Central Seattle includes, among many others, the communities of Broadmoor, Capitol Hill, Denny Blaine, Madrona, and Washington Park. The Washington Park Arboretum is one of the world renown institutions in this area. Garfield High School, the state’s 12th ranked public high school is located here.29 There are over a dozen SEVP schools in this area, including the Northwest School just blocks from downtown, Seattle Preparatory School overlooking Portage Bay, Holy Names Academy in Stevens, and The Bush School on the north side of Harrison Ridge.30 Three of the nation’s leading hospitals are proximate—Virginia Mason, Harborview, and Swedish Medical Center—and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is at South Lake Union. Though not in this area, the Amazon campus is very close by.
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Market Spotlight: Belltown & Downtown Seattle
Belltown is named for William Nathaniel Bell, one of the original settlers whose heavily forested land became downtown Seattle. The Belltown/Downtown area is where many Seattle landmarks like Pike Place Market and Smith Tower are found. Fortune 500 companies Nordstrom and Expeditors International are headquartered here. Among the many ongoing projects downtown, work began in June 2015 to lay the foundation for Weyerhaeuser’s new headquarters in Pioneer Square, to be opened in 2016; and the Pioneer Building on First Avenue has been purchased for redevelopment as co-working space and suites for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The pioneers’ clapboard houses are long gone and virtually all recorded sales are now of mid-rise and high-rise condominiums in this vibrant, 21st century city.
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Introducing The Market Report: Puget Sound Real Estate Trends & 2015 Year In Review
We are proud to present the Market Report: Puget Sound Real Estate Trends & 2015 Year in Review, a comprehensive look at the 2015 real estate market in an exploration of seven key counties of Western Washington: King, Snohomish, Kitsap, Pierce, Jefferson and Island counties, as well as 29 neighborhoods for our current and prospective clients. The report touches on macroeconomic trends, the primary demand drivers influencing our regional real estate market in addition to micro markets that vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood.
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Market Update: October 2015
October’s numbers are in and inventory continues to wane for King County residential homes, down 15% compared to last month and 40% year over year. The median listing price was just under $530K, with an average sale price of $427K, up nearly $40K compared to the previous year. Buyers came out strong, as homes were on the market for an average of just 28 days, down 30% from last year’s numbers. In downtown Seattle, condo inventory was down 15% from the previous year but rose slightly compared to last month. The median sale price held steady from month to month but was up $35K from last year’s average.
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Want to Sell Your Home? The Spring Selling Season May Be Coming Early This Year!
If you’re considering selling your home in 2014, now is the time to get ready. Not next month, not next week, not tomorrow. Right now.
Why? Because buyers are already on the hunt.
The Internet is the new curb appeal
Last month will likely be remembered for polar vortexes, widespread snow, and historic traffic jams. Lost in the shuffle is that while American’s were sitting inside trying to stay warm, they were looking at houses for sale on the Internet.
Experian Marketing Services released its monthly most visited real estate website rankings earlier this week for web traffic in January. The results are eye popping.
Web traffic to real estate websites was up 25% from December to 364 million visits. Zillow led the way with over 57 million visits and Trulialimped into second at over 30 million visits.
If you’re considering selling and your home is not yet online, then every day you’re missing out on thousands (or even millions) of potential buyers viewing your home.
Even more incentive for buyers
Spring is coming, and that is certainly driving a lot of the interest in homes currently listed for sale. But there are other factors at play.
Mortgage rates have declined over the past month and are currently trending back toward 4% for traditionally structured, well qualified loans. This is a significant development for buyers, as interest rates are a huge driver of home affordability.
For example, a traditional 30 year, $150,000 mortgage at 4.5% would have a monthly payment of $760. If rates declined to 4.25%, the payment would change to $738.
For borrowers on the edge of qualifying for a mortgage, that $22 per month savings could make the difference between getting a loan approval or not. Over the life of the loan, that 0.25% difference saves the borrower $7,963!
For buyers, the time is now!
Buy low and sell high, right? For buyers, the time to buy low is quickly ending, creating a sense of urgency to buy now before prices rise too high or interest rates return to more historically normal levels.
According to CoreLogic and reported by Realtor.org, home prices in 2013 saw the largest percentage increase across the board since 2005, north of 11% as of December. The appreciation was most pronounced in the states that were hit hardest in the real estate collapse: Nevada rose 23.9%, California 19.7%, and Michigan 14% rounding out the top three.
Buyers are ready. Are you?
The spring selling season will be in full swing sooner than you think. Rates are low, there is urgency to buy now, and buyers are already coming out of their winter slumber. If you’re planning to sell you home in 2014, you need to be ready now. Don’t miss out on the perfect, well qualified buyer because you waited a moment too long.
Enrico Pozzo, Barry Bergner & The SeattlebyDesign Team
Original Post: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/15/want-to-sell-your-home-the-spring-selling-season-m.aspx
Busy Week for SeattlebyDesign
Luxury Real Estate Headlines: First Week in February 2014
Mortgage Rates Hit Three-Month Lows as Stocks Dip
One upside to the downturn in the U.S. stock market is a sharp drop in mortgage rates. Those rates follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond and on pricing in agency mortgage-backed securities; as investors rush to the comparative safety of the bond market, yields fall and so do rates.
It’s not a perfect correlation, however, since there are other factors weighing on today’s lenders, such as new regulations.
The average rate on the 30-year fixed conforming mortgage hit 4.34 percent Friday, down from 4.50 percent just a week earlier, according to Mortgage News Daily. Lenders haven’t offered rates that low since November.
“This correction is bigger than I would have expected,” said Matthew Graham, COO of Mortgage News Daily, who points out that this week’s jobs report could send rates right back in the other direction.
A weak report out Monday morning on U.S. manufacturing in January was well below expectations and the weakest since May. That is only adding to the flight from stocks and the boon to bonds. Demand for mortgage-backed securities spiked right at 10 a.m., when the report was released.
The report itself also builds a case for the potential that we could be seeing a slowdown in the broader economy, which may show up in the jobs report Friday.
“The pressure is now on for the economy to show a rebound in February,” wrote analyst Peter Boockvar of The Lindsey Group.
The rate moves may seem small, and they are. In fact, for every quarter of a point drop, the average monthly mortgage payment on a $200,000 loan falls by just $30. The big impact is entirely psychological.
When rates suddenly drop, borrowers rush to refinance (if it’s worth their while), and some buyers jump off the fence. The trouble right now is that the wider economic picture may be having a greater psychological impact on housing.
“I think it won’t be a help to the housing recovery if the drop in rates is happening because the overall U.S. economy (and global one for that matter) is slowing down,” said Boockvar.
Rates for the very best borrowers at the most aggressive lenders could hit 4.25 percent Monday, which has some questioning how low they can go and for how long.
Original Post: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101384967
King County Home Prices Rise 10.5 Percent for 2013
Single-family home sales in King County ended 2013 on a high note, reaching a median price of $419,825 in December, up 10.5 percent over the prior year.
Buyers closed on nearly 1,800 houses, 3 percent more than the prior December, according to figures released Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
The inventory of homes for sale in King County dipped to 3,127 active listings in December, down from 3,820 in November, but so did the number of pending sales — mutually accepted offers that haven’t yet closed.
Snohomish County also saw double-digit appreciation over the year: The median price for single-family homes sold in December was $306,000, up 11 percent.
Pierce County saw the lowest annual appreciation in the three-county Seattle metro area — just 3.9 percent to a median $213,000 — but a 12 percent jump in homes sold over the year.
Originally posted by: Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com On Twitter @sbhatt
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Climb by Most in Seven Years
Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose in October from a year ago by the most in more than seven years, signaling the real-estate rebound will keep bolstering household wealth in 2014.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property prices in 20 cities climbed 13.6 percent from October 2012, the biggest 12-month gain since February 2006, after a 13.3 percent increase in the year ended in September, a report from the group showed today in New York. The median projection of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 13.5 percent advance.
A dwindling inventory of foreclosed properties has helped restrict the supply of homes for sale, pushing up prices even as higher mortgage rates cool demand. The real-estate market will probably get its next boost from gains in employment that are lifting consumer confidence in the economic expansion.
“There’s certainly room for home prices to continue rising in the coming year,” said Dana Saporta, an economist at Credit Suisse in New York, who projected a 13.7 percent advance in prices in the year ended in October. “As home prices continue to rise, more and more homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages will see their financial situations improving. Just getting out of that underwater position should be a big help to the economy.”
Stock-index futures held earlier gains after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index maturing in March climbed 0.2 percent to 1,838.5 at 9:19 a.m. in New York.
Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from year-over-year gains of 11 percent to 14 percent. The S&P/Case-Shiller index is based on a three-month average, which means the October figure was influenced by transactions in September and August.
Monthly Increase
Home prices adjusted for seasonal variations rose 1 percent in October from the prior month, the same as in September. That matched the Bloomberg survey median.
The month-over-month price gains were led by Miami, which showed a 1.9 percent increase, followed by Atlanta and Detroit at 1.8 percent. Property values rose in all 20 metropolitan areas, with the smallest gain coming in at 0.3 percent in Denver.
Advances in home equity may be harder to come by as Federal Reserve policy makers begin to trim stimulus, causing mortgage rates to climb. Fed officials said on Dec. 18 they will trim monthly bond purchases intended to spur the expansion to $75 billion from $85 billion starting in January.
Fed Policy
“The key economic question facing housing is the Fed’s future course to scale back quantitative easing and how this will affect mortgage rates,” David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee, said in a statement. “Other housing data paint a mixed picture suggesting that we may be close to the peak gains in prices.”
Unadjusted prices climbed 0.2 percent in October from the previous month after a 0.7 percent gain in September.
The year-over-year gauge, which uses records dating back to 2001, provides a better indication of price trends, according to Karl Case and Robert Shiller, creators of the index.
All 20 cities in the index showed a year-over-year gain, led by a 27.1 percent advance in Las Vegas. Values climbed 10.9 percent in Chicago, its biggest advance since 1988. Charlotte andDallas showed their largest increases in record-keeping going back to 1987 and 2000, respectively.
Property values are climbing even as rising mortgage rates cool demand. Sales (NHSLTOT) ofpreviously owned homes declined for the third consecutive month in November, reaching the lowest level of the year, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed earlier this month.
Mortgage Rates
The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.48 percent in the week ended Dec. 26, compared with 4.1 percent at the end of October, according to McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac. It was at 3.35 percent a year earlier.
A report from the real-estate agents’ group yesterday signaled the slowdown may have run its course. Contracts (USPHTMOM) to purchase previously owned homes rose last month for the first time since May. Economists consider pending home sales a leading indicator because they track contract signings. Existing-home sales are tabulated when a deal closes, usually a month or two later.
Other parts of the market are rebounding. Purchases of new homes exceeded projections in November, holding near a five-year high. Sales declined 2.1 percent to a 464,000 annualized pace, following a revised 474,000 rate in October that was the strongest since July 2008, Commerce Department data showed last week.
Housing Starts
Builders began work on more houses in November than at any time in the past five years to try to keep up with demand, other Commerce Department figures showed.
Homebuilders such as Los Angeles-based KB Home (KBH) see the rise in interest rates as a short-term “pause” for buyer demand that won’t crimp a pickup in the housing recovery next year.
“Higher mortgage rates, higher home prices and lower consumer confidence due to uncertainty in Washington triggered a pause among homebuyers who are now being more cautious,” Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Mezger said on a Dec. 19 earnings call. “Affordability is at attractive levels, demographics remain strong and there’s pent-up demand due to delayed household formation” that will support the market in 2014.
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Current Previous 3-Mth YoY% Index
MoM% MoM% Annual % Change Level
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US Composite 0.18% 0.68% 8.98% 13.61% 165.91
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Las Vegas 1.18% 1.33% 23.95% 27.05% 127.23
Miami 1.12% 0.76% 11.23% 15.78% 173.63
Detroit 0.95% 1.45% 8.05% 17.29% 94.79
Phoenix 0.94% 1.18% 9.09% 18.06% 144.49
Los Angeles 0.86% 1.11% 17.13% 22.06% 214.65
Charlotte 0.55% -0.18% 13.01% 8.79% 125.54
Minneapolis 0.51% 0.79% 19.14% 11.34% 139.11
San Diego 0.29% 0.90% 12.76% 19.72% 194.07
Portland 0.17% 0.66% 0.98% 12.65% 160.46
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Current Previous 3-Mth YoY% Index
MoM% MoM% Annual % Change Level
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Tampa 0.10% 0.20% 15.56% 15.18% 154.40
New York 0.00% 0.55% 6.66% 4.90% 173.23
Dallas -0.08% 0.22% 8.39% 9.72% 132.47
San Francisco -0.20% 0.77% 6.20% 24.56% 179.55
Cleveland -0.22% 0.17% 5.57% 4.90% 106.59
Atlanta -0.24% 0.46% 8.82% 18.95% 113.72
Seattle -0.30% 0.32% 3.05% 13.09% 160.39
Boston -0.35% 0.45% 3.42% 8.59% 168.43
Denver -0.35% 0.24% 3.20% 9.51% 146.78
Washington DC -0.42% 0.40% 2.81% 7.43% 204.38
Chicago -0.48% 0.26% 5.62% 10.92% 127.42
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Contact us for more information about your neighborhood! Enrico Pozzo, Barry Bergner & the SeattlebyDesign Team
To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Jamrisko in Washington atmjamrisko@bloomberg.net