In life, we like to define people as skeptics or optimists. Is the glass half empty or half full? We tend to encourage our kids to be optimists, to see the glass as half full. But maybe better is to see the world as not half full, but as “just right.” Is there anything wrong with a “just right” world? I don’t think so.
Take the 2025 real estate market, for example. It has been labeled as a better market for buyers than recent years. But is it really?
In certain circumstances last year, it might have been labeled another seller’s year. Someone decides to put their house on the market, they choose a price they deem as favorable, and then — poof — the house goes for above asking with three people competing.
But by many other measures, it was been a buyer’s year. A seller puts their house on the market for 1.5M and — nothing. It sits one month. A second month. And finally it sells — for 250K under asking. Getting 250K less than what a seller had hoped for is a lot of money to leave on the table, especially for anyone with less than two commas in their net worth. 250K pays for a child’s college, a couple of years of a normal retirement, and in fact can add 10K per year to retirement income for life if that money is invested in a reasonable way.
So by some measures, it was a good year for buyers, and by others a good year for sellers. But maybe in reality it was a “just right” year last year, and will be a “just right” year this year. One where the interest rates are neither ridiculously high nor ridiculously low, and one where a buyer can’t gouge a desperate seller like they could in 2009 but a seller can’t extract a few extra hundred thousand dollars from a hungry buyer like they could in the years immediately surrounding 2020.
We like our kids to be optimists. But maybe what we should stive for is Goldimist. One where it’s not too hot, not too cold, but just right. Nearly a month into 2026. it’s shaping up to be that kind of year, one where the sellers don’t have to be desperate to sell at any price and buyers can take their time to find a good fit for a fair price. One where it’s a win-win.
BY THE NUMBERS, ACCORDING TO THE SEATTLE TIMES ON 1/19/26:
- New listings for single-family homes up by 10.5% from 2024.
- Closed sales for single-family homes down 2.9% from 2024.
- Median single-family home price is $975,000.
- Median single-family home price climbed 2.6% from 2024.
- Median condo sell price climbed 1.8% from 2024.
- Median condo sales were up 4.5% from 2024.
- High end construction condos like distorted (higher) median condo sales.
- New condo listings climbed 12% from 2024.
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