SEATTLE INSIDER

September 25, 2026

There's always one week in the year when Seattle stops flirting with fall and just becomes it.

This was that week for me. The smell in the air. The leaves starting to turn. Football back in full swing. You start pining for the extra cup of coffee, or the walk with a great friend on a crisp morning.

And in the best way, I think there's change in the air for this city too. This week, Downtown Seattle Association president Jon Scholes, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber CEO Joe Nguyen and several city leaders spent two days in San Francisco studying the city's approach to public safety, homelessness, drug use and downtown recovery.
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They met with senior members of Mayor Daniel Lurie's administration and other civic leaders. That kind of cross-city learning catches my attention. I think the best of Seattle is in front of us.

PNB opens its season tonight. Art + Culture Week wraps Sunday. The Juanita Friday Market closes out its summer run this afternoon. The Coliseum of Art is down to its final weekend.

Late September does this.

One thing starts while another disappears.

So instead of asking what's best this weekend, I'm asking a better question:

What will I wish I had done once Monday gets here?
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​FIRST LOOKS. LAST CHANCES.

Let's get into it.

MARKET FROM THE STREET

The split didn't blink

Last Friday I told you Seattle's houses and condos aren't in the same market.

A week later, that's still the story. It stretched a little further.

At the current pace of closings, Seattle's active condo inventory now represents 8.9 months of supply, up from 8.3 a week ago. Single family homes are sitting at 3.8.

So the two markets still ask for two different playbooks.

If you're shopping for a condo, the leverage keeps building. More inventory relative to the recent closing pace means more time to compare buildings, more room to negotiate, and less pressure to decide on somebody else's clock.

If you're selling one, the same math cuts the other way. Your home isn't competing with a handful of listings anymore. Pricing and presentation aren't finishing touches right now. They're the strategy.

And if you own a house, the picture is different. At 3.8 months of supply, that side of the market remains materially tighter than condos. You'll see what I mean in the next section.

Source: NWMLS listing data via Tideline. Seattle single family and condominium closings from August 26 through September 25, 2026, and active listings as of the morning of September 25. Months of supply is active listings divided by the trailing 30 day closing pace.

HOMES WORTH WALKING THROUGH

Homes worth leaving the screen for

Four homes were on my list this week.

One didn't make it to Friday. A Sunset Hill house I loved went pending in five days. It's a good reminder that the house side can still move quickly.

Here are the three you can still get to first.

The Hidden Doors

THE LAURELHURST CUSTOM

​5157 NE Latimer Place, Laurelhurst​
$3,980,000 | 5 bed | 4 bath | 4,030 sq ft | Built 1936 | MLS 2582686

This is a house with secrets. A custom bookshelf that is actually a Murphy door. A powder room tucked behind a concealed panel. An arched pocket door into a full butler's pantry. Add Lake Washington and Mount Rainier views and a spot within the Laurelhurst Beach Club boundaries, and you have exactly the kind of home a thumbnail can't explain. That's why you walk through.

Listing courtesy of Victoria Loder, Heaton Dainard, LLC.

The Private Garden

THE PIONEER SQUARE LOFT

​611 Post Avenue #7, Pioneer Square​
$815,000 | 1 bed | 1 bath | 1,060 sq ft | Built 1913 | MLS 2568145

A two-story loft with exposed brick and soaring wood-beamed ceilings, and upstairs, French doors that open onto a newly renovated European style patio. A private garden in a 1913 building, one block from the waterfront. If you're doing Sunday's Pioneer Square art walk anyway, you'll understand this one's neighborhood before you even step inside.

Listing courtesy of Jacquelyn Phillips, Keller Williams Seattle Metro.

The First Look

THE MERCER ISLAND MYSTERY

​Address undisclosed, Mercer Island​
$15,000,000 | 5 bed | 7 bath | 11,226 sq ft | 3.09 acre lot | Built 1946 | MLS 2578448

No address in print on this one, and that's the point. It's coming soon, the address is undisclosed, and showings start today. The record still tells a story: more than eleven thousand square feet on just over three acres, with a tennis court and a pool in the trees. If any home this week is a true first look, it's this one.

Listing courtesy of Bob Bennion, Compass.

WHICH ONE ARE YOU TOURING FIRST?

Want to walk through one of them? Hit reply.

ON MY RADAR

GOODMART, BALLARD

Ballard Avenue has a new seafood market and deli on my radar.

GoodMart, from Local Tide chef Victor Steinbrueck, announced a September 24 opening at 5130 Ballard Avenue NW. The concept combines a seafood market and deli with a 40-seat cafe and oyster bar in the former Kathy Casey Food Studios space.

Steinbrueck's Local Tide has built its identity around sustainably sourced Pacific Northwest seafood, and StarChefs named him a 2025 Seattle Rising Stars Game Changer.

I'm putting this one on the list before calling it a recommendation.

Seafood market. Oyster bar. Ballard Avenue.

That's enough to get my attention.
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BEFORE MONDAY

If I were choosing by expiration date instead of hype, here's how I'd play the weekend.

FRIDAY: ONE LAST MARKET ON THE EASTSIDE

The Juanita Friday Market runs from 3 to 7 this afternoon at Juanita Beach Park.

And this is it. Today is the final market of the 2026 season, with local produce, flowers, prepared food and handcrafted goods along Lake Washington.

Shop first.

Then take a walk along the water before summer market season officially gives way to fall.

SATURDAY: SEATTLE CENTER, TWO WAYS

Start with The Italian Festival.

It runs from 10 to 7 Saturday in the Armory and Fisher Pavilion, and admission is free.

If you have kids with you, the Tutta Bella pizza toss happens at noon, 2 and 4.

Then come back, or simply stay nearby.

Pacific Northwest Ballet performs Serenade at 7:30 at McCaw Hall as part of its opening weekend. The program also includes Jessica Lang's world premiere Pages and Alexei Ratmansky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

That is a very Seattle Saturday.

Pizza toss at noon.

Balanchine at night.

SUNDAY: KEEP YOUR PHONE CHARGED

Art + Culture Week ends Sunday.

At 1, Future Arts leads a two-hour augmented reality walking tour beginning at King Street Station and moving through Pioneer Square. The route unlocks 10 AR stories embedded in streets and storefronts along the way.

You need comfortable shoes and a charged phone.

When the tour ends, keep walking north.

The Coliseum of Art at Pike and 5th is open until 6.

The free exhibition fills the historic 1916 Coliseum Theatre with Seattle art, glass, sculpture and light, and its run ends September 28.

I wouldn't put that one off another week.

I've also been posting a lot of fall material on Instagram this week, pumpkin patches, festivals and places worth your time. You'll find all of it at @jeffreynoldsseattle. Same account you've followed as UrbanCondoSpaces, now under my own name.

HELP ME BUILD THE INSIDER LIST

What's one Seattle place you'd only tell a friend about?

I want to build something with all of you.

Send me one Seattle or Eastside place you would tell your best friend about, but secretly don't want everybody else to discover.

A restaurant. Coffee shop. Bakery. Park. Trail. Bookstore. Dive bar. Neighborhood walk. Ferry ritual. Some weird little Seattle tradition I've somehow missed.

Anything.

I'm calling it The Insider List.

No paid rankings. No algorithm deciding what belongs. Just great places and experiences passed between people who actually live here.

I'll start sharing my favorites in this newsletter.

Hit reply and give me one.

Talk soon,

Jeff
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jeff.reynolds@compass | Managing Broker, Compass
206.794.1118

QUICK LINKS

Thinking about buying or selling in the next year? https://jeffreynolds.realscout.com/onboarding​

Curious what your home is actually worth? https://jeffreynolds.realscout.com/whats-my-home-worth​

Want to browse the market the way I see it? https://jeffreynolds.realscout.com/​

For the day-to-day Seattle stuff: https://www.instagram.com/jeffreynoldsseattle/​