Buyer anxiety is rising as the pace of home sales is faster than brokers are able to replenish inventory, according to members of Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Figures released for March show 11,408 pending sales during the month in the Northwest MLS area, while only 10,505 sellers listed their homes for sale during the same period.

“The ‘frenzy market’ has returned and is in full bloom in King and Snohomish counties,” said J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate. “Listings are selling as soon as they come on the market for sale

The multiple-offer market has become commonplace on well-priced new listings, added John Deely, principal managing broker at Coldwell Banker Bain. However, he cautioned, “Some sellers are pushing pricing boundaries and are not seeing the same action as their well-priced competition.”

Deely, a member of the Northwest MLS board of directors, said buyers are flooding into the Greater Seattle market because of the abundant job opportunities. He also attributed the high demand to low interest rates and skyrocketing rents.

This market is pushing buyers beyond their comfort level, said Northwest MLS director Frank Wilson, branch managing broker at John L. Scott, Inc. in Poulsbo.

“They’re being asked to write offers faster, for more money and with less help from the seller and the result is stress. Multiple offers only add to their stress.”

The market imbalance is played out with rising prices, an acute shortage of listings — particularly in areas close to job centers — and bidding wars.

The volume of new listings (10,505) added during the month increased 9.4 percent compared to a year ago, but fell short of satisfying demand in many areas. At month end, inventory in the MLS service area that encompasses 23 counties was down almost 14 percent, dropping from 19,736 listings to 17,007. Twelve counties reported double-digit declines from this time a year ago.

Measured by months of supply, there is about 2.5 months of inventory area-wide. “Buyers are feeling the squeeze with the lack of inventory,” reported George Moorhead, designated broker at Bentley Properties.

He noted many would-be purchasers are current owners who are unwilling to put their homes on the market until they can secure their next home.

“This is becoming a systemic issue which is holding back the inventory truly available in our current market,” said Moorhead, a member of the MLS board of directors.

Deely said that, in some cases, disgruntled buyers are dropping out of the market to wait out this cycle only to be replaced by a new wave, or they’re looking to outlying areas where there is somewhat less competition.

Some brokers expect the pressure will continue with Expedia’s announcement of plans to relocate around 3,000 employees from Bellevue to its new headquarters in Seattle.

Stiff competition is reflected in part by rising prices — but MLS officials emphasized sellers still need to be realistic.

“A 2.4-month supply of inventory has Kitsap County clearly in a sellers’ market,” Wilson said. During March, 502 new listings came on the market in that county, but pending sales were reported on 535 homes.

Wilson said the tight inventory “does not mean sellers can overprice their homes, as the value of a purchase and sale agreement is often offset by the appraisal.”

Dick Beeson, principal managing broker at RE/MAX Professionals in Tacoma, said sellers are in the driver’s seat, “but only when they price and condition their home correctly.” He said buyers’ agents are often up at the crack of dawn scouring new listings, price reductions and the back-on-market properties in search of opportunities for their clients, but fierce competition is leaving many house-hunters disappointed and frustrated.

Prices on last month’s closed sales of single-family homes and condos jumped more than 6.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago. The median price on last month’s closed sales areawide was $292,500, up from $274,000 a year earlier.

Prices on single-family homes (excluding condos) rose about 6.8 percent, increasing from a year-ago figure of $282,000 to $301,143.

MLS members logged 6,769 completed transactions of single-family homes and condos in March to outgain the same period a year ago by 1,016 transactions, for a 17.7 percent increase. Condos accounted for about 14 percent of the volume.

The median price on last month’s condo sales was $240,000, which was about 9 percent higher than a year ago.

Beeson said escalating prices may ease later in the year, when interest rates edge up as the Fed stops buying mortgage-backed securities.

“With near-full employment levels and still-historic low-interest rates, it looks like [the] spring and summer housing market will be hot.”