With the very first U.S. death from COVID-19 taking place in Washington, the state could have seen a downwards slope in its housing market. But thanks to a quick mitigation response and the city’s stature as a tech hub, the Seattle housing market has proven strong enough to knock off any bad omens.

Much of it comes from Seattle’s status for holding the headquarters of Amazon and the corporate campus of Google. Whereas, the neighboring Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA also add to the city’s stature.

By consistently catering to incoming professionals from other states, the Washington real estate market has remained highly competitive in the last few years. That hasn’t changed during the novel coronavirus outbreak, with sellers sticking to their asking prices and housing demands remaining in line with the recent past. 

Taking their cue from the coronavirus effect on real estate throughout the country, a few buyers had been hoping for the Seattle market to slow down in order to present their offers. According to the Wall Street Journal, those hopes have gone up in a wisp of smoke, with sellers sticking to their guns and realtors still managing high demands.

But even as some buyers are caught by surprise with the consistency of high prices, most of them are practicing a competitive approach with everything they have got.

By following the same pattern of offers from a pre-COVID-19 era, most buyers are proving that they don’t want to make any compromises while searching for the home of their dreams. With a shortage of inventory, this resilient outlook is propelling the Washington real estate market during the pandemic. 

The inventory in Seattle and its surrounding suburbs has shrunk down by 67 percent from the same time last year, demonstrating sellers’ fears about the market as well as COVID-19 itself. But instead of slowing down the market, the move has only given existing sellers the confidence to turn down any offers that are below their asking price.

Apart from Seattle, this particular approach is also seen in Bellevue, a neighboring city that is all set to become the new home to the Amazon HQ. With more and more workers intent on finding a new base in the state, the coronavirus effect on real estate prices has been nonexistent. This effect has reached the point where it’s almost shocking to anyone who is not familiar with the market.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, an increasing number of people and businesses are relying on tech from the businesses based out of Seattle and the larger Washington area. As a result, these entities are enjoying their exponential growth during this unprecedented situation.

Amazon has recently announced multiple hiring initiatives, with the latest one projecting to hire 75,000 new employees. This is on top of the 100,000 jobs that the tech giant has filled in less than a month. Since this growth around the retailers’ warehouses drives back operations demand to its HQ, Seattle and surrounding suburbs are set to see an influx of new workers who would be hired to support this off-season growth.

This indicates that even as the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end, the Washington real estate market would continue to flourish. If there was ever a good time to close on a listing, it would be amid the current, lowered interest rates.