Seattle listings: the headline and the street-level picture?

Q

quill.true

Property investor
Established
I’m sense-checking a Seattle sample priced from $688,000 to $1,032,000, mostly apartments. The typical listing has been visible for 66 days, but the market seems split between quick sales and stock that sits.

My working theory is that rental regulation may explain part of that gap, particularly where sellers have tenants. Before leaning on it, I’d like to compare recent completed sales, withdrawals and price-cut timing. What are people seeing at street level, and which property details or neighbourhood boundaries matter most?
 
I wouldn’t make rental regulation the main explanation yet. First separate vacant, owner-occupied and tenant-occupied properties, then compare condition, monthly building costs and any financing complications. A well-presented property priced from recent completed sales can move while an optimistic listing nearby goes stale. Also, are these individual units or entire apartment buildings?
 
The 66 days needs a definition too. Is that continuous time under one listing, or can withdrawn and relisted stock appear newer in your notes? I’d also avoid treating “Seattle” as one boundary. Even without naming particular neighbourhoods, grouping listings into small, consistent areas would make the comparison more useful.
 
Rental rules could matter for tenant-occupied stock, so I wouldn’t dismiss the theory completely. But I agree with Beatriz that it cannot explain vacant units sitting alongside quick sales. Seller motivation and the first asking price may be doing more work. The useful comparison is not just days visible, but when the first meaningful price cut occurred and whether a sale followed.
 
I’d take weekly snapshots rather than relying on one active-listing view. For each property, record original ask, current ask, condition, occupancy if stated, financing-related issues if disclosed, and whether it sold, remained active or disappeared. Track new-listing volume separately. Disappearing stock should stay “unknown” until you can distinguish a completed sale from a withdrawal.
 
Good points. My notes currently mix several neighbourhoods and measure visible active time; they do not reliably capture earlier withdrawals or relistings. They also don’t consistently distinguish individual units from broader apartment listings, which may be distorting the comparison.

I’ll narrow the boundaries, split by occupancy and property format, and add weekly status and price-cut fields. That should show whether the 66-day figure reflects genuinely stale stock or just a messy sample.
 
That revision should also make the rental-regulation question testable rather than assumed. If tenant-occupied listings remain slower after you separate price, condition and property format, the theory gains weight. If the gap follows late price cuts, financing obstacles or repeated withdrawals instead, seller expectations are the stronger explanation. I’d keep completed sales as the comparison group, not the quickest active listings.
 
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