Seattle, Washington Real Estate - Check Out the Funnies!

If you want one of a kind insight into the current state of Seattle’s housing market, the best place to go is right to the funny pages. A recent political comic that appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer showed a child’s tree house with a sign denoting a $300,000 price tag for the “view.” This sums up the lava-hot housing market in Seattle perfectly.

2006 was a record year for the Emerald City with people flocking to the beautiful Pacific Northwest in search of high paying tech jobs and a winter with little or no snow. While the rainy winter season why be an emotional drain on some, the ever-climbing real estate prices tend to be a financial drain that more and more people are happier than ever to live with. With beautiful neighboring cities like Vancouver, B.C. and Portland, Oregon just a short drive away, it is no wonder that this amazing city has one of the strongest, and seemingly recession proof housing markets anywhere in the country.

While the 2006 real estate year was a record setter, the first quarter of 2007 looks to break those records with little effort. The average asking price for a single family home rose an astonishing 9 percent during one month (February to March of 2007) from $454,000 to $494,000. But if an asking price jump of 9 percent is impressive, the actual sales price jump of 9.5 percent over the same period is downright insane. The average sales price for a single family home in the Seattle area jumped from $452,000 to $495,000 in ONE MONTH from February to March. Combine with rising prices the fact that the time spent on the market over that same period dropped from 78 to 74 days, a decrease of over 5 percent, and you have a market that isn’t just hot, but is ready to explode. The question on everyone’s mind is can this continue and when it does finally stop, will it be a precipitous drop or a smooth leveling out?

One sign that the real estate market in the greater Seattle area might be coming back to earth is the sign that foreclosures are reaching all time highs throughout the Seattle area. According to recently released numbers, a record number of foreclosures have been issued during the first quarter of 2007, but even with this jump, Seattle is below the national average when it comes to the number of foreclosures issued. The hard numbers showed an increase of over 16 percent in April of 2007 over March in the number of foreclosures issued placed Seattle at 128th out of the 229 United States metro areas measured.

So, while many east coast housing markets are readjusting market prices to deal with their burst bubble, cities like Seattle and most of California continue to surge, albeit with a few bumps in the road. The problem with cities like Seattle is that the major draws (tech jobs, mild climate, beautiful scenery) isn’t enough of a force to keep a housing market surging at this level forever.



The market here will come back to earth within the next year or two simply because there is no conceivable way growth can continue at this rate much longer. But unlike many overcrowded cities back east, there is enough here to keep the market growing modestly, even after this surge is over. While there is some disagreement, most experts believe a “soft landing” is in store for the Pacific Northwest and not a “burst bubble” like we’ve seen in so many other markets across the country. The best advice for Seattle is to check back in at the end of the year and see what’s what. Investing now is simply too volatile.



Not so funny, eh!



Prosperous Investing,

Mary Wozny