Weekly Wrapup
Are you signed up for our weekly newsletter? Here’s what went out last week.
Finally, our first newsletter of 2019!
The second half of 2018 wasn’t at all what we expected – December prices in Seattle were basically flat year-over-year, and nearly $100k off their peak. Interest rates went up, but are now back down. So it is speculative to make predictions about 2019 but none-the-less on the blog we wrote up what we expect and how to get started buying and selling in 2019. The highlights of what we think to expect are:
- Good and great homes will still sell quickly
- Savvy sellers will list earlier than normal
- New construction inventory will spike in January and February
- Pre-sales are back
- West Seattle will have a slow start to the year
This past week the real estate market returned from a long vacation with 225 new listings (nearly double what we saw this time last year). Some of those listings went quickly too; we were involved in a bidding war on a home on Phinney Ridge, listed at $1.2m it went for close to $1.3m!
Though we saw a lot of new listings, only a few stood out – this remodeled 1978 home on Capitol Hill is pretty amazing, it had a $500k yard makeover! And a huge loft at Fremont Lofts.
We’ve already been busy and listed a standalone townhome in Fremont that grossed $89k on Airbnb last year and a two bedroom condo on Beacon Hill. Those joined our still active listings at Fischer Studios and the Gallery.
Speaking of Airbnb, a new condo building on Capitol Hill is going to allow short-term rentals! Just reply if you want more info.
Matt
p.s. here’s a long read on revising Washington’s condo law and a look at upzoning, which I’m glad we’re doing, but we should be upzoning more.
