Seattle Condos | Seattle Condos for Sale | Reviews by Marco & Wendy

Our New and Improved Seattle Condominium Building Map

Since our blog's inception back in 2006, our Seattle Condo Map has been a place where our readers could go to find information about the various buildings in and around the Downtown Seattle core.

We decided that it was time to revamp SCR's Seattle Condo Map, expanding it to include all buildings in Seattle, to include more detailed information about each building and to create it in a format that allows our readers to search it for information important to them that might not be readily available either online, or within other real estate sites that rely only on information from the MLS.

We are very proud to announce that our new and improved Seattle Condo Map has launched!!!

Our new map contains information about all condominium buildings in the city of Seattle! It is a constant work in progress as condo buildings go through updates, condo buildings become apartment buildings, apartment buildings become condo buildings, new condominium buildings are proposed and new construction buildings are completed. The information contained in our Seattle Condo Map will continue to be updated so please make sure you check back in with the map often. We intend to add links to our Condo Review articles to each building as we review them so our write ups with pros, cons and stats about the building will be available via one click from the map listings. This is something we are actively working on and think will be an amazing resource tool for those looking to buy or sell their condo. 

A couple things to know about our new map:

• There is a directory of buildings that is organized by area - Downtown Area, Northeast Seattle, Northwest Seattle, Queen Anne & Magnolia, South Seattle, Central Seattle and West Seattle
• The buildings are also color coded to denote the following categories - luxury, proposed, under construction, historic or co-op
• You can search the map if you open it up - for example, you can search 'concierge' and see all of the buildings in Seattle with concierge services

Since this map will forever be dynamic, we encourage you, as our readers, to let us know if any buildings are missing or if any of our information is incorrect. We want to do our best to provide the most accurate information we can and we need you all to make that happen!

We hope you find the map interesting and helpful and we hope it is a tool you will bookmark and enjoy using for many years.

Check the map out here! Or from the navigation bar on our website.

Cheers-
Marco and Loren Kronen

Two Daniels Real Estate Condominium Developments in Seattle

Daniels Real Estate, the Developer behind the Gridiron project in Pioneer Square, has it's hands in two new condominium projects coming to Seattle.

The first is a project located on First Hill, at 8th Avenue and Columbia Street. This project, known as 800 Columbia, will be a luxury 30 story tower with 287 residents. Rumors are that it will be condominiums. The building will have a rooftop deck, dog run, gym, bike storage, game room, party room, dining room and theater room.

The other is the project located near Pike Place Market at 1631 2nd Ave, now known as The Emerald. On this project, they are not the Developer but instead are the project investors' development consultant along with Create World. This new construction condo building has already broken ground and will be 40 stories and have 265 units. Emerald will have one, two and three bedroom condos ranging in size from 540 to 1,700 square feet. It will have retail on level one and amenities including a gym, yoga studio, pet area, guest suite and rooftop level party room and outdoor space.

We look forward to hearing pricing and anticipated sales and completion dates.

By Marco Kronen with Seattle Condo Review: A guide to Seattle downtown condos.

Rendering of The Emerald from Hewitt Architecture

November 2014 Seattle Condo Stats

Each month we go back and take a look at condo market sales here in Seattle as reported by the MLS.

We first take a look at the whole city of Seattle to get a general overview of our area’s condo market and then we drill down by neighborhood using the MLS areas focusing on the areas that have the largest concentration of condos here in our city.  Those areas we closely track are:

• Capitol Hill/Central/Madison Valley (area 390)
• Queen Anne/Magnolia (area 700)
• Downtown/Belltown/SLU (area 701)
• Ballard/Fremont/Wallingford/Phinney (area 705)

We then use this data and information to make forecasts and to help buyers and sellers make decisions on their real estate needs.

Seattle Condominiums with Concierge Staff

If you are looking for a condominium in Seattle but need one specific amenity or another, we know it can be hard to locate that information. We will be writing a series of articles that each feature a different condo amenity that will help make it easier for you to narrow in on buildings that contain the key condo building feature most important to you.

We will start with highlighting buildings that feature concierge staff. A nice bonus for the residents, a concierge is there to collect your packages, greet your guests, and answer your questions about the building, call you a cab, make reservations at restaurants, amongst many other things.

Here are the buildings that currently feature concierge staff:

DOWNTOWN 

• 98 Union
• Cosmopolitan
• Escala
• Fifteen Twenty-One
• Four Seasons
• Madison Tower (shared with Hotel)
• Market Place North
• Newmark Tower
• Seaboard

 BELLTOWN 

• 5^th and Madison
• Arbor Place
• Avenue One
• Bay Vista Tower
• Bellora
• Concord
• Continental Place
• Cristalla
• Ellington
• Gallery
• Mosler
• Olive 8
• One Pacific Tower
• Parc
• Seattle Heights
• Trio
• Vine
• Waterfront Landings

 SOUTH LAKE UNION

• 2200 Westlake
• Enso

 FIRST HILL

• Elektra
• First Hill Plaza
• Meridian

 BALLARD

• Canal Station
• Ballard Place

 What you will notice by the list is that you are more likely to find a concierge the closer you live to the urban city center and when living in a high rise building. There are very few buildings with concierge staff outside the Belltown/Downtown core and neighborhoods such as Capitol Hill, Fremont, Wallingford, and Pioneer Square are lacking any buildings with this amenity.

By Marco Kronen with Seattle Condo Review: A guide to Seattle downtown condos.

 

Seattle Condo Summer 2013 Update

As we wrap up summer and head into our fall real estate market, it's a good time to look back at how our condo market did over the summer months and see where the numbers fall in the areas we regularly track.  In this update we are also adding a new area at the request of several readers who asked us to also report on the Ballard /Fremont/ Phinney/ Wallingford neighborhoods.  This is known as area 705 within in our MLS. 

In general, pricing for all of Seattle condo sales is up on a year-over-year comparison to 2012 summer months.  Up 10% in June, 12% in July, and up 16% in August.  Again these are over last year's prices for each respective month.

Despite the pricing increases,  buyers still seem to be motivated to purchase and the numbers confirm this as we saw a consistent trend up for the number of closed condo sales throughout the Seattle condo market when comparing on a month-over-month basis throughout the summer.  On a year-over-year basis we saw June being somewhat flat (slight decrease below 2012) but July and August showed large increases in the number of closed condo sales over 2012 at 21% and 24% higher respectively.

With both prices as well as the number of sales increasing, one big factor that is  interesting is the number of new listings for buyers to choose from is not coming up that much. For the summer months, all three posted lower number of new listings over the same months last year.  21% less for June, July was 14% less, and August had 2% fewer new listings coming on the market over last year.  My guess for this is that many would-be sellers are still upside down on what they owe on their mortgage balances in relation to their condo values, but as prices continue to edge up, it will be interesting to see when this turning point of increasing inventory will start to kick in.  It is important to note , however, that month over month, the number of listings did trend up this summer from June through August, so perhaps that will continue.  We will see.

Diving into the stats for the specific neighborhoods, this summer we saw area 701 (Downtown, Belltown, South Lake Union) with the highest median prices with a blended average of the median prices coming in at  $418,000 and area 705 (Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford) at the lowest of the areas in this update that we track at $240,000 for the blended average of the median prices over the summer.  In the middle was area 390 (Cap Hill, Madison, Central) at $296,000 and Queen Anne/Magnolia (area 700) at $303,916 for the blended average of the summer month's median sales prices.  Just for comparison, city wide,  the blended average of June, July and August's median prices came in  $294,983 which was a 6% increase over the summer months of  2012.  

So no major surprises that prices are up and sales are up, but with inventory remaining somewhat flat we still have some interesting times ahead in the Seattle condo market.  Barring any major increases in interest rates, it seems to me that prices should still continue to inch up until we see more condo inventory coming to the market. 

Insignia Condos Seattle - Finishes, Price Points and More

After attending the Insignia Seattle Broker Preview today we learned quite a bit about the upcoming project. Here are some of the highlights~

South Tower Pricing

1 Bedroom (floors 2-8)
1 bedroom and 1 bedroom + den, 1-2 bathrooms
737-1,181 square feet
Priced from low $400,000

1 Bedroom (floors 9-27)
1 bedroom and 1 bedroom + den, 1-2 bathrooms
773-792 square feet
Priced from high $400,000

2 Bedrooms (floors 2-8)
2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
1,009-1,596 square feet
Priced from low $600,000

2 Bedrooms (floors 9-27)
2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
1,003-1,523 square feet
Priced from low $700,000

2 Bedrooms (floors 28-40)
2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms + den, 2 to 2.5 bathrooms
1,003-2,311 square feet
Priced from high $800,000

Condo Review - Belltown Lofts in Belltown

Belltown Lofts in Belltown
66 Bell St, Seattle



Belltown Lofts is both the conversion of a 1908 warehouse as well as the addition of newer building built in 2000. Current key point of interest, I feel, for this building is its potential future benefit from the removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct which is currently within about 12 inches of the noisy elevated structure. This should drastically improve the curb appeal, increase light, and reduction of noise in the immediate area once the deep bore tunnel is complete and the viaduct is removed.

The stats:

• 62 units
• Brick building is 3 (tall-ceiling) stories and the addition is 6 stories
• Built in 1908 and 2000
• 1 bedrooms and 2 bedrooms
• Range in size from 550 to 1685 square feet
• Not all have parking but some do have 1 space, only a few have 2 spaces
• Some of the units in the brick side of the building are two level loft style units
• 5 units have sold in the last year ranging in price from $170,000 to $600,000
• There are 2 active and 1 pending listing currently on the market at the time of this post
• HOA dues include: garbage, master insurance policy

How Will the New Seattle Tunnel and Removal of the Viaduct Affect Condo Views and Values? Part 2 of 4

In Part 1of this Blog Series we covered how the Seattle waterfront is undergoing an epic change that will forever change the face of the city from the water’s edge.  That change is the replacement of the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep bore tunnel, and the revitalization of the Alaskan Way waterfront.  Condominiums near the south portal of the new tunnel in Pioneer Square were highlighted along with the likely impact on them, both good and bad.

Hopefully, this series will bring some clarity and help folks make decisions about where they might want live if they are looking into buying. Or if you currently own a Seattle condo in the affected areas, if and when you might want to consider selling and moving up to something different or staying put and enjoying what’s to come.

For part 2 of this series, we move north from the South Portal of Tunnel (Pioneer Square and the Stadium District) up to the West Edge and Market neighborhoods. We felt it was perfect timing, as within the last couple weeks the famed boring machine, named Bertha, arrived at the Seattle Waterfront by way of ship.  She will soon be placed in service to start boring the tunnel beneath our city. Isn’t she massive?
Photo courtesy of WSDOT

For reference:  The West Edge is considered the neighborhood that borders downtown Seattle’s business district on the west “edge” along 1^st Avenue with Pioneer Square to its south, and the Pike Place Market to its north.

First off, both of these neighborhoods will have the new deep bore tunnel running directly beneath them in some areas.  Some condo buildings including One Pacific Tower, in fact, have sold underground easement rights to allow for the tunnel to be bored beneath it.  It remains to be seen if any of the underground work will even be noticeable.  But it might be worth the occasional vibration from construction and Bertha to benefit from the future view outlooks, traffic noise reduction once the viaduct is gone, and access improvements to the waterfront.


Buildings Most Likely Affected in:
The West Edge Neighborhood 

It's a Seller's Market: Seattle Condo March 2013 Update

I took a look at March 2013 data and pretty much every neighborhood has the same story.  Sales up. Median prices up.  Inventory flat.  

If you were one of those condo investors waiting for the market to pick up to avoid having to have a unit sit on the market too long, your time may have come.  You'll not reap huge windfalls from a pricing point of view but you'll certainly see some action and at a price that's considerably more than you would have gotten a year ago.

In terms of neighborhoods, Belltown/Downtown and Queen Anne/Magnolia both had almost double the units sold in March as they did in Feb but number of listings available was either flat or down versus February.  

 

Condo Review – Madison Tower in Downtown

Madison Tower is a condominium community perched atop Hotel 1000 in Downtown. Built in 2006, this building has modern interiors, great amenities and many of the units boast lovely water and city views.

The stats:

• 47 units
• 25 stories
• Built in 2006
• Units range from 1-3 bedrooms and have 1.5 or 3.5 bathrooms
• Range in size from 805 to 3,740 square feet
• All have 1, 2 or 3 parking spaces in the Valet  run garage
• 5 units sold in the last year ranging in price from $425,000 to $4,000,000
• 1 condo is available at the time of this article – 1 2bd 2.5ba home listed for $899,000
• Amenities: Rooftop deck with BBQ, fire pit, pet area and water views, gym, business center, priority for meeting room bookings and hotel restaurants reservations, 24 hour concierge (shared with hotel) and access to the hotel amenities (for a discounted fee) including virtual golf simulator, room service, in home catering, housekeeping, laundry and dry cleaning, in home massage, car wash and treatments at Spaahh in the hotel
• HOA dues include: water, sewer, garbage, central hot water, cable TV, earthquake insurance, 24 hour concierge, master insurance policy