Housing Trends

Welcome to the most current Housing Trends eNewsletter. This eNewsletter is specially designed for you, with national and local housing information that you may find useful whether you’re in the market for a home, thinking about selling your home, or just interested in homeowner issues in general. 

Please click on this link to view the Housing Trends October 2017 Newsletter http://wendywonder.housingtrendsenewsletter.com 

The Housing Trends eNewsletter contains the latest information from the National Association of REALTORS®, the U.S. Census Bureau, Realtor.org reports and other sources. 

Housing Trends eNewsletter is filled with local and national real estate sales and price activity provided by MLSs and the National Association of Realtors, U.S. Census Bureau key market indicators, consumer videos, blogs, real estate glossary, mortgage rates and calculators, consumer articles, and REALTOR.com local community reports. 

If you are interested in determining the value of your home, click the “Home Evaluator” link for a free evaluation report: 

http://wendywonder.housingtrendsenewsletter.com/dispContent.cfm?loadid=2&loadtype=0 

Sound decisions can only be made with accurate and reliable information, and I am happy to be a trusted resource for you. Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with this monthly eNewsletter, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have and to the opportunity to be your REALTOR® in the future. 

Sincerely yours, 

Wendy Ceccherelli
Century 21 NW Realty
216 31st Avenue Seattle WA 98122 
2063551706  
 wendy@c21nwr.com 

Real Estate News

Latest update from the NWMLS

http://www.northwestmls.com/index.cfm?/News--Information/page/Latest-News-Release

Seattle and Tacoma among most competitive real estate markets in the U.S.

http://seattle.curbed.com/2017/4/13/15295442/seattle-tacoma-competitive-real-estate-low-inventory

2017 shaping up to be the fastest market on record

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/13/2017-shaping-up-to-be-fastest-housing-market-on-record.html

Happy Investing!

Today's blog courtesy of Teresa Hollenbeck and Nicole Harding, CW Title and Escrow  

New Highs for Seattle Real Estate

Median list price in Seattle proper is now almost $730,000. Just think, last year around this time median list price was around $550,000. For all you non-math majors out there, that's a 32.72% increase year over year. Good grief.

Despite the ridiculous appreciation rates over the last couple years, Zillow still ranks Seattle as being in the top 10 for home-ownership nationwide.

Yet despite the appreciation rates of single family residences in Seattle, condos have not appreciated at the same rate over the last year, and therefore there are opportunities for new homeowners to stake their claim in the Seattle housing market. If you've driven around Seattle lately you know that there are plenty of new apartment buildings going up to accommodate the influx of tech transplants. With all the apartments being built, condo prices have remained a little more in check than single family homes. Reason being: The cost to purchase a condo needs to be similar to the cost of renting, because renting an apartment and buying a condo essentially provide the same standard of living. Given this, you cannot have skyrocketing rents and declining condo pricing, or vice versa. Single Family Homes are making all the headlines, but for those of you just looking to make a place your own, check out a condo...not quite the same story in the condo market as the SFR market.

Happy Investing! 

Today's blog courtesy of Kyle Bergquist, Guild Mortgage

 

Housing Trends

Welcome to the most current Housing Trends eNewsletter. This eNewsletter is specially designed for you, my dear blog readers, with national and local housing information that you may find useful whether you’re in the market for a home, thinking about selling your home, or just interested in homeowner issues in general. 

Please click on this link to view the Housing Trends May 2016 Newsletter
 http://wendywonder.housingtrendsenewsletter.com 

The Housing Trends eNewsletter contains the latest information from the National Association of REALTORS®, the U.S. Census Bureau, Realtor.org reports and other sources. 

Housing Trends eNewsletter is filled with local and national real estate sales and price activity provided by MLSs and the National Association of Realtors, U.S. Census Bureau key market indicators, consumer videos, blogs, real estate glossary, mortgage rates and calculators, consumer articles, and REALTOR.com local community reports. 

If you are interested in determining the value of your home, click the “Home Evaluator” link for a free evaluation report: 

http://wendywonder.housingtrendsenewsletter.com/dispContent.cfm?loadid=2&loadtype=0 

Sound decisions can only be made with accurate and reliable information, and I am happy to be a trusted resource for you. Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with this monthly eNewsletter, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have and to the opportunity to be your REALTOR® in the future. 

Happy Investing!

Wendy Ceccherelli
Home Land Seattle

Home Buyer Nightmares

From a frustrated first-time millenial homebuyer venting on Facebook:
To all you jerks out there selling your homes in my price range and area- If you force a bidding war among your offers, you suck. If you force your bidders to give up every single right and contingency they have, you suck. If you photograph and advertise your property as livable and it's really an unlivable mess, you suck. If you withhold information from the buyer and share it with the lender, you suck. Real estate in King county is such utter and total frustrating and complete bullshit unless you have lots of money and are willing to pay more than it's worth AND give up all your rights as a buyer. The middle class is fucking dead.

I have several listings right now, most of which have wound up in multiple bidding wars over price and terms. These houses were priced at what my Sellers and I mutually agreed was the current fair market value. We did not price these houses low to encourage bidding wars; we did not price them high because over-priced houses still sit on the market, even in this crazy environment.

I dislike multiple bidding situations as a listing broker almost as much as the buyers' agent. Yet we got winning offers where the buyers went tens of thousands of dollars over asking price and waived all their contingencies. Crazy!

Yes, home flippers are making money again. And hedge funds like Blackstone are buying up all the potential single family rental homes, and locking up rental prices. Have you seen what has happened to Seattle rents lately?

Housing inventory is abnormally low, and Sellers are stubbornly refusing to list. They are renovating their existing homes, and/or renting them out for additional income. (More on the impact of Airbnb in tomorrow's blog). Boomers who are able to sell at a big profit are cashing in, downsizing, and choosing to rent instead.

Is this trend sustainable? I think not. But let me ask the author of the quote above, despite all the frustrations you voiced, why DID you buy a house, after all?

Happy Investing!

Seattle Market Update

Exciting week for buyers this week!  Inventory increased at its quickest pace this year adding 54 homes, or 8.39% to the overall stock of homes for sale within Seattle City Limits!  Prices and Days on the Market also moved sideways this past week for the first time in a long time.  It’s still a highly competitive market out there, but at least it’s not becoming MORE competitive.  If you have buyers who got frustrated and took a small sabbatical from house hunting, now might be a good time for them to take another look. 

In other news, great article in the Seattle Times last week…and no, I’m not talking about the one where we need another zip code (564) because there are too many people moving to Washington and not enough phone numbers to go around - I’m talking about the “Million-dollar-home count triples across Seattle area in 4 years” one.  The headline says it all, but the story is full of great housing stats including comparisons between the current Seattle housing market and California’s (ie. Despite going from 2.5% to 7% of all homes being worth at least $1m in the Seattle region in the last four years; California still has it worse – In San Francisco 57% of all homes are worth at least $1m). 

Check out the full story here:  http://www.seattletimes.com/business/million-dollar-home-count-triples-across-seattle-area-in-4-years/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=mobile-app&utm_campaign=ios

Happy Investing!

Today's blog post courtesy of Kyle Bergquist, Guild Mortgage

Seattle Market Update

Inventory increased by a net of 11 homes this past week, which was obviously not enough to satiate all the buyers looking to purchase and live in Seattle proper.  Price per square foot is now $337 per sq foot, which begs the question:  How much cheaper is it to renovate one’s current home vs selling to purchase a moving up home?  If price to build new is around $125 (depends on your finishes, of course), is it worth that additional $210 per sq foot to find some other land?  Or would it make more sense to stay put and remodel?

I genuinely worry that inventory will only decrease further moving forward because more and more sellers will realize there’s no point in selling.  They would be better off completing a cashout refinance or taking out a HELOC on their current homes, and adding that extra bathroom, bedroom, bigger kitchen, etc than they would be trying to leverage up.  Bottom line:  If you have some money and you know a contractor or builder looking for private investors – now would be as good a time as any to invest in them!

Today's blog courtesy of Kyle Bergquist, Guild Mortgage 

Happy Investing!

Current Housing Trends

Welcome to my most current Housing Trends eNewsletter. This eNewsletter is specially designed for you, my dear blog readers, with national and local housing information that you may find useful whether you’re in the market for a home, thinking about selling your home, or just interested in homeowner issues in general. 

Please click on this link to view my Housing Trends January 2016 Newsletter
http://wendywonder.housingtrendsenewsletter.com 

The Housing Trends eNewsletter contains the latest information from the National Association of REALTORS®, the U.S. Census Bureau, Realtor.org reports and other sources.

Housing Trends eNewsletter is filled with local and national real estate sales and price activity provided by MLSs and the National Association of Realtors, U.S. Census Bureau key market indicators, consumer videos, blogs, real estate glossary, mortgage rates and calculators, consumer articles, and REALTOR.com local community reports. 

If you are interested in determining the value of your home, click the “Home Evaluator” link for a free evaluation report: 

http://wendywonder.housingtrendsenewsletter.com/dispContent.cfm?loadid=2&loadtype=0 

Sound decisions can only be made with accurate and reliable information, and I am happy to be a trusted resource for you. Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with this monthly eNewsletter, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have and to the opportunity to be your REALTOR® in the future. 

Sincerely yours, 

Wendy Ceccherelli
Home Land Seattle