Seattle Housing Buzz

Most professions have they own vocabulary, jargons and euphemisms employed to obfuscate the less desirable. And, real estate, like many sales professions, has its own set of doublespeak terms. Most are well known and are easily deciphered by smart buyers, some aren’t.

The Seattle PI’s Aubrey Cohen recently noted how listing agents are becoming more creative with their marketing remarks as the market changes. The sad thing about the article…there’s truth to it.

Here’s some of my faves from the article:

• Very quiet interior: You can barely hear the freeway with the windows shut.
• Seller has left you to your own imagination: Hasn’t been updated since 1940.
• Turnkey: Just overhauled, complete with granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances…and laminate floors.
• Walk to Fremont: Fremont’s 20 blocks away.
• Unique: Remodeled by someone on acid.

The article noted a Canadian university’s study on the impact that words have on selling time and pricing. “Move-In”, “Motivated” and “Beautiful” apparently incite buyers to make offers sooner and at a premium.

Hmm, “motivated” doesn’t quite seem to equate to higher prices or faster selling times in Seattle. If anything, it’s a beacon to buyers that the seller is desperate and the listing is stale.

My personal pet peeve is the ever expanding neighborhoods that listing agents create. Somehow Maple Leaf, Northgate and the Oak Tree area have been annexed to Green Lake. And, apparently, Ballard now extends to the Shoreline border. Then, again, Bainbridge condos were once transplanted to downtown Seattle.

Tags: , Seattle, Seattle Real Estate, Selling Real Estate

November 7th: Fortune Magazine calls the Seattle metro area one of twenty-five markets poised to fall. Over the next five years they predict a drop of 19.5%.

November 15th: Forbes says Seattle’s housing market is undervalued.

But the good news is that market slumps often result in good buys, and solid investments get tagged with bargain prices due to the volatile market. One place to look for these deals is the housing sector, where worries about a continuing dip in home prices are keeping many buyers on the sidelines, and keeping a lid on prices. Looking across the country for undervalued markets, we came up with five picks for city markets or submarkets that are cheap based on what their particular market fundamentals suggest.

…the latest Standard and Poor’s Case-Shiller housing index numbers suggest Seattle prices are still strong. The numbers don’t really tell the full story, though, since they’re a running average, not a daily spot-price index.

They also fail to consider the condo market. Talk to builders or investment analysts about Seattle’s condo or multifamily construction market, and they’ll say there’s no glut. In 2002 and 2003, the condo and A-class rental market experienced a huge inventory over-expansion from too much multifamily construction–which either became rental apartments or condos–and was in no position to grow during the tail of the housing boom.

Tags: Seattle Real Estate

King5 TV’s Robert Mak recently asked that question on his Upfront program. And, Lennox Scott, CEO of John L. Scott, answered that it is. Scott stated that the historically low mortgage rates, a stable economy and the reduction of multiple bid situations make it a good time to buy.

Tags: Home Buying, John L Scott, Seattle Real Estate

Well, not quite. When compared to a year ago, yes, King County’s active listings (single family homes & condos) are up 44.3% from the prior year…but that’s been the case for most of the year.

In actuality, when compared to September, the inventory level fell 2% in October to 14,240 listings in King County. Seattle’s overall inventory inched up slightly by 2.6% to 4,197 listings.

Pending sales in the county increased 7.4% and in Seattle by 9.8% from September to October. Compared to a year ago, pending sales are down 28.5% in the county and 20.5% in Seattle. Pending sales reflect properties that went under contract but have not yet closed. In other words, more buyers made home purchases in October compared to September, though fewer overall compared to the same period last year. The median price in county and city fell to $387,500 and $396,250, respectively.

The inventory absorption rate decreased to 6.0 months in the county and 5.3 months in Seattle. What this means is that if no new listings come on the market, it will take 6 months to sell the current inventory in the county and 5.3 months to sell the inventory in Seattle. A lower absorption rate indicates a seller’s market while higher rates reflect a buyer’s market. A year ago, Seattle’s absorption rate was 2.7 months and the county’s was 2.9 months. Currently, inventory levels in the county and city reflect a normal market environment.

For condo specific market information, please visit the Seattle Condo Blog’s Seattle Condo Sales Performance - October.

Source: NWMLS (single family homes & condos)

Tags: Absorption Rate, Seattle Housing Data

Housing Activity Still Slower Than Year Ago, But Showing Some Signs of Reviving

KIRKLAND, Wash. (Nov. 6, 2007) – Pending sales perked up around Western Washington in October, reversing four months of month-to-month declines, according to new figures from Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS). The report also shows some slowing in both listing activity and price appreciation.

Brokers reported 6,127 pending sales (offers made and accepted, but not yet closed) across the 19 counties served by Northwest MLS. That total includes 379 more transactions than September (a 6.6 percent gain), but still lagged activity of a year ago. Compared to the same month a year ago, October’s pending sales were down about 28 percent.

MLS members added 11,785 new listings to inventory – the fewest number since February when they added 11,333 new listings. With those additions, there were 47,381 active listings of single family homes and condominiums in the MLS system, about 31 percent more than a year ago.

The current selection includes 40,252 single family homes with an area-wide median asking price of $375,000 and 7,129 condominiums, listed at a median price of $289,900.

Read more »

Tags: NWMLS, Seattle Housing Data

There’s too many townhomes sprouting up throughout Seattle you say? Well, it certainly seems that way as virtually all new developments within the city limits are either condos or townhomes. And, as more and more townhomes replace single family homes it seems to stir up peoples ire. But is it really that bad?

Considering land scarcity and construction costs it’s not that feasible to build single family homes within the city. And, as the population continues to grow and housing demand increases, townhomes provide a optimal solution - creating both quantity to meet demand and an affordable option in light of increasing single family home values.

So, are townhomes taking over the city? Well, not really. Townhomes are limited to areas zoned for lowrise housing, notably those with L1, L2 or L3 classifications. Due to zoning requirements, most developers favor L2 or L3 zoned properties as they can maximize the number of units that can be built.

Seattle only has a limited number of L2 and L3 zoned properties compared to single family homes. Most of the L2/L3 zones can be found in specific areas namely around downtown Ballard, the Licton Springs area north of Green Lake, along Greenwood Ave & Lake City Way, Fremont, the edges of Queen Anne and Magnolia, the south end of Capitol Hill, as well as the Central area and parts of West Seattle.

Since the lowrise zones are located in pockets, townhome developments are concentrated together rather than distributed throughout the city, thereby giving the impression of a townhome invasion. Current zoning does protect the vast majority of the city from townhome developments though it seems to be at the expense of several neighborhoods.

Seattle’s department of planning and development provides several resources specifying zoning classifications.

This link (PDF) provides a fantastic graphical overview of the various zoning classifications by color. The map easily identifies the limited areas of the city that are zoned for lowrise development.
http://www.seattle.gov/dclu/Research/gis/webplots/smallzonemap.pdf

This link breaks the city into grids that shows classification by specific area (blocks).
http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/zoningmaps/zmapindx.htm

Finally, this link drills down to individual parcels within zoning classification borders.
http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Research/Zoning_Maps/default.asp

Tags: Green Lake, Seattle, townhomes

Construction at the former site of Seattle’s iconic Twin Teepees restaurant at 7201 Aurora Avenue has begun. The 4-story mixed-used building will include office space and a 24-unit apartment complex called the Tyee at Greenlake.

The Twin Teepees was designed by Delland Harris and opened in 1931 across the street from Green Lake Park. A fire in 2000 brought an end to the restaurant which was subsequently razed in 2001.

Back in 1942, a young Colonel Harland Sanders managed the restaurant where legend says he perfected a recipe for fried chicken. Ten years later the colonel went on to start Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Tags: Green Lake

The NWMLS August Market report. Same news really, increasing inventory, increasing prices, decreasing sales.

For the Puget Sound region encompassing King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties, selling prices rose about 5 percent from a year ago. The median price for the 5,975 sales of single family homes and condos in the four-county region that closed during August was $361,822; a year ago, the median selling price was $344,575.

A closer look reveals considerable variation in year-over-year price changes within the MLS service area. In King County, for example, the median price of a single family home (excluding condominiums) that sold last month was $477,345, a jump of more than 9.7 percent from a year ago. For single family homes in Pierce County, the median selling price rose 6 percent, rising from $275,000 to $291,500. In Snohomish County, sales prices climbed from $368,875 to $375,000, a gain of about 4.5 percent.

Read the full article here.

Tags: NWMLS

Housing Market in Western Washington Remains Relatively Healthy

KIRKLAND, Wash. (May 7, 2007) “ Unlike many regions of the country, the Puget Sound area continues to enjoy a healthy housing market, according to the latest figures from Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Condominiums are showing steady“ and in some areas very strong — demand.

Pending sales fell short of year-ago volumes, inventory is still growing, and prices are still rising to continue the pattern of recent months. Northwest MLS brokers tallied 9,156 pending sales (offers made and accepted, but not yet closed) during April, about 5.6 percent fewer than the same month a year ago. That total includes single family homes and condos.

Viewed separately, sales of single family homes slipped 7.5 percent from twelve months ago, while sales of condominiums increased by more than 4 percent.

Six counties in the NWMLS service area reported double-digit drops in pending sales. King County, which accounted for almost forty percent of NWMLS transactions, had only a 5.4 percent decline compared to a year ago.

Prices for last month’s closed sales of single family homes and condominiums area-wide rose 9.5 percent from a year ago. For the first time, the median selling price for single family homes and condos combined topped $400,000 in King County. Residences that sold and closed last month had a median sales price of $407,265.

Read more »

I’ve compiled 1st quarter and March condo performance numbers for Seattle’s condo market on my Seattle condo blog. The results include citywide and downtown core neighborhood figures.