Oh, it's just the usual waiting game. Happens every time. Sellers will stubbornly hold on to the last "fair" prices they were told, even if they can't sell, the RE agents will suggest waiting out the winter and taking the house off the market till the next spring. Buyers are aware of the inventory increase are waiting to see if it grows further and the they snatch up a bargain from a desperate seller.
That's how it went down 10 years ago, it will be same this time - come spring and the "for sale" signs will pop up on every single corner. You can just count those signs to tell if it's the buyers or the sellers market.
However there are differences too. 10 years ago we were facing a catastrophic recession, including an unprecedented level of banking shenanigans (undermining business financing) and a huge hit on the employment (undermining consumption), but this time it seems pretty stable. So that's a bull development. On the bear side, strong overall economy might embolden the Fed to keep increasing the interest rates, decreasing housing affordability and pushing the prices further down. Also Seattle has seen a huge amount of construction recently, a lot of old properties on the Capitol Hill were torn down and rebuilt in the last 3-5 years (at this point we are talking not just a number of affected properties but a percentages of the entire inventory in the Madison-Aloha area), the downtown sees a large number of constructions and SLU has been a giant construction site since like 2010. Also notably there is no shortage of rental properties downtown and Capitol Hill at stable prices. The rental market was positively nuts in the run-up to the 2008 implosion which was somewhat distressing to me personally.
Fun times!
Are you looking for a place to settle down?