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Weekend Roundup: Fence-Sitters, Incentives, Office Vacancies

Posted on January 12, 2009 by The Tim

Here are some stories from the last few days that didn’t make the cut for their own posts.

Aubrey Cohen, Seattle P-I: Home buyers getting off the fence

“There’s still a lot of people who have jobs and a lot of people who’ve moved into the market area and have been sitting, waiting to have the opportunity to buy,” said Bill Riss, chief executive of Coldwell Banker Bain real estate.

Riss and other area real estate professionals argue the time to buy is now, and say they are starting to hear from more buyers.

“It’s not often you have a market where the rates are down and the prices are down at the same time,” said Deborah Arends, an agent with RE/Max Northwest Realtors.

Henry Samonte, an agent with John L. Scott Real Estate, said he saw a big uptick in calls from buyers and visitors to his listings last weekend.

“It seems that people are coming out of the woodwork,” he said.

Later in the article there’s also a great quote from a recent east coast transplant giving the classic renting is “putting your life on hold” canard. People, listen. It’s a roof over your head. No need to get so dramatic.

Yoshiaki Nohara, Everett Herald: Home sellers get creative with incentives

Perfetto Espresso wants to sell coffee, tea — and a house.

A display below the espresso stand’s menu features a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house. It’s up for sale for $279,000 in Shoreline. The house is minutes from the coffee shop in Mountlake Terrace near I-5.

The deal comes with an incentive.

“Free Coffee for 1 Year! Up to $10 per day for anyone who finds a buyer for our house,” part of the display reads.
…
Malchow said he and his wife, Amy, bought the 700-square-foot house in 2002 for about $169,000. The couple with three children moved into a bigger, four-bedroom house in Shoreline in 2006. They started renting out the first house.

The first house’s value climbed to about $315,000 at its peak in 2006, and it has been losing value since the housing bubble burst, Malchow said. The problem is that the Malchows get about $1,200 per month from renters while their mortgage costs them about $2,000 per month. They pay the difference out of their pocket.

According to my (admittedly rough) calculations, they’re still about $50k overpriced. Good luck to them, but the real incentive for buyers in today’s market is an attractively priced property, period.

Eric Pryne, Seattle Times: Downtown office markets may soon see vacancy rates in the teens

Here’s some solace for the region’s office market as landlords face a bleak 2009: In downtown Bellevue, and perhaps downtown Seattle, this downturn probably won’t be as deep as the one that followed the dot-com bust, several industry prognosticators say.

Vacancy rates in the two downtowns will climb well into the teens this year as companies downsize and new office buildings — some still lacking even a single signed tenant — come on line, according to new reports from brokerages Cushman & Wakefield and Grubb & Ellis.

The current guess is that things won’t be as bad as 2001-2003. Of course, six months to a year ago, the guess was that things wouldn’t drop here at all, so you may want to take the predictions of these local economists with a grain of salt.

(Aubrey Cohen, Seattle P-I, 01.11.2009)
(Yoshiaki Nohara, Everett Herald, 01.11.2009)
(Eric Pryne, Seattle Times, 01.08.2009)

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To Buy or Rent – Not Just an Emotional Decision
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Virgin: Maybe no bottom in 2009 after all

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