How is luxury defined?
Luxury is commonly associated with the top 5% to 10% of a market's price range, although definitions vary. For this report, we define luxury as the top 5% of each metro area's price range.
Seattle
- -10.5%: closed luxury home sales, year over year
- +8.1%: active luxury listings, year over year
San Francisco
- +32.1%: closed luxury home sales, year over year
- -29.6%: active luxury listings, year over year
What's behind the split?
AI-related wealth and hiring are supporting San Francisco's luxury market. In Seattle, tech-sector layoffs, restructuring, and fewer job-related moves are contributing to buyer caution.
Nationally, closed luxury home sales rose 3.3% year over year. Seattle sales fell 10.5%, the fourth-largest decline among the 50 largest metros in Redfin's dataset. With active luxury listings up 8.1%, Seattle sellers face more competition for fewer completed sales.
Sources: Windermere/East, September 2026 Seattle Market Update (NWMLS data); Redfin, luxury-market data for the three months ending August 2026.