Is Fall a Good Time to Buy a Home in Seattle?

Is Fall a Good Time to Buy a Home in Seattle? Two Recent Buyers Show Why I’m Seeing Opportunities

September 29, 2026

If you’re thinking about buying a home in Seattle, Bellevue, the Eastside or the surrounding Puget Sound area, you might be wondering whether you should start looking this fall or wait until 2027. I wouldn’t make that decision based solely on the season.

What matters more is what is happening in the market and whether those conditions line up with what you’re trying to accomplish.

Right now, I’m seeing opportunities for buyers that were much harder to find when homes were selling almost immediately and buyers felt pressure to make fast decisions.

More homes are sitting on the market longer. Buyers have more choices. And on the right property, there is room to have conversations about price and terms. I’m seeing it firsthand with my clients.

One recently bought her first home. Another couple spent months searching for the home they want to live in for the next 10 to 15 years. Their stories are very different, but both illustrate why I think this fall deserves a closer look from buyers.

 

More Homes for Sale Changes the Conversation. The market has shifted.

Across the Northwest MLS service area, active listings at the end of August were 22% higher than a year earlier, giving buyers more than 4,400 additional homes to choose from. At the same time, closed sales were down 7.6% year over year.

Great homes in desirable locations still attract attention, and conditions vary considerably by neighborhood, property type and price point.

But increased inventory changes something important for buyers: You have more room to be thoughtful. That has been especially important for two of my recent clients.

 

Carine Wasn’t Looking for Just Any First Home

Carine was buying her first home and wanted to stay close to Renton, where she works. But as we explored her options, it became clear that home prices in the immediate area were higher than what she wanted to spend, so instead of stretching her budget, we expanded the search a little farther south.

That opened up new possibilities in North Tacoma, where Carine found a charming one-level home for $405,000 that offered much more of what she wanted for her money. It wasn’t simply a starter home.

She found a home she could see herself living in through retirement, with a large yard for the German Shepherd she hopes to adopt, plenty of storage and a two-car garage. On top of finding a home she was genuinely excited about, I negotiated a $10,000 seller credit, giving her the flexibility to buy down her interest rate, cover closing costs or keep more of her own money available for future improvements to the home.

For Carine, expanding the search geographically rather than financially made the difference. The goal wasn’t to buy the most house she qualified for. It was to find the right home at a price that allowed her to feel comfortable owning it.

 

Kim and Alex Were Looking for Something Completely Different

Kim and Alex already owned a home, so they weren’t simply trying to get into the market. They were looking for the home they could see themselves living in for the next 10 to 15 years, which meant the next move needed to be worth making.

I’ve been working with them since July, and we were intentional about defining what that next home needed to offer. They wanted more space, an updated kitchen with plenty of counter space, and outdoor areas for gardening and entertaining. They also wanted something harder to define on a home search: quiet, serenity and a place that simply felt right.

We toured around 20 homes, including three that checked nearly every box on their must-have and nice-to-have lists. On paper, they worked. In person, the excitement wasn’t there. Rather than compromise on what mattered most, we used what we learned from each home to refine their priorities, adjust the search criteria and reconsider the price range.

As Eastside homes began sitting on the market longer, more options opened up and so did opportunities to negotiate. Eventually, we found a home right in their own neighborhood that checked the boxes and felt right. It was fully updated, had the kitchen and space they wanted, and offered the setting they envisioned for gardening, entertaining and enjoying the next chapter of their lives.

The home had been on the market for about a week with very little activity, which I believed was largely a reflection of the asking price rather than the home itself. Because we had toured many of the comparable homes, watched how long properties were sitting on the market, and knew the sellers had already relocated out of state for work, I saw an opportunity to negotiate. We submitted an offer $100,000 below the asking price, and the sellers accepted it.

That’s the Opportunity I’m Seeing This Fall

I’m not suggesting every buyer should start offering $100,000 below asking price. That’s not how real estate works.

The strategy has to fit the property, its price, the competition, the seller’s position and what is happening in that specific market.

What Kim and Alex’s experience demonstrates is something more important. A house being listed at a certain price doesn’t mean the seller’s aren’t open to negotiating.

When inventory grows and homes take longer to sell, buyers gain something they haven’t had enough of in recent years, time and leverage. I often point out the irony that people spend two to four hours at a dealership buying a car, yet in a fast-moving real estate market, buyers might tour a home for only 10 or 15 minutes before making one of the largest financial decisions of their lives. This market is giving buyers more time to compare options, think things through, sleep on a decision and even revisit a home before writing an offer, along with greater leverage to negotiate when the opportunity is right.

Fall Buyers Also Have an Advantage That Doesn’t Show Up in the Statistics

By this point in the year, many buyers have stepped away from their home search. Summer is over, school is back in session and the holidays are approaching, so some decide to wait until spring when more homes typically come on the market. What they sometimes overlook is that spring often brings more buyers and more competition too.

Real estate doesn’t stop for the holidays, and sellers who list their homes in the fall still have a reason to sell. Buyers who stay engaged can find opportunities others aren’t paying attention to. I wouldn’t recommend buying a home simply because it’s fall, but I do recommend staying open to the right opportunity when it presents itself.

Don’t Wait for the “Perfect Market.” Look for the Right Opportunity.

I hear variations of the same questions from buyers: Should I wait? Will prices come down? Will rates change? Will there be more homes next year? Those are fair questions, but you don’t buy a market, you buy one house, and that house needs to work with your finances, lifestyle and long-term goals. For Carine, the opportunity meant finding the right path into her first home and structuring the purchase around what made financial sense for her; for Kim and Alex, it meant patiently touring nearly 20 homes, learning from each one and recognizing the opportunity when the right home finally appeared.

 

Thinking About Buying This Fall?

You don’t need to wait until you’re ready to write an offer to start the conversation. In fact, I’d rather start earlier.

We’ll talk about what you’re trying to accomplish, what you want your next home to make possible, what you can comfortably afford and where you’re willing to compromise. Then we build the search around you.

Because there are opportunities in this market. The first step is knowing what the right one looks like when it appears.

Mark Chavez, Realtor®
Mark Chavez Homes | Windermere Mt. Baker

I help buyers and sellers throughout Seattle, the Eastside and South King County make informed real estate decisions through market knowledge, thoughtful strategy and a client-first approach.