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Need to Recycle? Come on Down to Windermere Real Estate For free Recycling This Saturday
Need to Recycle? Come on Down to Windermere Real Estate For free Recycling This Saturday
There Are Some "Hot" Real Estate Markets Around Seattle
There are some hot real estate markets in the Seattle area. These “red” hot areas are shown below. The usual suspects of Queen Anne and Capital Hill experienced a hot market in February. The newest suspect, East Bellevue and Redmond near Microsoft, my neck of the Seattle real estate market, was also going strong. In that area, 35% of the available homes sold last month, the best odds on the eastside. It’s exciting to see, since it’s been years since we’ve had “red” or a seller’s market on the eastside.*
I keep hearing about homes selling quickly and with multiple offers in a variety of price ranges. Since most of the eastside is a balanced real estate market,** this only happens for the best homes. It happens for the “red” hot homes with hot prices and in beautiful condition. There are number of other homes that take a while to sell, often with price reductions before getting the offer.
Hotter King & Snohomish County real estate markets 2-28-11
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What do the colors mean?
*Red means it’s a sellers’ market, a sellers’ advantage. Homes take less than 3 months to sell.
**Yellow means a balanced market between buyers and sellers. Homes on the average take 3-6 months to sell.
Green means it’s a buyers’ market. Homes take longer than 6 months to sell.
If you take each area as shown on the map and look to the area number on the side of the map, it will tell you how long it would take to sell every home currently for sale if no other home came up on the market in that area.
What do the 3 digit numbers on the map mean?
The map is divided into the numbered areas as defined by our Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS). Downtown Bellevue is area 520 and East Bellevue is area 530, as an example.
Can you see from the map how the real estate was doing in your city did last month? If you’d like more specific information for your neighborhood, please feel free to contact me.
How Badly is Seattle's Eastside Real Estate Affected by Distressed Sales
“Distressed Homes Sales Dragging Prices Down” screamed the print version of The Seattle Times, while the online version shouted “Median Home Price in King County Drops in February, Dragged Down by Bank Repos.
Pretty scary headlines. Scary headlines certainly attract readers. Distressed home sales, bank repos and short sales, are out there and affecting home values, but in varying degrees depending on which neighborhood is being discussed. If you read further down in the article:
The percentage of King County single-family homes that fit the “distressed” category in February varied widely by area, according to Windermere’s analysis.
By lumping all of King County together, it gives an inaccurate picture of Seattle real estate. Seattle real estate is far more localized. The neighborhoods of Queen Anne and Capitol Hill are usually the strongest performing areas, while the eastside suburbs of Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, and others are doing better than most of King County. The suburbs of Mercer Island and Medina have few distressed properties for sale.
The chart below gives a picture of the 2010 distressed property sales for all the counties around Seattle. My focus is on Seattle’s eastside neighborhoods, since it’s the market where I work. The eastside data is broken out from the rest of King County, because it’s usually different than the rest of the county. The pattern for distressed sales activity can be seen through 2010. The eastside had less distressed properties for sale than the rest of King County. I expect a similar pattern to continue in 2011, although the numbers may be different. When the 1st quarter numbers are released, I’ll report those numbers.
Irrespective of the distressed sales issue, homes are selling well in some areas. Prices are less than they were, but there are fewer homes for sale in many neighborhoods. So the old law of supply and demand is working in these neighborhoods. Near Microsoft in Redmond, there were three home sales that closed this past week. All the homes sold in less than 8 days. One was for full price, another for slightly over, and one sold for about 2% less than the asking price. Neighborhoods in Kirkland have a lot less homes for sale than is typical.
Distressed home sales are a part of the picture of Seattle eastside real estate, but they are not the complete picture. Too bad the screaming headlines didn’t balance more of the good news with the bad.
2010 Distressed Properties by Seattle Area Counties
What is happening in your neighborhood? Are homes selling? Are there a lot of distressed sales?
How Many Real Estate Sales Were on Seattle’s Eastside in January 2011 Compared to 2010?
[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bellevue,+WA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.403932,58.271484&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Bellevue,+King,+Washington&ll=47.610377,-122.200679&spn=0.310148,0.910492&z=10&output=embed&w=425&h=350]
How did January, 2010 compare to January, 2011 in your neighborhood?
(Click on the cities below to see real estate trends for the past 5 years. You’ll find the median pricing for each city and whether the number of homes for sale and the number of sales went up or down. The odds of selling a home in each area is a result of the number of homes for sale divided by the actual number of home sales, so if 10 out of 100 homes sold, the odds of selling would be 10/100 or 10%)
The plateau: Sammamish, Issaquah, North Bend, and Fall City
The odds of selling a home were 18%.
Median sales price hardly dropped: $499,900 to $493,975. Home values have been more stable here than anywhere else on the eastside.
The number of homes for sale increased by 4% and the number of home sales decreased by 4%.
A total of 118 homes sold.
The odds of selling a home were 28%.
Median sales price decreased by 9% to $409,925 from $450,000.
The number of homes for sale was down by 16% and sales were down by 14%.
A total of 54 homes sold.
The odds of selling a home were 19.5%.
Median price decreased from $559,900 to $460,000.
The number of homes for sale dropped by 10% and sales were down by 30%.
A total of 63 homes sold.
Woodinville/Bothell/Kenmore/Duvall/North Kirkland
The odds of selling a home were 18%.
Median price was down from $389,725 to $359,900.
The number of homes for sale declined by 3% and sales were down by 8%.
A total of 105 homes sold.
The odds of selling a home were 18%.
Median price increased to $506,950 from $499,950, a 1% increase.
The number of homes for sale declined by 19% and sales were down by 35%.
A total of 52 homes sold.
The odds of selling a home were 21%.
Median pricing was up from $899,000 to $1,000,000.
The number of homes for sale decreased by 11% and sales increased by 48%.
The total of 40 homes sold.
Redmond/Education Hill/ Carnation
The odds of selling a home were 20%
Median pricing decreased from $524,990 to $376,250.
The number of homes for sale decreased by 5% and sales decreased by 8%.
A total of 52 homes sold.
If you’d like more specific information about your neighborhood or home, feel free to contact me.
Seattle Economist's Predictions for the 2011 Real Estate Market, Part II
Matthew Gardner, of Gardner Economics, spoke at our annual Windermere Real Estate/East, Inc kick-off meeting today. Mr. Gardner shared his thoughts about the local economy and Seattle real estate. Here are some of the highlights:
- Seattle will recover more quickly than other parts of the west.
- Growth will be slow and from the center, Seattle, out to the suburbs.
- The private sector has increased job growth in the last 4-5 months and will continue to do so.
Private Sector Employment in the Seattle Area
- There will be more price corrections for those hi-rise condos that have not sold both in Seattle and Bellevue.
- Buyers are still looking for good deals and feel uncertainty remains.
- Prices are stable and, hopefully, will stay that way this year.
- Banks are not releasing all of the bank owned homes to sell. The banks would go bankrupt if they flooded the market with these homes, causing prices to drop.
- Mortgage rates will increase: over 5% this year, 6% in 2012, and 7% by 2014.
30 Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Predictions
Here’s a few of Mr. Gardner’s thoughts for 2011 from the first of the year.
What do you think? Is this what you see happening in the area and with real estate?
Windermere/Yarrow Bay's Recycling Event Was A Success!
Recycling Event at Windermere Yarrow Bay in Kirkland
1 Green Planet
Recycling "Stuff"
The water heaters, computers, scanners, modems, old bikes all came today to my Windermere/Yarrow Bay office in Kirkland. There was a steady stream of cars through the parking lot through the whole day. More than 3 truck loads of “stuff’ was brought in and will be recycled. Way to go! None of the “stuff” will be thrown in a landfill.
Thank you for bringing your “stuff” and not dumping it. Thanks to 1 Green Planet for a job well done. What a great way to start the year!
This Past Month Seattle Eastside Real Estate Was Balanced Between Buyers and Sellers
Seattle Area Real Estate 11-30-10
The Seattle-eastside market is balanced. Surprised by that? Here’s why I say this: A balanced market is when homes on average are selling in 3-6 months. This means there was a more level playing field between buyers and sellers during that particular month, in this case November 2010. Given the news we hear, it’s surprising to think of the eastside real estate market in this way.
Does this mean it’s no longer a challenge to sell a home? Absolutely not. The competition is still very stiff. There are a lot of homes for buyers to buy. A market in which it takes homes 3-6 months to sell is still a challenging, but not a terrible, real estate market. In a balanced market, some homes sell quickly for a good price, others take a lot longer to sell with a steep discount in the the asking price, and still others don’t sell at all. I’m still going to be telling home sellers to have the best home out there and expect a sale to take a long time to happen. Homes that sell have to be a really good value to be the ones that sell. Believe it or not, this is pretty typical of a more balanced, realistic market. A realistic market is not a fast paced real estate market. A realistic market will have some distressed home sellers. Although this is a cause of major concern and I am not minimizing the situation for those who are distressed sellers, the majority of eastside homes are NOT distressed sales.
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What do the 3 digit numbers on the map mean?
The map is divided into the numbered areas as defined by our Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS). Downtown Bellevue is area 520 and East Bellevue is area 530, as an example.
What do the colors mean?
Red means it’s a sellers’ market, a sellers’ advantage. Homes take less than 3 months to sell.
Yellow means a balanced market between buyers and sellers. Homes on the average take 3-6 months to sell.
Green means it’s a buyers’ market. Homes take longer than 6 months to sell.
If you take each area as shown on the map and look to the area number on the side of the map, it will tell you how long it would take to sell every home currently for sale if no other home came up on the market in that area.
How Did November, 2010 Real Estate Sales Do In Your Seattle-Eastside Neighborhood?
[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bellevue,+WA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.403932,58.271484&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Bellevue,+King,+Washington&ll=47.610377,-122.200679&spn=0.310148,0.910492&z=10&output=embed&w=425&h=350]
In 5 of the 7 Seattle-eastside real estate areas, sales percentages were up by a lot from last year! Sales increases ranged from 13.5% in Redmond/Carnation to 47% in Redmond/East Bellevue.
We also saw a huge drop in the number of homes for sale on Seattle’s eastside over the past few months. A higher percentage of home sales and less homes for sale is good news. The market is still challenging. The homes with the best value proposition of price and condition grab the attention of the buyers. These are homes that are selling.
How did November, 2009 compare to November, 2010 in your neighborhood?
(Click on the cities below to see real estate trends for the past 5 years. You’ll find the median pricing for each city and whether the number of homes for sale and the number of sales went up or down. The odds of selling a home in each area is a result of the number of homes for sale divided by the actual number of home sales, so if 10 out of 100 homes sold, the odds of selling would be 10/100 or 10%)
The plateau: Sammamish, Issaquah, North Bend, and Fall City
The odds of selling a home were 16%.
Median sales price decreased from $552,500 to $474,000.
The number of homes for sale increased by 12% and sales were down by 15% from last year.
The odds of selling a home were 22%.
Median sales price decreased to $416,500 from $479,000.
The number of homes for sale was down by 12% and sales were up by 47%.
The odds of selling a home were 22%.
Median price decreased from $685,000 to $599,419.
The number of homes for sale dropped by 10% and sales were up by 26%.
Woodinville/Bothell/Kenmore/Duvall/North Kirkland
The odds of selling a home were 15%.
Median price was down from $411,750 to $405,000.
The number of homes for sale declined by 3% and sales were up by 41%.
The odds of selling a home were 17%.
Median price decreased to $549,950 from $739,000.
The number of homes for sale declined by 16% and sales were up by 13.5%.
The odds of selling a home were 15%.
Median pricing was down from $996,500 to $829,500.
The number of homes for sale decreased by 9% and sales decreased by 3%.
Redmond/Education Hill/ Carnation
The odds of selling a home were 16 %
Median pricing decreased from $559,900 to $525,000.
The number of homes for sale decreased by 3% and sales increased by 16%.
If you’d like more specific information about your neighborhood or home, feel free to contact me.
Have a terrific holiday season and Happy New Year!
There's No Sign of a Seller's Market in Seattle Real Estate
Seattle Area Real Estate Map Showing Different Market Performance 10-31-10
The lack of “red” showing a seller’s market in Seattle area real estate is no big surprise. However, it’s good to see the market was more balanced in some Seattle area neighborhoods in October.
A balanced market is when homes on average are selling between 3-6 months, which means there was a level playing field between buyers and sellers in those areas for that particular month. A buyer’s market means the homes on average are taking longer than 6 months to sell and a seller’s market means the homes take less than 3 months to sell.
A real estate market is labeled a buyer or seller’s market depending on how long it took the homes to sell that month. Since the sales can vary each month, the type of real estate market can very easily change, going back and forth between a buyer or seller advantage.
Even though it’s more challenging for sellers, there are homes that stand out and sell with multiple offers or for full price. Look at the overall real estate market, look at the market in the neighborhood, and then look at the specific home and how well it’s priced for that market. When making a pricing decision, all of this data is important.
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What do the numbers on the map mean?
The map is divided into the numbered areas as defined by our Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS). Downtown Bellevue is area 520 and East Bellevue is area 530, as an example.
What do the colors mean?
Red means it’s a sellers’ market, a sellers’ advantage. Homes take less than 3 months to sell.
Yellow means a balanced market between buyers and sellers. Homes on the average take 3-6 months to sell.
Green means it’s a buyers’ market. Homes take longer than 6 months to sell.
If you take each area as shown on the map and look to the area number on the side of the map, it will tell you how long it would take to sell every home currently for sale if no other home came up on the market in that area.
How Did October, 2010 Real Estate Sales Do In Your Seattle-Eastside Neighborhood?
[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bellevue,+WA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.403932,58.271484&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Bellevue,+King,+Washington&ll=47.610377,-122.200679&spn=0.310148,0.910492&z=10&output=embed&w=425&h=350]
Ok, the real estate market is slower, that much we all know, but it’s not dead and there are homes selling. These are the homes that stand out compared to the competition, because they show well and are seen as a value. Today’s pricing is similar to 2005 pricing. I’ll post another piece which shows these numbers.
Sales were down by a huge amount in Woodinville, Kenmore, Bothell, Duvall, and North Kirkland. The sales dropped by 42% from last year.
The number of homes for sale in King County has dropped below 13,000 for the first time since early May. On Seattle’s eastside, the number of homes for sale is down by about 200 homes. These numbers are headed in the right direction.
In “Microsoft land”, the neighborhoods of Redmond and East Bellevue near Microsoft’s home base, the sales prices actually went up by about 1% in value. Remember, the median pricing for any month will reflect the sales for that month and it is important to look at several months or more to see the real trend. I wish I could say this month’s increase was the norm, but if you look at past posts and the charts in the link above, you’ll see this is not the case.
Expect to see more homes come off the market as we head towards the holidays. We started the year with 9700+ homes for sale in King County, which was the lowest number of the year. So if you plan to sell next year, think about getting on the market early, when your home will have less competition.
Happy Turkey Day!
How did October, 2009 compare to October, 2010 in your neighborhood?
(Click on the cities below to see real estate trends for the past 5 years. You’ll find the median pricing for each city and whether the number of homes for sale and the number of sales went up or down. The odds of selling a home in each area is a result of the number of homes for sale divided by the actual number of home sales, so if 10 out of 100 homes sold, the odds of selling would be 10/100 or 10%)
The plateau: Sammamish, Issaquah, North Bend, and Fall City
The odds of selling a home were 20%.
Median sales price decreased from $509,000 to $477,500.
The number of homes for sale increased by 16% and sales were down by 9% from last year.
The odds of selling a home were 18%.
Median sales price increased to $449,900 from $445,000.
The number of homes for sale was up by 2% and sales were even with last year.
The odds of selling a home were 15%.
Median price decreased to $514,500 from $592,500.
The number of homes for sale dropped by 1.5% and sales were down by 28%.
Woodinville/Bothell/Kenmore/Duvall/North Kirkland
The odds of selling a home were 11%.
Median price was down from $429,975 to $403,450.
The number of homes for sale declined by 2% and sales were down by 41%.
The odds of selling a home were 19%.
Median price decreased to $488,900 from $500,000.
The number of homes for sale declined by 7% and sales were down by 9%.
The odds of selling a home were 9.5%.
Median pricing was down from $1,150,000 to $948,000.
The number of homes for sale decreased by 9% and sales decreased by 27%.
Redmond/Education Hill/ Carnation
The odds of selling a home were 16 %
Median pricing decreased from $449,995 to $474,950.
The number of homes for sale increased by 8% and sales decreased by 32%.
What real estate activity have you seen in your neighborhood? If you would like more specific information about your neighborhood or home, feel free to contact me.
