Median prices looked alright compared to November 2007. Some neighborhoods like West and North Seattle were actually up (5% higher in both). Belltown/Downtown was almost flat, just 4% off of last year's median price. Queen Anne / Lake Union / Magnolia had the biggest price declines, down ~14% versus the same time last year.
Contrary to what you might expect in what is a buyer's market, Seattle's inventory of property on the market seems to be contracting in many neighborhoods. Belltown, Queen Anne / Lake Union / Magnolia, Capitol Hill, and Ballard / Green Lake all had fewer properties for sale than they did in November 2007 with Belltown / Downtown over 12% down in terms of listings on MLS for buyers to choose from.
Overall, I was expecting sales and median prices to be much lower than a year ago and a lot more inventory sitting on the market versus November 2007. Perhaps we're seeing the market trying to find a bottom and owners putting off their moves / keeping their tenants since they know now is not a great time to list their properties.
Neither bullish nor bearish, just noting that some of the sales counts are getting so low that a couple outlier high end or low end sales can really skew the averages. I haven’t run the numbers but I suspect that the average price differences for some neighborhoods aren’t statistically significant regardless of direction.
Mark W, great point. I’d have to agree with you. The sales numbers are getting so low that the margin of error is potentially much greater. And to say that 50% of Belltown’s/Downtown’s sales came from a single building that is closing last month is very scary. Also, because 50% of these sales came from Gallery, it would mean these prices that are being closed are actually negotiated prices on the PSA from over a year and a half ago. So, that doesn’t lend much credibility that prices remained flat. I’d like to see these numbers once all the pipeline of new downtown condos has dried up.
There have been NO negotiated PSA prices at Gallery
Gallery PSA prices were not negotiated.
Not negotiating 2 year old overpriced PSA’s could explain why the majority of Gallery’s sold units are either the penthouses or bottom floor shoebox/diorama floorplans. There are loads of no-view 2bdr and over-sized 1bdr that have been dramatically overpriced for years. As a result, Gallery’s median closing price could be wildly skewed in either direction and Gallery’s still less than 50% sold from all appearances.
All, when I said “negotiated” prices of the PSAs, I was referring to the prices that were agreed upon at the time the PSA came to fruition. I did not mean the PSAs are being re-negotiated at this time.