This comment left by Ryan strikes me as a clear warning sign of another housing bubble inflating in Seattle.
Just pulled the trigger on buying a townhouse in Fremont for $745k. Haven’t closed yet so don’t want to link to the MLS. Thought I would share my thinking on why I bought and what the situation was like.
List was for around $650k. Property had multiple offers, most within a few $k of the accepted price. List to accepted offer in about 7 days. Three quarters of a mil for a townhouse seems insane but we feel good about the purchase for a few reasons:
- My office is on the same block as the unit, can’t beat that commute
- I’ve lived in Fremont for years and want to stay for the long haul both a resident and business owner
- The unit was unusual in a number of ways, all good. Exceptional build quality
- Units sold nearby with same square footage for similar price that are absolute garbage (3807 Fremont Ave N I’m looking at you)
- We wanted a house but didn’t have the capital to buy and then remodel, most things in our geographic range needed work
- I felt good about the potential future appreciation of the property due to being so close to all of the major tech employers
On the downside it’s definitely on the high end of what anyone paid for a townhouse in Fremont and there is no way around the fact that it’s insane amount of money. If tech is in a bubble it still feels like the early stages of the bubble and we didn’t see the situation improving. Mid term (5 year range) it seems that traffic will get drastically worse as everything under construction comes online, so it seemed smart to set up our lives not to have to leave the neighborhood.
Just one perspective from someone helping to inflate both the tech and housing bubble.
Here’s what concerns me the most:
- $745k for a
townhouse. In Fremont. - The home sold for $100k over list price with multiple offers at that level.
- The buyer cites that he “felt good about the potential future appreciation” as partial justification for paying so much.
I still don’t think we’re likely to see another big price crash (yet) but stories like this one definitely scream “housing bubble” to me.