As prospective buyers face steep borrowing costs and a turbulent tech job market, home sales nationwide have fallen to their lowest point in nearly two years — and Seattle is feeling the brunt of the slowdown.
According to a new report by Redfin, pending home sales in the Seattle area plunged 15.6% year-over-year in July. It’s the sharpest drop among major U.S. metropolitan areas as prospective buyers grapple with steep prices and job insecurity driven by recent tech-sector layoffs.
Seattle’s drop in pending sales led all major U.S. metro areas in July, outpacing other slowing markets like Houston (-14.3%) and Phoenix (-13.3%). In closed home sales, Seattle’s 9.1% drop put it among the five steepest declines nationwide alongside Detroit (-9.3%) and major Texas metros.
Housing costs in the region remain a primary barrier for buyers. With a median sale price of $809,479, Seattle home prices sit at roughly double the national average of $408,795, making the local market particularly sensitive to elevated mortgage rates and tech-industry caution.
Real estate agents on the ground report that shifting dynamics at major tech employers are directly tempering local home-buying demand.
“Seattle is a tech-driven market, and right now a lot of buyers are feeling cautious about layoffs, AI and job security,” said Chase Costello, a Redfin Premier agent in the Seattle area. “Tech workers aren’t moving between companies — or moving into the area — as much as they used to, and that means fewer people are trading up into new homes.”
High-earning tech workers have long served as the primary engine for Puget Sound real estate growth. But ongoing staff cuts and corporate belt-tightening at major employers such as Amazon and Microsoft have created a chilling effect that extends beyond those directly affected. According to Redfin, even workers who remain comfortably employed are increasingly hesitant to stretch for expensive mortgages amidst broader economic uncertainty.
Amazon started the year with 16,000 corporate job cuts, which came on the heals of about 14,000 layoffs last fall. Microsoft cut about 15,000 jobs in two separate rounds of layoffs in 2025, and last month cut another 4,800, with about 1,600 of those in the Xbox division.
Layoffs have also impacted a variety of tech roles at companies big and small, including T-Mobile, Zillow, Starbucks, Meta, Google, Oracle, Epic Games, Bungie, Salesforce and others, as detailed in GeekWire’s layoff tracker.
The report comes following a period of transition for Seattle-based Redfin itself, after the completion of its acquisition by Detroit-based Rocket Companies and the exit of longtime CEO Glenn Kelman. The Seattle-based real estate brokerage hasn’t been immune to layoffs, cutting 450 employees in February 2025.
While Seattle and major Texas markets saw the nation’s sharpest home-sales pullbacks, a handful of regions managed to buck the broader downturn. According to Redfin, home sales posted strong year-over-year growth in markets like West Palm Beach, Fla. (+17.1%), San Francisco (+8.5%), and Milwaukee (+7%).
In South Florida and the Bay Area, affluent buyers less sensitive to cost helped drive activity, with San Francisco getting an extra push from the ongoing AI boom, while Milwaukee benefited from relative affordability.
Pending sales also surged in West Palm Beach (+14.2%) and Milwaukee (+4.5%), illustrating a stark divergence between tech-heavy, high-cost markets in the West and resilient pockets elsewhere across the country.
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