The beautiful landscapes of the Pacific Northwest aren’t complete without our water views. From in-city waterfronts along our lakes and the majesty of the Puget Sound, to Seattle’s iconic floating home communities, there’s nothing like finding a piece of waterfront to call your own.
If you’re considering a change in lifestyle by purchasing a houseboat or floating home, SeattlebyDesign is particularly qualified to help. We’ve facilitated numerous transactions in every floating community on the lake and lived in several of them too! Our intimate knowledge about this unique property type has helped us become experts in all things floating homes which will serve you well as you plunge into this exciting lifestyle.
By that extension, we have decades of combined experience representing the purchase and sale of waterfront homes as well. Waterfront properties are generally associated with two undeniably attractive characteristics; one is cachet and the other is long-term value. Greater Seattle waterfront homes reflect both. Fresh and saltwater settings are available at a variety of price points across much of the region.
Whether you’re choosing the unique lifestyle of a floating home or attracted to a traditional waterfront property, it’s critical to work with a broker that has a keen understanding of these unique properties to ensure a smooth transaction. At SeattlebyDesign, we are committed to ensuring our clients have a transaction experience that’s as seamless as possible. And above all, we’re dedicated to successful outcomes, which often starts with educating our clientele.
Below we have 15 months of waterfront sales, from January 2019 through March 2020 across five subregions in Western Washington to provide our clients with the information they need before dipping their toe into the market. These geographic profiles have been designed to thoroughly understand and communicate waterfront selling activity in the markets we serve. As always, if you have any questions please contact our team—we’d be happy to help!
Seattle and the Eastside
In Seattle and the Eastside, residential waterfront selling transactions in proportion to annual waterfront sales peaked in June and July of 2019, compared with May and June of 2018. Proportions of selling transactions in those months were higher than in the preceding year, to 14.4 percent monthly in 2019 from 12.6 percent monthly in 2018. In October 2019, an “echo peak” of 12.0 percent of waterfront transactions formed. The July and October 2019 waterfront shares of annual waterfront transactions were substantially higher than the equivalent proportions of non-waterfront sales in those months to the annual non-waterfront totals: 10.3 percent in July, and 8.7 percent in October. The July 2019 peak in dollar-denominated selling volume was even sharper, at 16.0 percent of annual waterfront sales.
In this subregion, June, July, and October were the only months in which the monthly shares of waterfront sales in proportion to annual waterfront sales exceeded their respective non-waterfront shares. However, prospective waterfront sellers are reminded that even in this subregion with peak sales in late spring or early summer, 41.8 percent of waterfront sales during the year were closed during or after the month of August. In other words, the difference between the annual waterfront selling trend and the selling trend for all residential homes is not great and should not inhibit potential sellers from bringing their homes to market; nor should buyers expect greater concessions on prices in the slower months.
North and south of Seattle in 2019, waterfront residential selling was most active in June and July, compared with 2018’s busiest months of May and July. Sales in the peak month of July 2019 comprised 14.3 percent of the total for that year. The monthly proportion of annual waterfront sales in June was only slightly lower, at 14.0 percent; that was the first month in which this proportion exceeded that of non-waterfront sales. These compared with a June peak of 10.4 percent of annual non-waterfront residential sales. The monthly proportions of annual waterfront sales remained higher than those of non-waterfront sales through the end of 2019. Median selling prices of waterfront sales exceeded those of non-waterfront sales by amounts ranging from $80,000 in 2019 Q3 to $155,000 in 2019 Q4.
If you’d like to explore the full report covering 15 Washington counties and sub-regions, you’ll find access to that here. To search available floating homes currently on the market, dive in here.
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