Wendy Leung's Reviews on Seattle Condos | Seattle Condo Blog

Seattle More Popular than Obama and Romney

Not that it's so hard to be more popular than politicians but our fair city was recently ranked the most favorably viewed city in America!  

In theory, this should mean people will continue to want to move here from California and the East Coast for many years to come.

Coming in #1, Seattle had 57% of Americans polled saying they had a favorable opinion of the Emerald City (only 14% were unfavorable). Coming in second was the other Northwest city, Portland, with 52% favorable.  San Francisco came in the middle of the pack with 48% favorable and 29% unfavorable. The bottom: Detroit, Oakland, and LA.

Check out the full report. Stay loveable Seattle.

By Wendy Leung with Seattle Condo Review. A guide to Seattle condos exclusively for buyers and sellers. 

Seattle Condos Most Timeless Award Goes to 1521

By quite a large margin, our recent poll of the most timeless Seattle condo came in with resounding results -- didn't even need a runoff.  1521 came in numero uno with 52% of 100 votes followed by Escala at at 15% and Harvard & Highland at 10%.  

Congrats to the creators of 1521!  Years ago, a lot of folks were skeptical of the project partly due to the surrounding clientele (especially the needle exchange office which I believe has since been relocated) but over the years, 1521 has stood head and shoulders above all the other projects and still looks fresh and visionary even after the initial gala champagne bottles have long been put away and recycled.

By Wendy Leung with Seattle Condo Review. A guide to Seattle condos exclusively for buyers and sellers.

 

Seattle Condo Market Continues to Bump Along w/o Much Drama

Folks the March numbers are in and I've assembled a whole slew of charts and tables for your pleasure.  For those of you who aren't into curling up with a hot cup of coffee and staring at numbers, here are 4 highlights.

1. Even though there was 40% less inventory this March versus last March, there was about the same number of actual condos sold.

2. Number of units sold was up over 20% in March 2012 compared to Feb 2012.  First time we saw that big of a month over month improvement in a long time.

3. March 2012 median prices were up 15% versus February 2012.  First time we've seen a month over month increase in median prices since November 2011!

4. Prices are still soft compared to last year and there isn't any neighborhood where prices are higher in 2012 than they were in 2011 and while Belltown/Downtown is holding up well versus last year, even that neighborhood is still about 10% off of 2012 prices. 

Timeless Seattle Condo Projects?

Remember when there were new condos sprouting out of the ground all the time and the city was littered with shrimp cocktail launch events around award-winning diaromas?  Good times.

It's interesting to take a look back at some of the hotter projects after the initial shine has worn off and see which ones still hold the interest and cachet now that they're not brand new.  I'm curious which projects you think have held up well from a design and desire point of view.  Five years from now, which of the following projects do you think will be our equivalent of the classic black dress: always in style, desirable, and on the A list?

 

 

By Wendy Leung with Seattle Condo Review. A guide to Seattle condos exclusively for buyers and sellers.

Will Developers Finally Start Building New Condos?

Last week I asked for readers' questions and got a few great ones so I'll take on one of them here. SCR reader Darrel asks:

A lot of big projects were cancelled or put on hold. AVA, Insignia, Heron and Pagoda, 1 hotel, etc. Inventory is steadily dropping as the last units from Escala, Olive 8 and 1521 are selling out. With an increase in demand for Downtown and Belltown condos in the coming months possibly driving up prices, will this motivate developers to build more? Or do you think they will stick with apartments for now like Vulcan is doing?

Obviously, only time will tell and I'll be the first to admit if I could predict the markets, I'd be on Wall Street (the one in NYC).  I'm sure other readers will have different points of view so feel free to sound off in the comments section below. That said, here are my observations.  

1. There has been some good demand for lower priced condos -- particularly under the half million mark.  
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2. However, we still have a little over a year's supply of inventory for the higher priced condos ($1M>).
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3. Furthermore, prices haven't moved up materially in years and have been fairly flat this year.
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4. Moreover, since many owners are waiting for the market to improve (there are fewer units on the market than normal), there is probably fairly liquid supply lying in wait should things improve.  
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5. In summary, I don't expect to see many new condos breaking ground in the near future.  We'll probably start with investment units currently being rented out, then perhaps some apartment conversions, followed by a few brave developers down the road.

That's my 2 cents.  Curious to see what others think as well!

By Wendy Leung with Seattle Condo Review. A guide to Seattle condos exclusively for buyers and sellers.

Ask Wendy Questions about Seattle Condos

Hi Folks:

I'm experimenting with a new feature where SCR readers can submit Seattle condo questions and I'll pick a couple and answer them.  They could be questions about a particular condo, the market, the condo buying and selling process, working with a Realtor, etc.

Just post your question in the comments link here and I'll pick a few to answer of the coming weeks!

 

Smith Tower Gets Big Time New Owner: No Plans Announced Yet

Smith Tower, which was once supposed to be converted to luxury condos before the developer defaulted on the mortage, was auctioned off and purchased by Texas firm CBRE Capital Markets. No news of what they plan to do with the building but people seem to be hopeful the new owners will make long-deferred repairs and do something interesting.  

For what it's worth, CBRE seems to be a deep-pocketed company with recent debt financing transactions all over the country including some in Seattle such as a $50M+ loans to projects such as Lincoln Square, the Space Needle, and Hyatt Bellevue in addition to a having a commerical real estate services division with 29,000 employees.

For more info, I've summarized some useful links below:

CBRE 

NPR Story on Smith Tower (Includes audio interview with a family living in the penthouse.)

Seattle Times story (includes interviews with local real estate players).]

By Wendy Leung with Seattle Condo Review. A guide to Seattle condos exclusively for buyers and sellers.

Q&A with Harvard and Highland's Melissa Camp

A lot of people have been asking me about the Harvard & Highland project on Capitol Hill so I wanted to get an update on the project from the lead sales rep, Melissa Camp.  Please see her unedited replies to my questions about this unique project below!

Wendy: What's the most compelling thing that draws people to the project? 

Melissa: The value - there is no other product offering new construction design, quality and location such as this.

Wendy: Every project isn't right for every buyer; how would a buyer know H&H is the right fit for them? 

When people want the quality and feel of a single family home, but the benefit of maintenance free / lock n go lifestyle; all within a close proximity of the culture benefits of downtown Seattle.  All those puzzle pieces put together make the right fit.  It’s walkable to the ‘city’ restaurants but still within a timeless neighborhood of North Capitol Hill.

Wendy: Can you tell us a little about the remaining units available? 

Seattle Times says Downtown is "Booming"

Nice column this week by Jon Talton of the Seattle Times.  The basic gist is he believes Seattle's downtown avoided the morass of a lot of other cities and is on the upswng due to things like Amazon's growth, Viaduct project, Gates Foundation, inflow of downtown residents, and our great human capital.  

Many places dream about a "live-work-play"downtown. Seattle actually has one.

The biggest reasons: Seattle never allowed its downtown to collapse, especially losing all its retail to malls. Cities such as Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C., that allowed this have found it nearly impossible to reverse. Seattle didn't experience massive tear-downs, replacing buildings with surface-parking lots. Downtown fits into a larger central core fabric with attractive, affluent and even funky neighborhoods.

For Jon's full article, look here.

By Wendy Leung with Seattle Condo Review. A guide to Seattle condos exclusively for buyers and sellers.

Seattle Condo Neighborhoods Show Divergent Pricing Trends

February 2012 Seattle condo market data is in.  Here are the most interesting takeaways and some nice charts.

Good News

• Number of sales from January 2012 to February 2012 was up about 5%.
• Year-over-year sale volume from February 2011 to February 2012 were up about 15%.

 Mixed News

• Prices overall looked weak with February 2012 median prices coming in at $202,000 (last few months of 2011 were in the $230-40K range).

• West Seattle and Ballard/Green Lake had the biggest pricing pressure with median closed sale prices sinking from $202K to $112K in West Seattle and from $209K to $147K in Ballard/Green Lake.

• Not all neighborhoods faired badly.  In fact, median prices in Belltown/Downtown jumped considerably from $363K in January to $405K in February.  Queen Anne/Magnolia also showed nice strength in pricing with median closed prices rising from $171K to $190K from January to February.

WA Unemployment Rate Drops & Seattle Ranked #3 for Tech Startup Jobs

At least there is good news for January report on the job front.  GeekWire reported that unemployment rates have fallen lower than expected. Read more on GeekWire. 

"A new report out today finds that the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent during January as more than 13,000 jobs were added in various sectors.

New research also shows Washington gained more jobs last year than previously estimated. The data shows that Washington gained about 53,500 jobs in 2011, compared to the 26,600 jobs previously reported. Since the low point in the recession, the state has regained about 98,000 jobs, the state said."

In a related story, Payscale reported Seattle is the #3 city in America for tech startup jobs based on the number of jobs available and their average pay.

With all these jobs being offered, we can only hope this will help quicken our recovery for the economy in Seattle and hopefully, housing sales as well.

By Wendy Leung with Seattle Condo Review. A guide to Seattle condos exclusively for buyers and sellers.

Smoke-Free Condos?

I was recently talking to a client who's neighbor is a serious smoker of the herbal varieties so much so that the whole hallway fills with that pungent scent every night (apparently before bedtime).

Technically, the person is smoking in his own unit so it's unclear if strong odors from smoking are any different from the neighbor that likes to fry fish or cook exotic stews.  

I shared this article with my client so figured I'd share it here as well.  The net of it is it's hard to change the rules of a condo with a simple majority though grandfathering the current offenders might be one way to do it.  

Amending condo documents is not easy. The legislators who enacted the condo laws wanted to make sure that a small minority (or even a slim majority) could not change certain basic issues — issues that directly affect all owners.

Proponents and opponents of the proposed smoking ban would mount a vigorous campaign. One method many associations use to encourage reluctant owners to vote in favor of a proposal (such as limitations on the number of investor owners) is to “grandfather” current owners. In other words, current owners may smoke in their units but when they sell, the unit must be smoke-free forever.
 

Here's the full article.

By Wendy Leung with Seattle Condo Review. A guide to Seattle condos exclusively for buyers and sellers.

 

Seattle is Both a Sellers' and Buyers' 2BR Market (Depending on Who You Are....)

Recently, I was doing some comparable analysis for a client who owns a large two bedroom condo in Belltown.  Despite the mushy economic climate, there is a considerably low inventory for sale in this mid price group ($400k-$700k).   Intrigued, I decided to pull more comparables in Belltown and Downtown as well as other price groups to see what their absorption rates are. (Absorption rate is the time it would take the market to consume all the units for sale based on the current number of units on the market and the most recent data on how many units are selling per month.)  

Not surprisingly, the lower price group (under $400K) are selling quite well; there is low inventory and demand is stable (mostly first time home buyers and opportunistic investors), thus pricing has seemed to stabilize.   

Seattle Condo Market Update January 2012- Median Prices Lower Than 2011

• January data is in. The big story is median prices which dropped 13% from $234,000 to $208,000 (the biggest month over month decline in a long time).  
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• At the neighborhood level, Queen Anne and Magnolia had the toughest January with a 20% drop in median prices. Ballard and Greenlake, on the other hand, had a stronger showing with median prices rising 18% from December 2011 to January 2012.
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• One encouraging spot is pending sales in January were up 6% compared to December 2011. Also, despite Queen Anne/Magnolia median price pressure, pending sales were up 50% from December to January. 

Viaduct and Seattle Condos

As I was driving South on 99 to the Stadium, it was great to see some progress with the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement project. The south end of the Viaduct had been demolished and the traffic has been shifted onto a new bridge near the stadiums. After more than 10 years of discussion, planning, design and prepping work, we can expect the deep bore tunnel work to begin next year. Yes, finally. With the removal of the Viaduct along the waterfront, which is estimated around 2016, I had to wonder which condos would benefit from it.

Well, I think a few of them like Belltown Court, Belltown Lofts, Pomeroy, Site 17, Fix Building, HillClimb, and Our Home Hotel condo will be better off. Let's take a closer look on why that's the case.