King County buyer traffic finally turned up in August: showings rose 1.9%, after a 0.3% dip in July and an 11.1% drop in June. The median sale price went the other way — $925,000, down from $1,000,000 a month earlier. That looks like a contradiction. It isn't, and the difference matters if you're buying or selling this fall.
The August numbers
- Median house price: $925,000 — down $75,000 (7.5%) from July's $1,000,000, and down 6.1% from August 2025.
- Buyer traffic: 40,013 showings, up 1.9% on July, with seven of the eleven communities we track rising.
- Homes for sale: 5,313 — up 39.8% on a year ago, though slightly below July's 5,422. That's 3.8 months of supply, against 2.6 a year earlier.
- Sales: 1,385 closed, down 12.5% year over year; 1,566 pending, up 2.9%.
- Time to sell: 32 days, up from 25 in July and 28 a year ago.
Why demand and price can move in opposite directions
- Showings measure attention, not budget. More buyers walking through more homes doesn't raise what any of them can pay — and what they can pay just got harder to keep steady (see the rates post).
- The median is a snapshot of what happened to close. It's the middle sale that month, so it moves with which homes closed. If the mix tilts toward lower price points, the median drops without any single home losing value. A 7.5% swing in one month is worth reading cautiously; this data can't tell us how much is mix and how much is real softening.
- Supply is doing real work. With about 40% more homes for sale than last August, buyers have alternatives and sellers have more competition. That can soften price at the margin even when traffic is steady.
One nuance in the other direction: by the usual rule of thumb, roughly four to six months of supply is a balanced market, so 3.8 months is still on the tighter side. Inventory is up sharply, but from a low base. And year over year, pending sales rose while closed sales fell — contracts are holding up even as closings lag. September's report will show whether that carries through.
What this means if you're buying
Don't read a falling county median as your target home being $75,000 cheaper. The median is a countywide, one-month statistic; your street and price band are what count. What is real is the extra choice: 40% more listings than a year ago is leverage on price, credits and timing. Where that leverage is strongest depends on the market — our city-by-city read shows which are tight and which have room to negotiate.
What this means if you're selling
Homes are taking 32 days to sell, up from 25 in July, and new listings ran 32% above last August. Price to the closed comparables in your own price band rather than the July headline of $1,000,000. Buyer traffic is there, but buyers have more homes to compare, and they're paying more to borrow now than a year ago.
Condos remain the softer corner: median $518,000 (down 5.0% on the year) with 6.2 months of supply. Details are in the full September report.
Figures: NWMLS Local Market Update, King County residential, August 2026 (year-over-year comparisons as reported by NWMLS); NWMLS Showings Report, August 2026; July 2026 comparisons from the July edition of the same reports.
Want to know where your street and price band actually sit in this market? We'll pull the comparables with you.
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