Mercer Island only had 23 closings in July — but they moved fast: an average of just 26.3 cumulative days on market. That's the quickest closing pace of any Eastside city we tracked this month. The median price was $2,450,000, a touch below the $2.51M median for the second quarter.
That's a continuation of a gentle softening we've now seen for three straight months — April's median came in at $2.7M, May's at $2.62M, June's at $2.4M, and now July's $2.45M. The pace tells a more encouraging story, though: April's homes took an unusually long 114 cumulative days on market to close on average, an outlier that was driven by a couple of slow-moving listings in a market with only a handful of sales each month, but May, June, and July have all closed in the 20-to-26-day range — the market found its footing fairly quickly after a sluggish start to the quarter.
The clearest story of the month itself is the $2.0M–$2.5M range. It accounted for 30% of all July closings on its own, and did so at a 78% sell-through rate — nearly 8 in 10 homes in that price point in July found a buyer, compared with a steady 50% rate running through every other well-populated band from $1.5M up to $3.5M. Nothing above $2.5M or below $2.0M moved with that kind of urgency. This is showing an even tighter band that is selling through; in June the range of $2M - $3M made up about 30% of the market and had a sell-through rate around 70%.
14 homes went pending in July, 6 of those were under contract in a week or less, but the other 8 took an average of just over 50 days — one of the longer waits we saw anywhere on the Eastside this month — suggesting that outside the $2.0M–$2.5M band, sellers must understand the buyer pool is much smaller and being open to negotiation is key to going under contract in less than two months.
With only 40 homes touching the market at any point in July, Mercer Island remains a tight, low-volume market — but where the $2.0M–$2.5M band is concerned, tight supply is meeting sharp demand.
What to watch — Buyers: The $2.0M–$2.5M range is the most competitive segment on the island right now. Outside that range, you may find yourself with a bit more leverage in negotiating if the Seller doesn't want to sit on the market for an extended period.
What to watch — Sellers: If your home falls between $2.0M and $2.5M, you stand a good chance of being under contract within two weeks. Above that band, plan for a longer wait and plan for flexibility.
