Should I Sell My Sammamish Home Now or Wait?

The Sammamish residential median price has dropped $119,000 from May 2025 to May 2026. Months supply is at 4.3. If you’re sitting in a $1.5M to $2M+ home on the Sammamish plateau wondering whether to sell now or hold on and hope the market recovers, here’s the data-backed honest answer.

It depends on what you’re waiting for. And the math on waiting may not work the way you hope.

What the Sammamish Market Is Doing Right Now

The NWMLS data for May 2026. Sammamish residential median sale price: $1,685,000. Down from $1,804,000 in May 2025 and down from a peak around $1,900,000+ in the 2022 to early 2023 window. The correction from peak is somewhere in the 10% to 15% range depending on your specific neighborhood and product type.

Months supply: 4.3. That’s the most inventory-heavy reading Sammamish has seen in years. It doesn’t mean the market is flooded, but it does mean buyers have options. Sellers are competing for attention in a way they weren’t in 2021.

The 7-day median DOM tells you the market is still functioning. Correctly priced homes are moving. But the price at which they clear is lower than it was 18 months ago.

The Case for Selling Now

If you’re planning to sell eventually, selling now has some arguments in its favor that are easy to underestimate.

You capture 4.3 months of inventory competition before it potentially builds further. If rates stay at 6.5% or higher through the rest of 2026, the high-end Sammamish buyer pool continues to be constrained. More sellers decide to wait. But supply often doesn’t wait. Listings keep coming. More supply against the same demand pool means continued downward pressure on price.

Your next purchase also benefits from the correction. If you’re selling a $1.7M Sammamish home to buy something else in King County, you’re selling into a soft market but potentially buying into one too. A Renton or Bellevue purchase at today’s prices may also be more favorable than 18 months ago. The correction isn’t just on your sale. It may also be on your buy.

The holding cost of waiting is real. Property taxes on a $1.7M Sammamish home run roughly $15,000 to $20,000 per year. If you wait 12 more months and the market recovers 3%, you’ve gained approximately $50,000 in value. But you’ve also paid $15,000 to $20,000 in taxes, plus insurance, maintenance, and the opportunity cost of your equity sitting in an illiquid asset. The net gain from waiting is smaller than the gross price recovery.

The Case for Waiting

There are scenarios where waiting makes sense. Be honest about whether yours actually fits one.

Rates drop meaningfully. If the Fed cuts rates in September or December of 2026 and the 30-year fixed falls to 5.75% or below, the Sammamish buyer pool expands materially. That scenario is possible but not guaranteed.

You have no place to go. If you haven’t identified your next home and moving in the current environment would require you to rent or live in limbo, the non-financial costs of selling now might outweigh the financial argument. Timing a sale to your next purchase is legitimate.

You don’t need to sell. This is the simplest and most honest answer. If you have no financial pressure to sell, no near-term life change driving a move, and you genuinely believe the Sammamish market recovers to its peak within 3 to 5 years, holding isn’t irrational. Just be clear with yourself that you’re making that bet deliberately.

What Waiting Doesn’t Fix

There’s a version of waiting that I see regularly and it rarely ends well. It goes like this: a seller lists at a peak-era price, sits for 30 to 45 days with little activity, gets uncomfortable, reduces once, waits more, reduces again, eventually accepts an offer that’s $80,000 below what they could have gotten on day 5 with accurate pricing.

The market is efficient. Buyers in the $1.5M to $2M range are doing thorough research. They see the days on market ticking up. An overpriced listing that chases the market down almost always nets less than one that enters with accurate pricing and generates early competitive interest.

If you’re going to sell, the price you start at matters more than the month you start. See also: How to Price Your Home to Sell in King County 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much have Sammamish home prices dropped in 2026?

As of May 2026, the Sammamish residential median is $1,685,000, down 6.6% from $1,804,000 in May 2025. That’s a $119,000 decline in the median over 12 months. The correction is more pronounced above $2M, where the high-end buyer pool has contracted most visibly due to tech sector uncertainty and Washington’s shifting tax climate for high earners.

How long does it take to sell a home in Sammamish right now?

The median days on market in Sammamish is 7 days as of May 2026. Correctly priced homes are still moving quickly. The caveat: with 4.3 months of supply, there’s more competition among sellers than there’s been in years, and buyers have more choices. The homes that are moving in 7 days are the ones that entered the market with an accurate price, not an aspirational one.

Will Sammamish home prices recover in 2026 or keep falling?

The trajectory depends heavily on interest rates. If the Fed cuts rates in September 2026 and the 30-year fixed pulls back to 5.75% or below, the Sammamish buyer pool expands materially and prices stabilize or recover. If rates hold at 6.5%+ through year-end, inventory continues to build and further modest price compression is possible. No one can predict this with certainty.

What are the total costs to sell a Sammamish home in 2026?

Budget 7% to 9% of the sale price for total selling costs: REET (2.75% on the portion between $1.5M and $3M), agent commissions, title and escrow fees, and any pre-listing preparation. On a $1.685M home, total selling costs run approximately $118,000 to $152,000. A net proceeds analysis before you list is the most useful step you can take.

The Professional Valuation Question

I assess property values in Sammamish and across the Sammamish plateau professionally as part of my BPO work. The difference in value between a home that’s been maintained well, has updated finishes, and sits on a usable lot versus a dated home on a sloped lot in the same neighborhood can be $150,000 to $250,000. The county-wide or even zip code-level median doesn’t tell you where your specific home sits within that range.

Ready to Look at Your Numbers?

The decision to sell or wait is ultimately personal, but it should be made with real data. I’m happy to walk through what your specific Sammamish home would realistically sell for right now, what your net proceeds look like after selling costs, and how that compares to your next move.