

Seattle: 344 new listings last week, down 24.56% w-o-w
Eastside: 269 new listings last week, down 9.12% w-o-w

Buyer demand running below last year at this time

Seattle: 200 pending last week, up 2.56% w-o-w
Eastside: 114 pending last week, down 26.45% w-o-w

🔥 The hottest new listings

$13.8M Yarrow Point Waterfront by Lochwood Lozier

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Check out last week’s market update Early fall market signals (+ a $71M new listing)

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Urban Living is a boutique real estate brokerage helping clients in Seattle and on the Eastside buy and sell amazing homes. Urban Living started in 2006 as a blog about Seattle real estate with an emphasis on lofts, condos, new construction, and midcentury moderns. In 2018 we formed a brokerage so we could help readers buy and sell the amazing homes we featured. From Beacon Hill to Ballard (and beyond), from $200,000 to $5+ million, we'd love to help you.