Finally, a little bit of welcome news for people looking to buy a house in Seattle: There are actually some for sale.

According to a new report from Redfin, the number of homes currently on the market has increased by nearly 54 percent compared to this time last year. This is true in several other West Coast cities feeling the housing crunch as well, including Portland, Oakland, San Fransisco, and San Diego. That's a big improvement over the last six years (at least for buyers), when inventory was dropping as fast as prices were going up.

"A year ago there were more homes selling each month than there were homes being listed for sale, which caused the number of homes on the market to dip dramatically," writes Redfin's Tim Ellis." This year fewer homes are selling, so sales are no longer outnumbering new listings every month. This is allowing inventory to finally begin to build again in several markets, which is good for home buyers and should lead to a more balanced market."

It's still, however, a seller's market. But while the median home price in Seattle in August was a whopping $760,000, that's still down down by $45,000 from the month before. Small blessings.