Issue two of the Seattle Insider, and this one's a little more fun.

This week: the Neighborhood Guide I spent two years writing is finally live, the Montlake restaurant my wife and I have been going to for years, four listings I'd tour tomorrow if I could, and a quick read on the market, including a tax bill in Congress that could shake a lot of inventory loose.

If you're new here, the deal is simple. I'm a real estate broker, but this isn't a real estate newsletter. It's where I'm eating, what I'm watching, and what I'm seeing in the market, once a week, from someone who actually lives here.

Let's go.

The market: more pendings, and a bill worth watching​
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​I noticed more condos going pending this week.
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I couldn't have said that in June. Buyers who sat out the spring are starting to move, and the first ones in are the ones who noticed that downtown Seattle values have barely budged in close to a decade. That's either a warning or an opening, depending on how you look at it. I think it's an opening, and most of the market hasn't caught on yet.
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What happens next mostly comes down to rates. Global instability keeps money nervous, and nervous money keeps rates sticky. In the meantime, keep an eye on the More Homes on the Market Act, a bipartisan bill with more than 150 cosponsors that would double the capital gains exclusion on a primary home to $500,000 for single filers and $1 million for couples, indexed to inflation going forward. If you've owned in Seattle for 15 or 20 years, that tax bill is a real reason a lot of you haven't sold. Remove it and inventory starts to move. Locally, I'm watching what the mayor's office actually does about reactivating downtown. That plan matters more to condo values than anything happening in the other Washington.

Seattle vs. Eastside: this week's numbers

Seattle​
Median price (30-day closed): $756,250 (down $32,750, about 4.2%, from last week)
Active inventory: 3,455 homes (down 6, about 0.2%)
Active median list price: $749,000 (down $950, about 0.1%)
Sales volume (30-day closed): 802 homes (up 23, about 2.9%)
Months of supply: 4.3 (down 0.1)

Eastside (Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Mercer Island, Sammamish, Issaquah combined)
Median price (30-day closed, weighted approx.): $1,302,643 (down about $17,300, about 1.3%)
Active inventory: 2,342 homes (down 39, about 1.6%)
Active median list price (weighted approx.): $1,340,208 (down about $1,000, about 0.1%)
Sales volume (30-day closed): 489 homes (down 29, about 5.6%)
Months of supply: 4.8 (up 0.2)

One thing worth reading carefully. Seattle's median fell 4.2% this week while the number of closed sales actually went up. When those two move in opposite directions it's usually a mix story, more lower-priced homes and condos closing, rather than the market repricing. Don't read one week as a trend. The Eastside told a quieter version of the same story: fewer sales, slightly less inventory, supply ticking up to 4.8 months.

Data source: NWMLS via MLS Grid, pulled the morning of August 20, 2026. Eastside figures are a count-weighted approximation across the six cities, not a single recomputed median. Statistics not compiled or published by NWMLS.

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Four listings I love this week
​A wider spread than usual, on purpose. A century-old Craftsman, a downtown corner in the sky, a brand-new Eastside estate, and a Queen Anne original.

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​4549 Thackeray Pl NE, Wallingford​
$1,525,000 · 4 bd / 3 ba · 2,620 sqft · built 1906
A 1906 four-square built by a contractor for his own family, and it shows. The remodel kept the soul (crown molding, trim around every window) and the big-ticket work is already done: roof and solar in 2021, sewer relined and a new heat pump in 2024. Four decks including a rooftop crow's nest, plus a 1911 backyard studio with its own kitchen and bath. You can walk to Dick's, Gas Works, and Green Lake.
​Listing courtesy of Jared Boundy, Coldwell Banker Danforth.

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​The Emerald #3704, 121 Stewart St, Downtown​
$2,699,000 · 3 bd / 3 ba · 1,770 sqft · built 2021
Southwest corner of The Emerald, 37 floors up, with Mount Rainier framed from every room and Puget Sound sunsets on repeat. Twelve-foot ceilings, walls of glass, a Miele kitchen, and three real bedrooms downtown, which is rarer than it should be. Pike Place Market is your corner store.
​Listing courtesy of Kyle Weber, COMPASS.

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​13203 NE 54th Pl, Bridle Trails, Bellevue​
$5,998,000 · 5 bd / 5.5 ba · 5,724 sqft · new construction
A brand-new custom estate on 0.82 private acres in Bridle Trails. A 23-foot great room ceiling, Wolf and Sub-Zero kitchen with a full butler's kitchen behind it, wine and cocktail bar, golf simulator, theater, putting green. Minutes from downtown Bellevue and the tech campuses, and it still feels like a retreat.
​Listing courtesy of Christopher Tolstoy, Keller Williams Realty Bellevue.

​1215 Warren Ave N, Queen Anne​
$6,995,000 · 4 bd / 4 ba · 7,200 sqft · built 1955, reimagined 2016
A Raymond H. Peck original, rebuilt by Mohler + Ghillino to restore its view-first intent. The main living level is aimed straight at the Space Needle, Elliott Bay, and Rainier. Walnut floors, a temperature-controlled wine cellar, a poker lounge, an elevator, and parking for seven. Homes like this don't surface often.
​Listing courtesy of Moira E. Holley, Realogics Sotheby's International Realty.

Want to see any of these in person, or want me to pull something similar? Hit reply.

As seen on @UrbanCondoSpaces this week

The Neighborhood Guide is live. I spent two years writing 70 neighborhood guides covering Seattle and the Eastside. Where I eat, where I walk, what each one actually feels like in February when the tourists are gone. They're all in one place now at neighborhoods.jeffreynoldsseattle.com The first walk-through, North Capitol Hill, is on Instagram now.​

Also up this week: 12 things to do in Seattle before fall (Click here). Every one has a date attached, no "visit Pike Place." A few are about to disappear, including the Center for Wooden Boats' free public sail on August 30 and Rick Rizzs calling his last Mariners home game September 27 after 41 seasons.

Food and coffee: a Montlake afternoon

I spent time in Montlake and north Capitol Hill this week and it reminded me that this pocket is quietly one of the best eating neighborhoods in the city.

Cafe Lago, 2305 24th Ave E. This is the one. My wife and I have been going here for date nights for years and it has never once let us down. Wood-fired pizza, house-made pasta, the lasagna people plan trips around. It's unfussy in a way that a lot of Seattle Italian is not.

A few more in the same orbit if you're making a day of it:

Oxbow, right across the street at 2307 24th Ave E. Bagels, pastry, pizza, and proper espresso, and they host jazz nights. Doors open at 7 a.m.
​Volunteer Park Cafe for the morning
​Macrina when you need the coffee and the pastry case
​Nishino, just down the hill in Madison Park, if you want sushi instead
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What do you need from me this week?
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Same question I asked in the first issue, and I mean it every time: what do you actually need from me this week?

Maybe it's a number on your place. Maybe it's a straight answer about whether now is the moment to move. Maybe it's a contractor referral, or a read on a specific building, or you just want to know what I'm seeing that isn't in the data above. Hit reply. It comes straight to me.

Weekend Watch

Seattle is stacked this weekend, August 21 to 23.

Movies at the Mural at Seattle Center, the last outdoor movie of the summer under the Space Needle
​Black Arts Fest at Seattle Center, part of the free Festál series, and 98118 Fest in Columbia City
​Sips in the Square, wine tasting through Pioneer Square
​Alison Krauss at Marymoor Park, plus free concerts at the Ballard Locks
​Mini golf at Olympic Sculpture Park
​Harry Potter at the Paramount
​Mariners vs. Cubs at T-Mobile Park

Details can shift after this is written, worth a quick check before you head out.
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​That's the week.

Talk soon,
Jeff
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​Quick Links
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For the day-to-day Seattle stuff, follow along on Instagram: @UrbanCondoSpaces