Seattle Housing Buzz

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

The Master Builders Association of King County is hosting its second Tour of Homes this month. The tour will be held on three consecutive weekends (Friday - Sunday) from Noon to 6:00 PM between September 14th and September 30th.

The Tour of Homes spans both King and Snohomish Counties with properties (condos, single family, townhomes) ranging from $250,000 to $1,895,000. Guide books with property information and driving directions are available for free at QFC stores.

Tags: Master Builders

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

Soon home buyers will be able to view home search listings right on their computer desktop. John L. Scott Real Estate is launching a Desktop Delivery tool that’ll enable home buyers access to the most up-to-date home search results. Users who download the gadget will receive new listings that meet their home search criteria on their desktop. The tool updates every two hours and works only with Vista.

According to Lennox Scott, John L. Scott’s CEO, “Visitors can download a gadget for any (and every) saved search, enabling them to have the most current, relevant home search information right on their desktop. Scott said “It’s like having a miniature slide show of your favorite homes for sale right at your finger tips.”

In the past six months, John L Scott has seen a 14% increase in its Property Tracker home search accounts. With over 100,000 accounts, the company notes that home buyers want to receive new listings as soon as they hit the market. The desktop tool provides a simple and immediate means of delivering the information to home buyers.

John L. Scott Real Estate has been an industry technology leader introducing many innovative internet tools and features for buyers and sellers, including high-definition and bird’s eye view images, the neighborhood wizard mapping tool and sold comparable data.

Tags: Home Search, John L Scott

I thought this was an amusing little tidbit of real estate news. While conducting a home search real estate agent Beau Betts noticed that Deborah Arends, the antagonist on 60 Minutes’ Redfin piece, took over a property that was previously listed with Redfin for nearly 100 days. Sometimes experience and service do matter.

Tags: Redfin

Inman News, a real estate media site, recently spotlighted a series feature several innovative Seattle-based real estate related companies at InmanTV.com. The interviews were conducte at Zillow’s office by Joel Burslem and provides some interesting insights.

Click on the links below to view the interviews:
Zillow

Redfin

John L. Scott

Estately

Tags: Inman, John L Scott, Redfin, Zillow

The Sellisius Blog Tour USA made a quick stop in Seattle on Wednesday, the latest on their zig zagging cross country real estate blogging trek (view route) which started in New York eons ago. Their final destination is the Inman Blogger Connect in San Francisco.

During their one-day visit, Rudy & Joe of Sellsius, plus a handful of local and Canadian real estate bloggers, toured the headquarters of Zillow and Redfin and hung out at the Pike Place Market.

I tagged along on the Zillow and Redfin office visits. I enjoyed the time at Zillow, meeting Drew and DavidG, listening to the lively debate between Joe and DavidG on Zillow’s tactics and partaking in their fantastic views high atop the Wells Fargo Center in downtown.

From the polished offices of Zillow we hiked over to Redfin in Pioneer Square. Claiming they’re in the process of moving to the Dexter Horton Building…cluttered, cramped & shabby chic came to mind walking around Redfin. They were friendly folk and I had the opportunity to meet Matt of urbnlivn.com fame. Plus, I scored a Redfin mug and toy plane (which doesn’t fly very well BTW).

The annual Street of Dreams begins July 14th and will run through August 19th. This year, the event is located at Quinn’s Crossing near Echo Lake in Snohomish.

The show features 5 homes ranging in size from 4,200 to 4,750 square feet priced up to $2 million.

The show is open daily from 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM and tickets cost $18 for adults with parking and bus shuttle at Woodinville High School.

Four of the homes are in the MLS, click here to view the listings.

Today, John L. Scott Real Estate launched an new search feature allowing users to pinpoint searches to a specific neighborhood or even a city block. The new feature is called the “Neighborhood Wizard” and works by allowing users to use a polygon tool to draw their own search parameters.

Based on Microsoft’s polygon tool technology, John L. Scott is the first real estate company to utilize this feature.

John L. Scott was the first real estate company to incorporate Microsoft’s Virtual Earth technology and provide sold listing data directly to the public, leading the real estate industry as one of the most forward thinking, innovative companies.

Using the new search feature

1. Start by visiting John L. Scott’s redesigned home page and click on a state:

2. Using the mouse, hover the rectangular box over the desired area to zoom to that location:

3. Above the map search screen the new “Neighborhood Wizard” button appears (You can also recenter or zoom into a specific area). Upon clicking the button, the mouse will change to a crosshairs (”+”) and instructions will appear:

4. Close Up of the “Neighborhood Wizard” button:

5. Click on a starting point and drag the mouse to begin drawing the desired search area. Click on the mouse to add a new point and continue:

6. To complete the drawing area, return and click on the point of origin (the blue dot) or click on the “Done” button”:

7. The results will automatically appear on the map when the shape is complete. You can also use the zoom in / out and scrolling options.

8. You can also refine your search future by utilizing filters on the left side of the map:

Then, view listing information by clicking on the “View property details” link.
This is a great way to narrow a search to a specific neighborhood, block or condo building, thus only showing the available properties you’re interested in.

Tags: John L Scott