Seattle Housing Buzz

In looking at the price ranges for the 49 proposed downtown area condo projects, one wonders where are the people coming from that can afford them. Most start at $500,000 and go upwards to more than $10 million. These homes certainly aren’t for the working middle-class. Developers are banking on empty nesters who don’t need their large homes cashing out their equity and moving into maintenance free living, urbanites who enjoy city life or work in the city, and those fleeing the suburbs.

And, of course, there’s just simply lots of millionaires. June Fletcher wrote in her Wall Street Journal’s House Talk column:

According to the latest World Wealth Report, issued by money managers Merrill Lynch and Capgemini Group, 2.67 million Americans — roughly 1 in 100 — has a net worth of more than $1 million, excluding their primary residence. That number is up 6.8% from the year before. World-wide, the ranks of the super-rich with assets of $30 million or more grew even faster, up 10.2% to 85,400. Yet not everyone who owns a million-dollar home makes seven-figure salaries. A 2005 Coldwell Banker Previews survey of 300 homeowners whose primary residence is valued at more than $1 million found 57% of households earn less than $500,000 a year.

Over the past few years, low interest rates and those questionable interest-only loans allowed many homeowners to stretch beyond what they normally would have been able to afford. But it’s not just easy credit that allowed the merely affluent to enter the millionaire homeowner’s club — it was also rapid equity build up.

I fit among the urbanites wanting to live in the city, but I’m not a millionaire (yet). I used to live in the city before I bought a home in a quiet neighborhood in north Seattle. It’s a different lifestyle and I now know that urban living suites me better - having everything close by and within walking distance - work, shopping, restaurants, entertainment, etc. But, I do like gardening so that’ll be a trade off, though Belltown does have a P-Patch and The Martin project will have a P-Patch on the roof.

Seattle’s strong housing demand & lack of adequate supply for units under $400,000 has seen a rise in condo conversions. To meet the demand, developers have found it less expensive and more profitable to convert apartments into condos. Some of the conversions this year include:

• Asia
• Harwood
• Epic
• Mezzo
• Residence at 5th Avenue
• Urban Terrace
• Plaza del Sol
• The Morgan
• Onyx
• Cooper Square
• La Toscane
• Maison
• Biscayne
• francisFremont
• Taylor Anne
• Residence at 500 Elliott
• Site 17
• Pacific Rim and more.

The Seattle Times wrote about the other side, the tenants who are being displaced and the inconvienence and cost of moving. For every silver lining (another homeowner) there is a dark cloud (someone being forced to move out of their home). Owners only need provide 90 days notice, and for low-income tenants, $500 toward moving.

Will the real Seattle please stand up.

Recent developments have got me thinking…it seems Seattle is in an identity flux. For generations, Seattle was content being the big fish in the small backwater Northwest pond, overshadowing Portland and Vancouver, BC. Somewhere along the timeline the politicos and business hawks dreamed of the big time. Hey, Seattle had a symphony, ballet, three professional sport teams, Boeing and Microsoft afterall. Grand civic projects were built - a new symphony hall, a sparkling award-winning library, a new city hall and two world-class stadiums. Chicago West? Boston North? New New Amsterdam?

In our not too distant past, politicians envisioned “Cascadia” - a mega metropolitan trifecta consisting of Seattle, Portland and Vancouver with Seattle at the helm.

In the late 1990’s the little city that could got it’s big chance to shine on the world stage. But something went horribly wrong. For a few days in 1999, Seattle became a war zone. Neighbhorhoods were tear gassed, mass rioting ensued, overzealous police beating on the citizens. It was not quite the image leaders wanted to project to the world.

Then, Boeing left. Portland became a model US city and Vancouver is now what Seattle always wanted to be, a gleaming world-class city.

Time heals. The engines of progress are churning again and Seattle is getting another chance. Developers are investing hundreds of millions to revitalize the urban core. But, in the process, are we losing our identity?

Though it’s highly unlikely those 49 proposed high-rise condos will be built, many will, forever changing the landscape and culture. But, who’s skyline is it? By all account, if you listen to the developers and look at the renderings, it’s Vancouver, BC being transplated south of the 49th parallel. The new buzz term being thrown around lately is “Vancouver-style”.

And South Lake Union? Vulcan’s grand plan is to transport Portland’s Pearl District to the shores of Lake Union, street car and all. Should the Sonics skip town, perhaps Mr. Vulcan will transfer his Trailblazers up I-5. Sound Transit’s light-rail & the failed monorail - both modeled after Vancouver’s Skytrain and Portland’s light-rail system.

Welcome to Seacouverland!

Last month the Seattle Animal Shelter held it’s annual Furry 5K Fun Walk & Run at Seward Park. The Furry 5K is the shelter’s principal fundraising event for it’s Help The Animials Fund which covers veterinary services for the shelter’s animals.

This year’s Furry 5K raised $118,400, an increase of $28,000 from last year.

The shelter depends on volunteers. The next volunteer orientation is August 26, 2006 at Seattle Central Community College. Call the shelter at 206-386-PETS to register. Some of the opportunities include:

• Dog walkers (only time shelter dogs get out of the kennel for play & potty)
• Foster Parenting
• 9 Lives - helping sick/injured cats
• Get Fit With Fido - run and hike with shelter dogs
• Matchmaker - assisting visitors at the shelter

Higher prices and higher rates are putting the squeeze on first time homebuyers and Seattle’s housing market is no exception. CNNMoney.com recently profiled this issue and provided some advice as well.

What a difference a year makes when you’re in the market for a new home, especially if you’re a first-time buyer.

Thanks to a combined jump in mortgage interest rates and home prices, a starter home in many areas of the country could cost you several hundred dollars more per month today than if you bought it last year.

Nationwide, median home prices rose at annual rate of more than 10 percent in the first quarter of 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Meanwhile, rates on adjustable rate mortgages, the most common for first-time buyers, are up more than a percentage point.

According the WSU’s Center for Real Estate Research the Housing Affordability Index for King County is 80%. That means the typical family only has 80% of the income to purchase a median-priced home. For 1st time buyers in King County, it’s even lower at 44.7%. Less than 1/2 of 1st time buyers can afford a home in King County. ¹

1 Washington State University - “Washington Home Sales Stabilize While Affordability Sags”.

As Vulcan gears up for it’s residential developments, the South Lake Union street car broke ground today. The $51 million 1.3 mile project will run from the Westin Hotel to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center on East Lake Union, passing Vulcan’s Veer, Rollin Street, Enso and 2200 projects.The street car is based on Portland’s street car and the South Lake Union development after Portland’s Pearl district.

Unlike other hotly contested transportation projects - the Monorail and Sound Transit’s light rail - the street car is being paid by a private/public partnership. Half of the cost comes from a tax on properties in the area and the other half through regional/federal grants, advertising and sales of city-own land.

Predicitons estimate that South Lake Union will gain 20,000 jobs and 17,000 residents by 2020.

Read full article at Seattle Times.

The NorthWest Multiple Listing Service recently released June figures. As expected prices are continuing to rise, in Seattle the median price compared to June ‘05 increased 11.56% to $415,000.

Inventory is continuing to rise as well. With the exception of Capitol Hill, every Seattle neighborhood added to inventory. Downtown/Belltown, West Seattle and South Seattle all had more than 30% inventory increased. On the otherhand, pending sales (offers made and accepted but not yet closed) have declined. Perhaps due to a combination of rising prices that’s making homeownership nearly impossible for many first-time buyers and rising interest rates. Hopefully, the increase in supply will help stabilize the out-of-control upward price trend.

NWMLS Press Release

How I spent my July 4th weekend.

My websites and blogs have been generating considerable visitor traffic, as least from an agent’s point of view, but very few leads. I thought part of it was content and part of it was the “look” of my primary website - www.LivingNorthwest.com. Not to mentioned the fact that I had my face plastered on every page. So, I thought of a complete redesign.

In looking over the best real estate web designers out there and contemplating the costs, I decided to hunker down and do some of my own coding. I’m certainly not a developer or designer, but I’m not a novice either having worked in e-commerce web development for five years. So, I decided to learn CSS and do a “make-over” on my tables and navigation links. I did the tables in CSS since Firefox doesn’t display HTML tables nicely. And, that always bothered me since I don’t use IE.

Anyway, I think turned out ok. I also cleaned up the home page and moved my mug to just the “About” page. I added a few more content pages based on the search terms people used in Google that landed them on my site, as well as making it easier to get to those content from any page.

I’ve also been contemplating getting rid of the adsense stuff at the bottom. As they’re hidden, no one see’s or clicks on them. Plus, I have to keep filtering out the competition.

On the very plus side, the SEO guide, tips and info I learned from Real Estate Webmasters and a couple of other sites have paid off fantastically. For most of my main keywords I’m on the first page of Google’s organic results, some on the 2nd page. And on one search term, I’m a little miffed that my ActiveRain profile returned #5 while my website returned #6. Most of this occurred after Google’s Big Daddy update. As a result the number of visitors have gone up 50% in the past couple months and I was able to suspend my adwords campaign.