Seattle Real Estate Trends – August 2015

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Steve Laevastu

Boy, could we have had a more amazing summer? Maybe mother nature was trying to make up to us Pacific Northwesterners for the devastating end to the Superbowl. I am excited for the fall and I am excited to see our Hawks play some ball again. Go Hawks!

This has also been quite the summer for Seattle real estate. Our market seems to have naturally slowed down just a little over the last few weeks as we cram in last vacations before the kids start school. Stock market volatility has also caused some to pause, but the fact is Seattle is a great place to invest in and some blips on the DJI aren’t going to change that. Through August, our inventory is still very low in Seattle (we haven’t had even 1,000 properties on the market for any month this whole year) and our pending numbers are high.

But let’s take a closer look at what the end of summer real estate market is like in Seattle and some key neighborhoods:

Inventory and Pendings

Below we compare the number of active listings (supply) and pendings (demand) for several of the key Seattle neighborhoods including Central Seattle, Queen Anne and Magnolia, Belltown and Downtown, Ballard and Greenlake, and North Seattle. Our table includes single family residences as well as condos comparing July 2014 and 2015.

market-update-2015-08-a

Median Sales Prices

Median sales prices for Seattle residential and condos was up sharply in August, rising to a new all-time high of $537,800. This was 5.97% higher than the previous high of $507,500 set in June. Looking at year over year, August of 2014’s sales price median was $417,500, so we are looking at a 21.56% year-over-year increase.

Looking at the individual neighborhoods, Wow! Check out Belltown/Downtown. That is a significant increase which requires some explanation. In August of 2015 there were 137 sold homes and condos in the area ranging in price from $199,500 to $2,579,610. 27 of these were over $1,000,000. The former median price was $384,375, but there were only 5 of the 137 that sold were under that former median price. Compare that to last year when there were only 42 sales, the lowest was at $169,000 and the highest was $1,800,000 (with only five over $1,000,000). This makes a big difference. Does this mean prices have truly gone up over 80% in one year or is the product on the market different? The product on the market is different, there are more people buying condos as the price for homes is on the rise, so those two factors together is what I see happening in that particular neighborhood.

market-update-2015-08-b

As I type this, there is massive speculation regarding whether or not the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at their meeting on September 17^th. If they do, this could change the real estate landscape a bit, but as I said before, Seattle will continue to be a great place to invest. Please contact me – your Seattle Home Guy – at sold@windermere.com or give me a call at (206) 226-5300 to discuss what this market means for you.

Seattle Real Estate Trends, July 2015

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Steve Laevastu

Usually we see Seattle real estate take a small breather in July. Not so this year. Although Seattle’s inventory has increased since its low point in January of 830, it has only increased 16.2% to 982 properties for sale in July. The number of homes under contract did decrease a bit to 1,122 from the high this year of 1,270 in May.

Here is a closer look at what is happening in the Seattle real estate market and trends for some its key neighborhoods:

Inventory and Pendings

seattle-real-estate-trends-2015-07_01

All five of my listings are currently pending and were snapped up quick!

Ravenna Area Residential Listed at $800,000 – pended in 7 days
View Ridge Area Residential Listed at $550,000 – pended in 26 days
University District Area Residential Listed at $525,000 – pended in 9 days
Ravenna Area Residential Listed at $439,950 – pended in 19 days
Townhome in Shoreline Listed at $375,000 – pended in 7 days

Median Sales Prices

The median sales price for Seattle for residential and condos decreased very slightly last month to $506,050 from the previous high of $507,500 the month before. However, year over year, the median sales price is up 11.7% since last July when it was $453,150. I expect median sales prices to continue to increase through the rest of 2015 until we can satiate demand either through more homes on the market or a decrease in buyers (which could be imminent if interest rates rise).

seattle-real-estate-trends-2015-07_02

There is still time to sell if you want to take advantage of these market conditions. Things may start to change if the Federal Reserve increases interest rates in September (which, according to sources such as the Wall Street Journal, is likely to occur soon). Even if you are looking for an assessment of how your asset has appreciated, or may appreciate in the coming years, please contact me – your Seattle Home Guy – at sold@windermere.com or give me a call at (206) 226-5300.

Seattle Housing Market – July Sets New Seattle Median Sales Price Record $560,000

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Steve Laevastu

SEATTLE HOUSING MARKET UPDATE

July 2015 set more records for Seattle real estate!

The new report summarizing July activity shows year-over-year gains in pending sales, and prices.

The median price of a Seattle home is now A NEW ALL TIME RECORD $560,000 which is up 9% from one year ago when the median price of a Seattle home was $525,000.

There were 816 pending sales in July, which is up 11% from twelve months ago when 733 pending sales were reported.

SO WHAT HAPPENED TO SEATTLE REAL ESTATE IN JULY?

In July there were 674 ACTIVE listings in the Seattle real estate market.

In July 816 homes went PENDING.

Which means that 1 out of every 0.8 homes on the market went pending in June.

This 0.8 ratio implies a 0.8 month supply of inventory.

The 0.8 ratio is a strong SELLER’S MARKET INDICATOR.

THE PAST 7 MONTHS HAVE SEEN THE BEST SELLER RATIOS EVER FOR SEATTLE ABSORPTION RATE.

Any ratio under 3.0 is a seller’s market indicator.

Any ratio between 3.0 and 6.0 is a neutral market indicator.

Any ratio over 6.0 is a buyer’s market indicator.

The story remains LACK OF INVENTORY.

In July there were 681 ACTIVE listings in Seattle.

The 674 ACTIVE listings is 65% under our 10 year average for July inventory.

Another way of looking at it is that we are only at 35% of our average inventory for this time of year.

THE 674 ACTIVE listings is the 8th lowest month ever recorded. Slightly higher than the all time low which was set 7 months ago (January 2015) with 581.

Needless to say, the 674 ACTIVE July listings is the lowest number ever recorded for JULY in Seattle.

The July ten year moving average for inventory is 1,944 ACTIVE listings.

Also if we compare July 2015 to July 2014 we will note that even though inventory was low in July 2014 (1143) it was even lower in July 2015 (674). Inventory is down 41% vs 2014.

In the month of July the AVERAGE list price vs sales price for Seattle was 104%.

So the average home sold for 4% over the asking price.

This is the 6^th month in a row that the AVERAGE list price vs AVERAGE sales price has been over 100%

And real estate is always LOCALIZED. What I mean is that CERTAIN areas are moving better than other areas. Let’s take a look at list price vs sales prices for some different neighborhoods in Seattle for the month of July

Ravenna 109%
Wedgwood 106%
Laurelhurst 106%
Madrona 106%
Green Lake 105%
Ballard 105%
Beacon Hill 105%
View Ridge & Hawthorne Hills 104%
Montlake 104%
Lake City 104%
Queen Anne 103%
Magnolia 103%
Seward Park 103%
Capitol Hill 103%
West Seattle 102%

THE CHART AND GRAPH BELOW ARE REAL ESTATE STATISTICS FOR THE CITY OF SEATTLE.

July_Graph

July_chart

If you have any questions or if I can be of any assistance please contact me.

Thank you,

Steve Laevastu

cell 206-226-5300

sold@windermere.com

Seattle Median Sales Price Sets NEW RECORD IN MAY!

Posted on June 14, 2015 by Steve Laevastu

SEATTLE HOUSING MARKET UPDATE

May 2015 set more records for Seattle real estate!

The new report summarizing May activity shows year-over-year gains in pending sales, and prices.

The median price of a Seattle home is now A NEW ALL TIME RECORD $550,000 which is up 15% from one year ago when the median price of a Seattle home was $479,000.

There were 939 pending sales in May, which is up 16% from twelve months ago when 807 pending sales were reported.

SO WHAT HAPPENED TO SEATTLE REAL ESTATE IN MAY?

In May there were 661 ACTIVE listings in the Seattle real estate market.

In May 939 homes went PENDING.

Which means that 1 out of every 0.7039 homes on the market went pending in May.

This 0.7039 ratio implies a 0.7039 month supply of inventory.

The 0.7039 ratio is a strong SELLER’S MARKET INDICATOR.

THE PAST 4 MONTHS HAVE SEEN THE BEST SELLER RATIOS EVER FOR SEATTLE ABSORPTON RATE.

Any ratio under 3.0 is a seller’s market indicator.

Any ratio between 3.0 and 6.0 is a neutral market indicator.

Any ratio over 6.0 is a buyer’s market indicator.

The story remains LACK OF INVENTORY.

In May there were 661 ACTIVE listings in Seattle.

The 661 ACTIVE listings is 64% under our 10 year average for May inventory.

Another way of looking at it is that we are only at 36% of our average inventory for this time of year.

THE 661 ACTIVE listings is the 5th lowest month ever. Slightly higher than the all time low which was set five months ago (January 2015) with 581.

The May ten year moving average for inventory is 1,828 ACTIVE listings.

Also if we compare May 2015 to May 2014 we will note that even though inventory was low in May 2014 (995) it was even lower in May 2015 (661). Inventory is down 33% vs 2015.

In the month of May the AVERAGE list price vs sales price for Seattle was 104%.

So the average home sold for 4% over the asking price.

The 104% list price vs sales for Seattle TIED THE RECORD!!!

The 104% record was originally set last month (April 2015).

The past 2 months in a row have seen the average list price vs sales price in Seattle at 104%

Wedgwood 113%
Ravenna 113%
Green Lake 107%
Capitol Hill 106%
Montlake 105%
Ballard 105%
View Ridge & Hawthorne Hills 104%
West Seattle 104%
Queen Anne 103%
Magnolia 102%
Beacon Hill 102%
Seward Park 102%
Lake City 101%
Laurelhurst 100%
Madrona 97%

THE CHART AND GRAPH BELOW ARE REAL ESTATE STATISTICS FOR THE CITY OF SEATTLE.

June_2011_Graph

June_2015_chart

If you have any questions or if I can be of any assistance please contact me.

Thank you,

Steve Laevastu

cell 206-226-5300

sold@windermere.com

Seattle Real Estate Trends, May 2015

Posted on June 11, 2015 by Steve Laevastu

Just how low can our inventory go? According to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS), our the number of homes (residential and condos) available for sale in the City of Seattle was only 992 in May. Although this isn’t the lowest it has been in the last 10 years (the lowest was 836 in January, 2015), this is the lowest inventory in a May since 2005 by a longshot. The second closest May had 1,451 listings in 2013.

Here is a closer look at what is happening in Seattle and some key neighborhoods:

Inventory and Pendings

While Seattle’s inventory is waning, the demand, measured by homes under contract or pendings, is on the rise. Seattle has 1,330 homes under contract in May, which is again the highest number on record for a May. The only other month that had more pendings in the last 10 years was March, 2005 with 1,362.

marketupdate-may2015-1

Median Sales Prices

Seattle hit a new median home sales price record in May at $482,500. This is a 9.67% change from May of 2014. The neighborhood report below is a bit of a mixed bag, even showing some losses, but also some big gains!

marketupdate-may2015-2

I would love to talk with you about your real estate investment goals or let you know where your home stands in relation to today’s market. Contact me at sold@windermere.com or give me a call: (206) 226-5300.

Seattle Real Estate Trends, April 2015

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Steve Laevastu

Listing Inventory

Below is a table comparing the number of active listings (supply) and pendings (demand) for several of the Seattle neighborhoods I specialize in: Central Seattle, Queen Anne / Magnolia, Belltown / Downtown, Ballard / Greenlake, and North Seattle. We are comparing April 2014 with April 2015.

market-update-2015-04_1

Homes in the Seattle market are selling like hotcakes this spring. The last few homes I have listed have sold very very quickly. I currently have three listings on the market – one is just coming on today in Ravenna (NWMLS #785368 – a 1,860 square foot remodeled home with Mt. Rainier views priced at $650,000), one in Whittier (NWMLS #781505 – a 1,880 square foot Cape Cod priced at $500,000 and on the market 7 days), and one in View Ridge (NWMLS #781486 – a 3,280 square foot Mid-Century Modern with a view of the lake and mountains priced at $1,200,000 and on the market for 11 days). I expect they will all sell in a matter of days.

Median Sales Prices

Median Sales Prices continue to creep up due to the inventory shortage which I predict will continue as long as our population is on the rise due to Seattle’s strong economy and there isn’t enough new construction to satiate the demand.

Below are the median sales prices for the neighborhoods I track, comparing April 2014 with April 2015. There are significant price increases in Queen Anne / Magnolia, Ballard / Greenlake, and North Seattle. Central Seattle and Belltown/Downtown have a number of condominium sales which are a slightly different animal than the predominantly residential sales we see throughout the rest of the city.

market-update-2015-04_2

This spring and summer is turning out to be one of the best times to sell in years. Once interest rates start rising, however, those trends may change. If you would like to know where your home stands in relation to the market, please give me a call or send me an email: (206) 226-5300 or sold@windermere.com. Don’t look back and say, “If only we had sold then” Now might be your moment!

Seattle Average House Price – Depends On How You Look At The Stats!

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Steve Laevastu

Below is the graph and chart for the AVERAGE Seattle house price over the past 10 years

Seattle_10_Year_Avg Graph

Now there are many ways you can interpret this data and graph.

The average Seattle home price through the first 3 months of 2015 is $558,033
The average Seattle home price is up 21% vs 2014.
The average Seattle home price from 2013 to 2014 increased only 2%
The average Seattle home price over the past 10 years has increased 11%. So only an average of 1% a year since 2005.
The average Seattle home price has increased 96% since 2011. Or 24% a year since 2011.
The average Seattle home price is virtually the same as it was since 2008. Therefore we have not seen any appreciation since 2008 – However, a lot has happened since then!!

Seattle Real Estate Trends, March 2015

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Steve Laevastu

The Seattle area’s inventory challenges are continuing as we finish out the first quarter. This real estate market is allowing sellers to sell for top dollar as long as they are priced at market when they list. There are also opportunities for people moving out of the area (even to Snohomish, Pierce, or Kitsap counties and further out) as though inventory is starting to affect those areas as well, the overall demand is not as high as it is in Seattle.

Here is a closer look at what is happening in Seattle and some key neighborhoods:

Inventory and Pendings

Seattle’s overall inventory has grown by 12 listing since December (859 in December versus 871 in March). In the meantime, pendings have leaped by 538 in December to 1,268 for March. It is unusual to have that number of pendings compared to the total inventory.

Median Sales Prices

Consistency is the word for March! Just as the above inventory has decreased throughout, pendings have increased, prices have increased as well. Belltown is just beginning to see a comeback after a temporary lull, but pendings have skyrocketed (up 100% over last year) and prices are up a modest 2+%. The price increases in the other areas have seen a much stronger increase.

Amazon Set to Lease More Office Space in Downtown Seattle

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Steve Laevastu

According to the Seattle Times, Amazon has leased a full city block in South Lake Union which was originally occupied by Troy Block. This is a two building development with 817,000 total square footage leased. The first of these two buildings will be open in 2016 and the other in 2017. The total square footage occupied by Amazon could accommodate 50,000 employees which would make Amazon the largest employer in Seattle.

While there are some concerns about Amazon occupying 25% of Seattle’s available inventory of premium office space, I would like to focus on what this could mean for our local real estate market.

As you probably are aware, we have a shortage of available homes in our Seattle real estate market. There is a shortage of condos, residences, and rentals causing rental rates to increase excessively. There are some apartment buildings in the area that are renting apartments in excess of $4,000 per month for a two bedroom apartment just over 1,000 square feet. The City of Seattle and King County have turned density and growth into hot, highly debatable, topics. Unless we allow for areas of higher density, house prices are going to continue to rise, causing would-be workers to be priced out of the urban core due to high rents or housing prices.

The second hot topic is transportation. Sound Transit and Light Rail are going to be a part of our long-term solution for dealing with the increase in traffic that more jobs in the Downtown core creates. Although I mentioned Amazon earlier, Facebook is also expanding Downtown according to Geekwire, along with Zillow, Twitter, Tableau, and Google which means more employees at these companies as well.

What do homeowners and would-be homeowners need to know? If you are renting, please talk to a real estate agent about what the next five years could look like for you in terms of rent versus your purchasing a home or a condo. There may be loan programs available that will allow you to purchase property with a lower down payment than you expected.

I will be keeping an eye on what Seattle and King County are doing to handle the density problem which could affect homeowners in our area. In other cities where additional dwellings are allowed on a city lot, the value of those lots have gone up significantly. I will be sure to keep you in the loop if something like that comes to the Seattle real estate market! In the meantime, please contact me with any questions you have about our local housing market: (206) 226-5300 or email sold@windermere.com.

Seattle Real Estate Trends, February 2015

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Steve Laevastu

As Seattle’s spring real estate market gets underway, the lack of available Seattle homes for sale continues to be the leading story:

Inventory and Pendings

In fact, many homes that are coming on the market are getting snapped up very quickly. All of my listings are now pending with an average of only 8 days on market. These listings range from $550,000 to $900,000 and cover Wedgwood, Fremont, Ravenna, and Hawthorne Hills neighborhoods.

Below we compare the number of active listings (supply) and pendings (demand) for several of our Seattle neighborhoods including Central Seattle, Queen Anne and Magnolia, Belltown and Downtown, Ballard, North Seattle and Greenlake neighborhood. Our table includes single family residences as well as condos comparing February 2014 and 2015. seattle-trends-2015-02-1

Median Sales Prices

Although inventory is down throughout the city, we are seeing a mixed bag when it comes to median sales price averages comparing last month to the year before. We have a high of +16.29% in Ballard and Greenlake while we have a 9% decrease in Belltown and Downtown with a variety in-between as inventory adjusts throughout Seattle.

seattle-trends-2015-02-2

I would love to talk with you about your real estate investment goals and help you make a plan, whether that is a five month plan or five years. Contact me at sold@windermere.com or give me a call: (206) 226-5300.