With multiple offers and bidding wars becoming the norm for well maintained homes in the 'hot' close-in urban village neighborhoods of Seattle, here is a revealing look at which of these neighborhoods command the highest premium.

 

Listed below are the neighborhoods which have the highest percentage of homes that sold above the list price along with the median sales price:

 

1.    Whittier Heights (70%, $550,000)

2.    Ravenna  (61%, $631,000)

3.    Laurelhurst  (55%, $1,040,000)

4.    Upper Rainier Beach  (53%, $262,000)

5.    Wedgewood  (53%, $537,000)

6.    Bryant  (53%, $497,000)

7.    Sunset Hill  (52%, $651,000)

8.    Broadview  (52%, $421,000)

9.    Wallingford  (51%, $606,000)

10.  Roosevelt  (50%, $529,000) 

 

And here are those with the lowest percentage that sold above list price:

 

1.    Rainier View  (7%, $227,000)

2.    Pike Place  (9%, $740,000)

3.    Gatewood  (16%, $404,000)

4.    First Hill  (17%, $327,000)

5.    Leschi  (17%, $565,000)

6.    Belltown  (19%, $467,000)

7.    Downtown  (19%, $432,000)

8.    Bitter Lake  (21%, $328,000)

9.    Denny Triangle  (21%, $462,000)

10.  Lakeridge  (21%, $291,000)

 

(Courtesy:  Northwest Real Estate News) 

 

Demand is still torrid in Seattle's hot neighborhoods and this strong demand is likely to continue.

 

After five months of declining sales activity compared with a year earlier, the number of June sales was up 2 percent annually and the supply of homes for sale increased by almost 6 percent according to a report by the Multiple Listing Service.  The larger inventory, though, hasn't lessened competition among buyers in the most sought after areas where there is not enough supply to satisfy demand.

 

The median price of a home sold in King County has been steadily increasing since February, last month reaching $453,500, a 6 percent increase from a year ago.  The steady increase in prices has prompted some sellers to list their homes for sale but King County still had less than a two month supply of homes on the market.  A balanced market, favoring neither buyer nor seller, would have a five to six months supply - so the current seller's market rages on.

 

The lack of available homes in desirable markets such as Capitol Hill, Queen Anne and Ballard has created what brokers call a "quick-action market" and has resulted in multiple offers and very competitive bidding wars.  In Seattle, 68 percent of homes are sold within the first 30 days on the market, and in the case of seller's utilizing a delayed offer response strategy when evaluating multiple offers, this market time is often times under a week.  The median price of Seattle homes sold in June was $499,000, up almost 9 percent from a year ago. 

 

In other local markets, the Eastside had the highest median home price at $630,000 up 6.5 percent from a year ago.  Southwest King County had the lowest median price at $266,500 but led the county's sub-markets in appreciation with an 11 percent rise over the past year.  Meanwhile, in Snohomish County, the median price jumped 13.3 percent to $340,000.

 

(Courtesy:  The Seattle Times) 

 

 

 

In the first quarter of 2014, the average price of single family homes sold in King and Snohomish counties increased between 2 and 27 percent from a year ago, depending on the area.  (see attachment)

 

While average 12-month price appreciation in King County slowed to 11 percent at the end of March - from almost 15 percent a year ago - some lower priced areas have seen average prices jump more than 20 percent annually.  They include affordable suburbs like Shoreline, Federal Way, Maple Valley and Burien.

 

For many neighborhoods devastated by an epidemic of foreclosures, the rebound in prices is long overdue.  These lower priced areas though, while seeing the strongest upsurge in prices, have a long way to go to reach their previous peak during the housing bubble.  For example, the median price of homes sold in the first quarter in Kent, Burien and Enumclaw was still about 30 percent below its peak during the bubble years; Skyway's median price is still almost 40 percent below its peak.

 

A few of the higher priced areas though have broken through.  At the end of last year, Central Seattle - which includes Capitol Hill and Eastlake - was the first area in King County to surpass its peak during the housing bubble.  Three more higher priced areas (Queen Anne / Magnolia, Redmond / Carnation and Ballard / Green Lake / Phinney) appear to be on track to equal or surpass their previous peaks this year if present price trends continue. 

 

(Courtesy:  The Seattle Times - May 3, 2014) 

 

  http://tomknee.com/docs/Price_Trends_-_2014.pdf

A somewhat whimsical look at a future Seattle if the Antarctic ice sheet does actually melt!

(although it does clearly show where the high ground is)

 

 (Courtesy:  MyBallard.com blog - 2014)

 

 

 

Diversity in Seattle varies widely as the attached schematic shows.

 

According to a well-known measure of diversity, Seattle is less diverse than most major U.S. cities. That measure - called a diversity index - indicates the probability that any two people selected at random from the same place would be members of a different race.  The diversity is expressed as a number from 0 to 100.  The higher the number, the greater the diversity.

 

The diversity index for the United States as a whole came in at 56.  Seattle scored 54 (giving Seattle a ranking of 39th among the 50 most populous U.S cities).

 

But this is not the whole story since the pattern changes when the focus is on individual neighborhoods. When you calculate the diversity index for each of Seattle's 483 "block groups" - a small census geography typically containing fewer than 2,000 people - around one third are actually more diverse than the U.S. average score of 56.

 

  

(Courtesy: The Seattle Times - March 7, 2014) 

Check out these interesting 'heat maps' recently put out by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York illustrating the change in home prices, on a national level, from 2005 to 2013.

 

  http://tomknee.com/docs/Change_In_Home_Prices.pdf