Condo Prices Aren’t Up 48%

Our Twitter feed is full of folks posting the Curbed story, Downtown Seattle condo sale prices up 48% over last year, based on stats from another real estate blogger:

Seattle real estate prices keep going up, including condos. Urban Condo Spaces (UCS) pulled statistics for Downtown condos from both January 2017 and January 2016, and found a 48 increase in median condo price, with a 47 percent increase in average price, year over year.

Before you as a buyer throw in the towel consider that this is the median, and as such can be skewed by a large number of high dollar sales, or a large number of larger units, which we certainly saw last year.

Let’s say you’re in the market for a non-million dollar studio or one bedroom, how much have downtown condo prices really gone up? 13.4% on a dollar per square foot basis for studio and one bedroom condos under $700k. Looking for a two bedroom at any price point? 10.9% on a dollar per square foot basis.

This market is hot, but not 48% hot.