This is my recap of home sales in the Central District and how it compares to the rest of Seattle.
Prices for pre-owned homes in the Central District of Seattle increased 12% in the past year. The number of sales increased 25%. Over the past 10 years, the number of home sales in the Central District has averaged 242 sales per year whereas we had 228 in 2013 and 192 in 2012. 2012 was the lowest number of home sales since before 2003. 3 of the past 10 years experienced more than 300 sales. In 2013 Seattle as a whole experienced a 16% increase in the number of sales and a 12.7% increase in prices.
Sales of new construction in the Central District (West of MLK) increased from 14 sales in 2012 to 25 sales this year. The median price is $597k, unchanged from 2012. I was curious to see how this compared to 2009 when the real estate market was really suffering. My findings were suprising. In 2009 there were 68 new home sales at a median price of $472k. Since 2009 there has been a 63% drop in the number sales and a 26% increase in prices. (Pre-owned prices are 14% higher than in 2009). It feels that more new homes are under construction and the average prices are going to be much higher than last year.
What does 2014 have in store? Home affordability will drop. Zillow is predicting a 6.7% increase in home prices over the year 2014. Regarding interest rates, Kiplinger is predicting 5%-5.5%, Zillow is predicting 5%, Forbes is predicting 5.5%. A house costing $500,000 today would require $2280 a month with 10% down. Next year, that house will cost $533k but the payments would be $2725 at a 5.5% interest rate.
I hope this has been useful, contact me with any questions. I have a lot more information that I couldn’t squeeze into this article. www.DanSanchezRealtor.com
Zap! Wow! That is a huge step back for affordability. We must find a way to develop economical homes that can be purchased by lower income people. Expensive homes are great and we can certainly appreciate more of that as well, but, there does need to be small lot cottage homes in the 200K range. Everybody deserves the opportunity to own a home. Except people we don’t like.
LOL. I do agree with you though. A new house on MLK just sold for $900k. There are new $700k + houses going up in Squire Park. A few in the $900k range just sold on the West Slope of Madrona. There has been a lot of talk about preserving the heritage of the Central District. I think that part of that starts with keeping the area affordable. Maybe keeping property taxes flat for existing residents or somehow incentivizing builders to build affordable stand-alone single family homes instead of just low-income apartments.
Dan Sanchez
http://www.dansanchezrealtor.com