Market Update - 12.12.24
The 2024 Lake Chelan Real Estate market comes to a close with a slight uptick in total residential sales over 2023.
But this isn’t really saying much. When yearly sales are viewed over a ten-year window, the slow pace of the post-COVID market is evident.
Each data point is a summation of the previous twelve months of activity. This presentation smooths out seasonal variance to show larger trends.
The graph above shows the post-COVID annual sales of homes has hovered in the low-100’s. Contrast this with the COVID market annual sales of 200 to 260 and the pre-COVID sales in the 150-200 range.
All of this confirms that the past two years have been very quiet in terms of real estate in Lake Chelan.
But, 2024 was marginally better than 2023. And we predict this trend to continue in the new year.
Market inventory strengthened considerably in 2024; this is expected to continue in 2025 as new home listings continue to outpace sales. Also, it doesn’t appear Buyers will enjoy any dramatic reduction in interest rates, but they will have had several years to adjust to higher rates.
We expect both factors to contribute to moderate volume increases.
Sellers need to price accurately in light of the rising inventory and steady 6% interest rates. Buyers need to get creative financially if they want to own a home in the Lake Chelan valley. (Or consider the condominium market which has experienced a significant price softening in 2024.)
