Seattle Bubble

News & discussion about real estate & the housing bubble in the Seattle area.

Seattle Bubble - News & discussion about real estate & the housing bubble in the Seattle area.

Entries Tagged as 'anecdote'

Former WaMu Pres. Tries to Flip Mansion

By The Tim on October 20th, 2008 at 9:12 AM · 25 Comments

Okay, I had this story emailed or IM’d to me by about half a dozen people over the weekend, so I guess I’d better at least mention it :^)

Former WaMu President's MansionFormer WaMu president lists home for nearly 2x 2005 purchase price:

Stephen Rotella, who was president and chief operating officer of Washington Mutual when it failed last month after being battered by mortgage losses, is wading into the housing market as a seller. He’s hoping to sell his home on Capitol Hill for $6.25 million.

County records show he and his wife, Esther, paid $3.78 million for it in June 2005, a few months after Rotella arrived in Seattle.

Here are the county records for the property in question, and here’s the listing on Redfin, for those of you that want to add it to your favorites.

I suppose without a major bank president job, it might be hard to keep paying the mortgage on a place like that. I think he might be just a little optimistic on the price, though.

Update: Dan Savage of The Stranger rode by and shot a pic of the front of the house.

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Today’s Slow Market “Is a Different Animal”

By The Tim on July 18th, 2008 at 10:05 AM · 141 Comments

From an article on home staging in the Puget Sound Business Journal:

For [Seattle home stager Jan] Sewell, who is also a Realtor with Windermere Real Estate and owner of her staging business since 1997, today’s market is unlike anything she has ever experienced.

“I have been through a couple of slow markets in Seattle before, but this is a different animal,” she said.

Sewell says she is already starting to feel the market’s traditional August sales slowdown.
…
“Most of my listings, up until this year, have sold within a week,” she said. “I am having staged things sit longer than I ever have.”

Take it for what it’s worth as an anecdote, but I thought it was interesting that even staged new construction is taking an unusually long time to sell.

(Clay Holtzman, Puget Sound Business Journal, 07.18.2008)

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Anecdote: Bailing on Kenmore Townhomes (Too Late)

By The Tim on July 1st, 2008 at 9:34 AM · 17 Comments

Okay, when I saw this this morning, I just had to mention it. There’s a little 8-unit townhome complex in my neighborhood (Kenmore) that I have mentioned on here a number of times in the past. Most recently, two of the eight units were up for sale. As of this morning, four of the eight are on the market. Here’s a brief summary:

Unit Last Sold Sold For Asking On Market
#2 (7212) 01/2002 $209,950 $339,500 39 days
#5 (7218) 10/2005 $280,950 $345,000 75 days
#6 (7220) 12/2005 $300,000 $335,000 21 days
#7 (7222) 09/2001 $234,950 $339,500 1 day

These nearly-identical 2 bed / 2.25 bath units are between 1,418 and 1,578 square feet and come with $191 a month in dues that apparently just pays for building upkeep (as in, there are no shared areas).

Just around the corner, a developer has dumped thirty-three 2 bed / 2.25 bath 1,325 square foot units on the market for $279,000 (according to their sandwich board signs anyway) as part of an 84-unit complex. These new construction units sport a nice shared park with a hot tub and all that rot, for monthly dues of just $142. Oh, and this ridiculous-looking ad that has been on their website for a month now claims that they’ll furnish it, too.

Anybody think the used townhomes around the corner have much chance of selling at $340k? It’s like watching a super-slow-motion train wreck.

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Anecdotes: Kenmore Condo Battle Heating Up

By The Tim on June 2nd, 2008 at 10:45 AM · 67 Comments

The condo battle in my neighborhood (Kenmore) seems to be heating up. In April I mentioned a nearby townhome in an 8-unit complex that went up for sale at $360,000, 20% higher than any unit in the complex has ever sold for in the past, and a mere $30k less than a unit just up the hill with a sweet view (which incidentally has been sitting unsold on the market for 290 days now).

Totally HOT, Totally NEW!Unfortunately for our hopeful seller, their townhome has sat on the market for over 45 days now with no bites. Even worse, 10 days ago one of their neighbors decided to sell… with a $20,000 lower asking price ($340,000). Uh oh. Of course, they’re not idiots, so they have responded by lowering their price to $345,000. Unfortunately for Seller #1, Seller #2 bought for $71k less than Seller #1 and is using Redfin, so they can presumably afford to drop the price quite a bit further.

And in a bit of bad news for both of these folks, a brand new townhome complex is opening up just around the corner with asking prices that are lower still, plus far nicer amenities. A similar 2 bed, 2.25 bath, 1,300 square foot unit in the “Totally Hot Totally New” Northshore Kenmore complex (which I mentioned on the forums) has an asking price of “just” $300,000. For $335,000 you can get nearly 1,500 square feet and an extra bedroom.

Of course, this all assumes that you are in the market for a $300k+ townhome. In Kenmore. Granted, as the Northshore Kenmore website so proudly proclaims, we are “Just 12 Miles from Bellevue Square,” but having lived in the neighborhood for over four years now, I have to say I’m just not feeling it like the smiling couple mysteriously floating in front of the seaplane apparently are.

What kind of amusing home listing action have you seen in your neighborhood?

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Some Local Home Listing Anecdotes

By The Tim on April 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 AM · 17 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted any anecdotal observations, so I think it’s time for a few.

Horray for condos!First up, the 8-unit condo/townhome complex in my neighborhood, which we have visited a few times before. Here’s the summary of the action in this complex of eight essentially identical units since 2005:

  • September 2005: Unit #5 listed for $274,950 (link)
  • October 2005: Unit #5 sold for $280,950 (link)
    18% more than the previous sale just 14 months prior
    +15.5% average YOY
  • October 2005: Unit #6 listed for $300,000 (link)
  • December 2005: Unit #6 sold for $300,000 (link)
    28% more than previous sale 4 years prior
    +5.8% average YOY
  • March 2006: Unit #3 sold for $293,000 (link)
    40% more than previous sale 4 years prior
    +8.26% average YOY
  • January 2007: Unit #6 listed for $350,000 (link)
    taken off the market without selling
  • April 2008: Unit #5 listed for $360,000 (link)

This latest listing has an asking price 20% higher than any unit in this complex has ever sold for, and 28% higher than this specific unit sold for just over two years ago. We’re talking Kenmore here, which is not exactly “close in,” but not really the boonies either, so this should make an interesting test of how soft the condo market is outside the downtown cores of Bellevue and Seattle.

Personally, I doubt they’ll get more than $320,000, if even that. They may well just pull it off the market when they can’t get their fanciful price. According to Estately, there are 47 condos on the market in the 98028 zip code right now (after eliminating duplicates). This townhome is priced higher than 78% of the competition, and for just $30,000 more, you could get a pretty nice view. Good luck friend, you’re going to need it.

The second anecdotal update is much shorter. Just a quick note to point out that the sellers of my favorite million-dollar home over on Avondale have dropped the price twice now since listing in December at $1,650,000: once to $1,590,000 in March, and again to $1,550,000 a few weeks ago.

They paid $1,275,000 in February last year, and if they don’t get more than $1,385,000, they won’t even make enough to cover agent commissions and excise tax. I have a feeling this will be sitting on the market even longer than the nine months it languished last time.

Update: May 13: Another 60k price drop on the Avondale Albatross, down to $1,490,000. That’s $160,000 in total price drops spread across 150+ days on the market. Coming up quick on that six-month mark…

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Loonie-ness

By deejayoh on December 14th, 2007 at 8:21 PM · 25 Comments

Posted today over at MSNBC – sometimes viewed as a source of “news”, I found this tidbit. It looks like we’re gonna get bailed out by the Canucks! Phew

As loonie surges, Canadians snap up US homes
Snowbirds bring checkbooks to grab properties at deep discount

CHANDLER, Ariz. – Two hours after his flight landed in Phoenix, Calgary resident Doug Farley already was cruising the city’s vast stuccoed suburbs in search of the one attraction Canadians cannot seem to get enough of these days: cheap homes.

There are thousands of them here: almost new, unoccupied and dropping in value. The mortgage meltdown, combined with a surging Canadian currency, has Farley — and many of his countrymen — dreaming of winter golf on grass that’s always green.

“My dollar’s the same as your dollar, finally,” Farley said, grinning as he peered through a pool fence at a sparsely populated condominium complex in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb
For moderate-income Canadians like Farley, the race is on to take advantage of the “loonie,” which in September reached parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time since 1976. Many are combing the Internet for anxious American home sellers and looking with an investor’s eye at the condos they rented while on vacation in sunbelt states.

and guess what.. they’re nice too, cuz they’re Canadians! (note, I am not making fun of Canadians here. Just the writer)

“Fifteen of my friends are on buying trips down here, and we’re all cheap,” Sirockman said. He brought his family to Scottsdale this month while he submitted a lowball all-cash offer for a three-bedroom home.

“I don’t want to take advantage of a guy who’s having trouble in the market and is losing his shorts,” Sirockman said. “But I have no problem with a guy from California who bought on spec and has five houses in Arizona and never lived in them.”

The reporter must have been working on this story for, oh say a month or so. Might not have noticed what’s been going on with the loonie the past couple of weeks. If they’re going to save us, they better hurry!

US Dollar to Canadian Dollar

loonie.png

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