Long-time observers of Seattle’s housing market may recall way back in September 2006, when the Queen Anne High School condo conversions came on the market, debuting to a heaping helping of (what read to a mere real estate consumer as) over-the-top gushing from local agents, declaring them to be “awesome” and the prices “amazing,” as well as news coverage with quotes from locals declaring their overwhelming emotions in statements like “I’m going to start crying.”
Of course, it takes more than an outpouring of the touchy-feelies to sell real estate. A mere month after hitting the market, the units were already going on sale.
Fast-forward almost two and a half years, and thirteen of the 137 condos in the project still hadn’t sold, so it was off to the auction block.
Matt at Urbnlivn has a great table with the full detailed results of the auction in his post on Sunday’s bid-fest.
KOMO News also has some video coverage on the auction.
Andre LeCompte was determined to land one of the townhouses. And after a few minutes, he won – spending $426,000 on a property that originally had a selling price of nearly $600,000.
According to Matt’s table, that wasn’t even the best example of how cheap these things were going (relative to their original prices). Unit #287 (2-bed, 1.75-bath, 1,164 sqft.) had an original price of $600,000, and sold at the auction for “just” $360,000.
While the winning bidders might be pleased with Sunday’s auction results, I get the feeling that people who paid $500-$600k for units like this 1-bed, 1-bath 956 sqft. unit aren’t exactly thrilled.