Market Update - 12.11.25
The Lake Chelan real estate market is wrapping up the year on a strong note. The market enjoyed 15 residential pending sales in November. By comparison, the three preceeding years had seen 5 to 7 pending sales in November.
Reviewing the overall year, 2025 year-to-date data shows a strong finish with 27% more residential sales than in 2024.
Breaking this down by three price ranges (<500K; 500K-1.5M; >1.5M) reveals strong YTD sales increases in the lower two price ranges and a slight drop in the $1.5M+ range. (The surge in sales in the lowest price category should be interpreted carefully as it was made up of several recreational property and park-model trailer sales as well as four Chelan Valley Housing Trust lease-hold sales.)
If we review the average number of listed homes in the three categories, we see the strongest YTD inventory jump in the middle $500K-$1.5KM range.
Finally, we can consider the “Months Supply of Inventory” statistic (based on Closed Sales Rate). Generally a balanced market is considered to have six months worth of inventory. If a market has fewer than six months of inventory, it favors Sellers (ie “sellers’ market”). When a market has more than six months of inventory it traditionally favors Buyers.
This graph shows that a Sellers market still exists for homes listed at less than $500K. (4.6 months of inventory.) This is no surprise given the relative short inventory and strong demand. But note that slight inventory increases in 2024 and 2025 have increased the Months Supply of Inventory number from 1.5 (2023) to 4.6 months (2025).
More revealling is that the Buyer’s market is softer for the middle price range than the upper price range. The market held 7.8 months of available residential inventory for homes priced between $500K and $1.M, while there was 10.2 months inventory for the $1.5M+ homes.
The take home is that Sellers of properties under $500K continue to have clout in the market. This clout may never go away in the Chelan valley given market forces. Buyers have clout in higher price ranges with their strength increasing with the list price of the home.
