Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

Interesting. While 3 of the 4 listings I mentioned above are still on the MLS, they're also now advertising units for rent on Craigslist:







Gee, tough choice. Buy, locking myself into monthly costs around $2,000, or rent for $1,040...

Thanks Tim.

I am seeing a ton of this in the North Seattle neighborhoods I am watching. At least 1/2 dozen houses in my price range that that were listed on MLS for 100-200 days (or more) are now on Craigslist.

I know immediatly because the photos from Redfin are the same! And yes, the mortgage/rent ratio is still way out of line....

So, does this lead to lower rents as more places go on the market, or is that extra inventory soaked up by all of the potential buyers who are on the sideline? Time will tell...

The condo conversion immediately to the north on 181st is a real mess. It converted in 2006 and there are some units for sale now for 30% less than the purchase price. Looking at the KC records, a handful of the troubled units were bought by the same investor. One of the redfin listings mentions that the HOA is in a lawsuit with the developer.

Yes, that's the one.

Sadly, I dated someone back in 2006 that was in the process of purchasing one of the 1-bedroom (466 sq/ft) units when we met. It was priced around $140K.

Update:

The four Patagonia units listed above are all still on the market, each with piddly little price drops of less than $20k. Seven additional units have since been put on the market as well, bringing the total active on the MLS to 11: Units #12, 17, 23, 27, 31, 32, 35, 36, 41, 51, 66.

Meanwhile, the county records don't seem to show any more as having sold than when I created this thread in December

Also, the Timber Ridge unit mentioned above eventually sold for $90,000 -> over 55% off the 2006 sale price. Ouch.

Another update on the Woodinville condo situation, just for kicks.

Looks like the Patagonia developer has completely given up trying to sell those things. They never sold more than the 7 that were sold when I posted back in December 2008. shows their current rental offerings.

As for the Edgewood / Timber Ridge fiasco, this one popped up today and caught my attention: - Asking price $198,000.

That just so happens to be the exact unit I lived in back in 2002 when it was the Edgewood apartments. My roommates and I paid $750/mo in rent + utilities. It sold post-conversion in 2006 for $200,000.

At $200k in 2006, the monthly PITI + HOA on that place (assuming 20% down--$40k) was probably in the ballpark of $1,600. $750 vs. $1,600. Absolutely insane.

That unit is the same floorplan as the unit I mentioned above that . And the same floorplan as Unit B205, .

At $100k today, you're looking at a monthly PITI + HOA of roughly $950 (only $850 if you have the same $40k to put down). Considering that this includes some of the utilities that we were paying on top of our $750/month rent, that almost seems reasonable.

I have to wonder, why would an agent even waste their time listing at a price double the price of recently-sold and on-market comps? Especially in a place like this where every unit is nearly identical. Hilarious.