Last week of August. Who bought what, where and for how much? Typically a slow week with agents and clients taking some time away with their families before school starts.
[photopress:v.jpg,full,alignright]This is my absolute favorite property that sold this week, in Sammamish for almost $4,000,000. Going home there is like going on vacation every day after work. My definition of “sold” in the last seven days, for this article, is STI or PENDING…people “making decisions” to purchase.
Seattle under $300,000 – 38 people, between $300,000 and $400,000 – 66 people
70 people in each for the $400,000 to $500,000 range AND the $500,000 – $600,000
Then we really drop off to only 20 from $600,000 to $700,000, and then half of that at 10 from $700,000 to $800,000, half that again to 5 at $800,000 to $900,000, and 3 in the $900,000 to a million.
15 from $1 million to $2 million and two just over $2 million, one in Broadmoor and the other a tudor in Denny Blaine.
On the Eastside I used, Bellevue, Bothell (King County), Kenmore, Kirkland and Redmond.
Only 5 under $300,000 this week. 75 between $400,000 to $600,000. 4 between $2 million and $3 million vs. only 2 in Seattle, and about 10 in most other categories.
So all tolled on both sides of the Lake, most homes this week were sold between $300,000 and $600,000. That includes condos, townhomes and single family homes.
Fits into the theory that the average buyer is at $450,000 give or take.
Just a note to say I really like your blog, and you’re doing a great job. I’ve also been using Seeking Alpha’s write ups of the housing market, and thought you might also find them useful.
http://usmarket.seekingalpha.com/by/type/housing
Pingback: Homethinking - Real Estate Agent Search - » Blog Archive » Weekly Linkage
Daniel, are you a bot or a real boy? We had this spam, Joel had it, and now here. The curse of your method is this: SeekingAlpha is good, meaty contributions from good writers. Spam, however, is bad — not really meat at all. You do your cause a disservice by defending food with garbage.
I got this Blam (Blog Spam) as well. Since I use a verification step (you know, those strange looking letters you have to enter), this ‘Daniel’ is blamming by hand, not automation. Much harder to catch and stop, I imagine.
Yeh, the Real Estate Tomato got it, too. Dustin mentioned the problems Akismet had last weekend. After they came back on-line, it seems to be much more effective. I went from hundreds to maybe 10 judgement calls a day. (Sorry, Ardell. Back to the real news.)
Hey, the blogs not getting spammed are wondering why not! Think of it as a sign that you’ve made the Big Time 🙂 I know, forever an optimist…
Back to the news, Greg, are you seeing a buyer’s market starting out your way? Could simply be the season end doldrums, where we all get ready for that September sprint before the season goes into hibernation.
I heard from a peer in another state that the low end was stagnant, and the activity was in the upper numbers. Our stats seem to be moving in that direction as well. I’ll dig deeper into inventory and see why there were only 5 sales under $300,000 over on my side of the Lake, and 46 between $400,000 and $500,000.
I would say that Phoenix has been a solid buyer’s market for many months. The difference between this and the insane seller’s market we went through from around March 2004 to September 2005 is that buyers aren’t as willing to go low as they had been willing to go high. To get a bargain in our market, you have to be willing to settle for less than the one, true, perfect, ideal, irreplaceable home. If you can choose from a range of acceptable alternatives, you have bargaining power. If you must have this one-and-only-home, you’re leverage is diminished.
FWIW, right now is an incomparable time to buy a spec home in Phoenix. Builders are burning money to get finished or nearly-finished units out the door before the end of the quarter. It’s Hobson’s Choice, but the deals are amazing.
I’ve heard that from Vegas and outside Naperville as well. It’s killing those with 3-5 year old resale products nearby.
In Seattle, the only one’s competing with new are single family homes in the $400,000 to $500,000 range competing with newer townhomes. In Kirkland Downtown, it’s resale competing with both new and conversions, like the one I’m going to see today. I’m so excited. How do we stay excited about going to see yet another condo conversion? Sometimes I think I’m whacko. I get the same way about view property. Never get tired of em, or jaded.
With the builders, here at least, it’s a short-term thing. They’ll bleed off their excess inventory, then it will be business as usual.
I’m with you on looking at houses. I love seeing them, and I love seeing everything in them. Every house tells a story, and I love to puzzle them out.
Greg,
That reminds me, here’s a great tip for new agents. Go to broker’s opens and keep a three ring binder of your tour sheet. Write down what you think about the house. Will it sell fast? Will it sell at this price?
In the beginning you may be off, but eventually you will get right on target. When you can predict with accuracy which will sell and which will have price reductions and where exactly each house will sell…you are ready to move up from Buyer’s only to Listing Agent.
Fight the urge to look at homes like a buyer and writing notes like “I like it” or “I hate the carpet”…who cares. Will it sell fast and will it sell without a price reduction are the key questions to fine tune your valuation tool in your brain.
An even better way to sharpen the tool to a fine degree of accuracy, is to looke at properties back to back in the same price range and area. You will quickly be able to tell which of the 10 will sell first and why. Go back and double check your answers as they sell off, and write those results down in the binder, until you get most of the answers right.
> An even better way to sharpen the tool to a fine degree of accuracy, is to looke at properties back to back in the same price range and area.
We do this with sellers. We’ll take a comp tour of the vacants at least, and we might make web pages of preview photos of the occupied homes, so they can tell us which will sell first and for how much.
My folks company deals with Homes, Lake Homes, and Acreage, and I can tell you theat when it comes to looking on the Internet, everyone is interested in looking at Lake Homes and Large Acreage, but whats really selling is the other stuff. Some of this may be that when it comes to the pocket book, Southeast Michigan is really feeling the pinch a little extra because of cut backs in the Auto Industry. I do, however, think that because of the way the market has turned, that there are good deals on lakefronts for folks who still have the cash
What do lakefront homes cost there Dave? Ballpark range.
Well, it can vary greatly depending of course, but right on Lake Somerset where we’re at typically between $200,000 ans $300,000 for an averave three bedroom. My folks did have one on two lots on a channel down the road at Lake Leann that recently went for more like $170,000 or so. Devils Lake and Lake Columbia are Natural and Man Made Lakes, respectively, that are a little larger, so prices tend to go up. Lots on Devils can go for $100,000 to $200,000.
The Irish hills is right down the road and tens to be less up scale in some ways, but many old natural lakes tucked away in the hills. You might get some steals down there once in a while.
I would say the theory of the average buyer is around $450,000 makes sense. Whether they are purchasing their first home or 2/3 Home, $450,000 is about what most can afford without over taxing themselves.