It’s time once again for the monthly reporting roundup, where you can read my wry commentary about the news instead of subjecting yourself to boring rehashes of the NWMLS press release (or in addition to, if that’s what floats your boat).<\/p>\n
To kick things off, here’s an excerpt from the NWMLS press release<\/a>:<\/p>\n Frenzied Market Frustrating Buyers<\/strong><\/p>\n Buyer anxiety is rising as the pace of home sales is faster than brokers are able to replenish inventory, according to members of Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Figures just released for March show 11,408 pending sales during the month while only 10,505 sellers listed their homes for sale during the same period. Nothing like a little rent price scaremongering from a home salesman to kick us off.<\/p>\n Read on for my take on this month’s local news reports.<\/p>\n Coral Garnick<\/em>: Home prices in Seattle jump 18.9 percent from year ago<\/a><\/p>\n The median price of Seattle homes sold in March rose 18.9 percent over the year to $535,000 \u2014 the biggest jump in at least five years.<\/p>\n The number of available homes for sale has been at historic lows in recent months, helping drive up prices. It’s getting really old at this point, but the lack of inventory really is the main story in the Seattle housing market. Without more homes hitting the market we’re going to be stuck in this rut for a while.<\/p>\n As I mentioned yesterday, the P-I’s longtime real estate reporter Aubrey Cohen has moved on to another gig. While my opinion of the P-I has gone down dramatically ever since they dropped the print edition and basically became “Buzzfeed Light: Seattle Edition,” Aubrey always did great work there on the real estate beat. His efforts will be missed.<\/p>\n Deborah Horne<\/em>: Seattle housing prices skyrocket<\/a><\/p>\n That’s how longtime Realtor Carmen Gayton sees the for sale signs in nearly every Seattle neighborhood.<\/p>\n “Amazon, eBay, you name it, they’re all coming to Seattle,” said Gayton, “Which we’re happy about but it does cause a little bit of an issue with housing.”<\/p>\n Indeed business was brisk at this Open House on a Tuesday afternoon on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill. A little too brisk for Chris Byszeski, a software engineer for Amazon.com.<\/p>\n \u201cThe trouble being that you see a list price and that’s probably not what it’s going for,” said Byszeski.<\/p>\n And he’s been looking for the last two months.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It really does stink to be a buyer right now, even if you’re making a sweet six-figure salary working for the biggest tech employer in the northwest.<\/p>\n Travis Pittman<\/em>: Tight Puget Sound housing market creating ‘buyer anxiety’<\/a><\/p>\n Buyer anxiety. Frenzy market.<\/p>\n Those are two descriptions about the current status of the Western Washington housing market given Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Good luck with that.<\/p>\n “Some high demand areas in Seattle have had a doubling of per bedroom rental rates to over $1,000 per bedroom,” said John Deely, a broker at Coldwell Banker Bain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Don’t throw your money away on rent!”<\/p>\n “Buy a home no matter how overpriced it may seem!”<\/p>\n Emily Parkhurst<\/em>: Seattle-area home sales reach a fever pitch as rising rents drive millennials to buy<\/a><\/p>\n You may have hear that millennials don\u2019t buy houses. The Great Recession and housing bubble scared them away.<\/p>\n For some, myself included, that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n But for millennials who are watching their rents go up and up and up, buying a home is looking like a more attractive option.<\/p>\n Combine that with low interest rates and a flood of new people to the area, and you\u2019ll see what\u2019s currently playing out in Seattle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I may have also heard that making generalizations about an entire group of people based on arbitrary birth year cutoffs is somewhat ridiculous. Or I may have said that. Just now. Articles about what “millennials” are or aren’t doing when it comes to buying homes are annoying and basically never insightful or interesting, in my opinion. Thankfully Ms. Parkhurst avoids falling too far into that trap, but she certainly skirted the edge.<\/p>\n C.R. Roberts<\/em>: Home prices sizzle in a real estate seller\u2019s market<\/a><\/p>\n Prices are up, inventory is down and real estate officials seem stretched as they attempt to find the sturdiest metaphors to describe a sizzling seller\u2019s market. \u201cSellers are currently experiencing the role of Prince Charming as buyers vie to win the Cinderella title by escalating offer prices above market value, releasing earnest money and waiving contingencies normally used to safeguard the transaction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, he continued, \u201cthe less fortunate \u2018stepsisters\u2019 are becoming shell-shocked after numerous failed attempts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Okay, John Deely lost points earlier for the rent price scare-mongering, but I will award him some consolation points for at least coming up with an original and colorful analogy.<\/p>\n (Coral Garnick, Seattle Times<\/a>, 04.06.2015<\/em>) It’s time once again for the monthly reporting roundup, where you can read my wry commentary about the news instead of subjecting yourself to boring rehashes of the NWMLS press release (or in addition to, if that’s what floats your boat). To kick things off, here’s an excerpt from the NWMLS press release: Frenzied Market…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"On the blog: March Reporting Roundup: Anxious Frenzy Edition","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[612,198],"tags":[292,1046,1096,157,172,6,1098,1097,1123,118,431,1099,19,31,34],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-30489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-bottom-calling","tag-garnick","tag-horne","tag-king5","tag-kiro","tag-nwmls","tag-parkhurst","tag-pittman","tag-psbj","tag-reporting_roundup","tag-roberts","tag-scaremongering","tag-seattle_pi","tag-seattle_times","tag-tacoma_tribune"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n…
\nThe multiple offer market has become commonplace on well-priced new listings, observed John Deely, principal managing broker at Coldwell Banker Bain. However, he cautioned, “Some sellers are pushing pricing boundaries and are not seeing the same action as their well-priced competition.”
\n…
\nDeely, a member of the Northwest MLS board of directors, said buyers are flooding into the Greater Seattle market due to abundant job opportunities. He also attributed the high demand to low interest rates and skyrocketing rents. “Some high demand areas in Seattle have had a doubling of per bedroom rental rates to over $1,000 per bedroom,” according to Deely.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSeattle Times<\/h3>\n
\n…
\nMultiple offers have become commonplace across the region because of the shortage of homes for sale. In March, King County had 1.3 months\u2019 supply of homes, while Seattle had less than a one-month supply.
\n…
\nAs the start of the spring season, March is typically a very good month for sales, Scott said. But coming out of a mild King County winter where sales didn\u2019t slow down as they usually do, March\u2019s sales have made the lack of inventory more severe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSeattle P-I<\/h3>\n
KIRO 7<\/h3>\n
KING 5<\/h3>\n
\n…
\nFor those buyers who can’t win a bidding war, they’re left to try to find an affordable place to rent.<\/p>\nPuget Sound Business Journal<\/h3>\n
Tacoma News Tribune \/ The Olympian<\/h3>\n
\n…
\n\u201cThe multiple-offer market has become commonplace on well-priced new listings,\u201d said John Deely, principal managing broker at Coldwell Banker Bain, in a NWMLS release.<\/p>\n
\n(Deborah Horne, KIRO 7<\/a>, 04.07.2015<\/em>)
\n(Travis Pittman, KING 5<\/a>, 04.07.2015<\/em>)
\n(Emily Parkhurst, Puget Sound Business Journal<\/a>, 04.08.2015<\/em>)
\n(C.R. Roberts, Tacoma News Tribune<\/a>, 04.06.2015<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"