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My last post focused on distressed sales in the counties around Seattle, a huge area. This post focuses on the eastside cities across Lake Washington from Seattle.
The hardest hit area for distressed property sales on Seattle’s eastside is what we Realtors call area 600 (see bottom of the chart above) which encompasses north Kirkland, Juanita, Duvall, Woodinville, Bothell, and Kenmore. Although all of these communities are fairly close to the eastside employment centers, the commute can be longer for many people. Parts of Woodinville and Duvall are still fairly rural in nature. Rural areas around Seattle have been hit harder with the decline in the real estate market. The higher number of distressed sales in these areas fits this model. More people want to live closer to work these days.
The area with the fewest number of distressed home sales was Mercer Island (area 510). Mercer Island is also one of the more expensive eastside cities. Situated between the eastside communities and downtown Seattle, it’s a desirable place to live. It’s a bedroom community located near the top economic centers with top notch schools and an easy commute to Seattle and the eastside.
Kirkland (area 560) is a very desirable location because it has good highway access, is close to jobs, and has a good school system. But the city has the second highest rate of distressed sales, which is surprising. The community encompasses a variety of housing styles and prices.from multi-million dollar waterfront homes to starter homes in the $200,000+ range.
The other eastside cities of Bellevue, Sammamish, Issaquah, and the closer in neighborhoods of Redmond, near Microsoft, had distressed sales ranging from 16-19% of the total real estate sales in the third quarter of 2011.
The theme here as in the last post is close-in locations near jobs is the better place to be. The eastside cities that fit this bill had the least amount of distressed sales.
