Wendy Leung's Seattle Condo Blog

Living in a Seattle Church..

Six stories and sliding stained glass windows.  Pretty cool, start at half a million, but not sure if I'd like the relative lack of wide open floor plans (as opposed to lots of vertical space).

See below for a video tour.

 

Seattle Rents Expected to Rise 6% in 2012

Unlike the purchase and sales market, the Seattle rental marketing continues to power on despite bullish rental developers.  According to Dupre & Scott, rents were up 4.5% in 2011 and are expected to go up another 6% in 2012 and then 3% annually after that.  So I guess the good news is if you own a condo and don't see yourself selling in the near term due to soft pricing, looks like finding renters won't be a problem.

Seattle Condo Market December Update: Steady Sales from Lower Supply

Last December only had 689 condos for sale in Seattle, a drop of 16% from the previous month, and 30% fewer than December 0f 2010.  In contrast to shrinking supply, year-over-year December closed sales were up by 16%.  In fact, December 2011 ended with 22% more closed transactions than January 2011, good improvement...but not a home run. 

Median prices were off by 7% from twelve months ago landing at $234,000 in December and have been hovering under the $250,000's mark for the past 7 months. 

Supply absorption rate (based on closed sales versus inventory) showed sign of improvement from the beginning of the year.  In January, we had around 9 months of supply and the year ended with 5 months supply, moving from a strong buyers' market to a neutral market (favoring neither buyers nor sellers).

Overall, the year concluded with lower supply and higher sales from beginning of the year but median prices were still showing softness.  If the market continues the same momentum as the last few months with lower supply and higher sales, we might start seeing gradual pricing improvement.  Much like the national economy, things are getting slightly better, but it's a slow road.

 

Seattle Ranks #2 for Office Investment

Assuming what's good for the office and retail market is good for the condo market, Seattlelites have something to look forward to!  Of course, being best in the country right now is like being called one of the tallest dwarfs but we'll take what we can get right?

Seattle will be among the top five markets nationally for investment in office and retail properties over the next five years, according to a new national report by Santa Ana-based real estate firm Grubb and Ellis Co.   

Grubb & Ellis is predicting a “continued sluggish recovery” for commercial real estate in 2012, with gradual improvement in leasing and sales of commercial properties.

The growth of high-tech and bio-tech companies put Seattle second only to San Francisco among the U.S. markets predicted to be best for investment in office buildings. 

Here's the full article.  Not a bad way to start 2012 :-)

Seattle Condo Market Fairs Well In November 2011

November 2011 data is in for the Seattle condo market and all things considered, it was a pretty good month -- considerably more promising than October.

Highlights:

• Sales month over month were flat (which is actually good since we're now entering the holiday season) but when you compare year over year, we saw about the same number of sales from October 2010 to October 2011. November, on the other hand, saw sales go up a strong 44% from November 2010 to November 2011.
• Median prices recovered 7% from $226K in October 2011 to $240K in November 2011.
• Supply remained stable with only 824 units for sale (versus over 1,127 in June).

Have a Happy Holiday!

Wendy