How is Seattle's housing market doing right now?

For years, Seattle's real estate has been like a rocket ship, hurtling higher and higher. But now, things are slowing down. Yet prices continue to rise.

"Sales are plummeting, yet prices continue to creep up," said Marc Stiles, a senior reporter at the Puget Sound Business Journal. "They are not creeping up the way they were five years ago."

Stiles said that five years ago, it wasn't uncommon to see year over year gains as large as 10% to 15%. Now, appreciation has slowed — as have sales. That's because the inventory just isn't there, Stiles added.

Not enough new homes are being built, and as a result of rising mortgage rates and housing prices, people aren't selling their homes.

"Inventory is shrinking because people are really loath to put their homes on the market," Stiles said. "Because they have, let's say a 30-year fixed mortgage at 3.5%. And now that same mortgage rate is over 7%."

Stiles noted that interest rates have dropped slightly — they're now hovering above 7%, where around a month ago it was nearly 8%. But experts aren't anticipating them to slow much more than that.

Stiles anticipates that by the end of next year, those rates may be down to 6%.

"That's still really high relative to where it was when they were practically giving away mortgages."

Stiles said he would advise young, potential first-time homeowners to hold off on buying right now.

But when you do buy, make sure you're ready for it to be a long-term commitment — not a profit generator.

"Because buying a house is really expensive," Stiles said. "We all have to have a place to live."