{"id":316,"date":"2006-08-01T08:42:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-01T15:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?p=316"},"modified":"2006-08-01T08:42:00","modified_gmt":"2006-08-01T15:42:00","slug":"condo-cheerleading-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/condo-cheerleading-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Condo Cheerleading Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A pair of articles over the weekend joined forces to paint a rosy picture of the Seattle home market in general, and the Seattle condo market specifically.  First, a proud moment for the &#8220;Seattle is Special&#8221; crowd, with this mention in a <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/realestate\/2003159708_homesales30.html\" title=\"Number of U.S. homes, condos for sale rises to 9-year high\">national article about slowing home sales<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The correction in the U.S. housing market continued in June, with inventories rising to a nine-year high while price appreciation slowed to the weakest pace in 11 years, the National Association of Realtors reported last week.<br \/>&#8230;<br \/>Some local markets, including the Seattle area, remain very strong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course what set of rah-rah real estate stories would be complete without our favorite local reporter Elizabeth Rhodes (and her apparent lackey Justin Mayo).  This week&#8217;s beneficiary of <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/realestate\/2003159699_condoappreciation30.html\" title=\"Condos appreciate strongly; studios lead\">Ms. Rhodes&#8217; unbridled housing optimism<\/a> is the &#8220;handsome&#8221; and &#8220;strong&#8221; condo market:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>How much do Puget Sound-area condominiums appreciate compared with single-family houses?<\/p>\n<p>Are they significantly more affordable than houses?<\/p>\n<p>Which size condo is a better investment around here: a studio or one with two bedrooms?<\/p>\n<p>Questions like these have long intrigued condominium buyers, but no comprehensive answers were available because there had been no in-depth analysis of condo appreciation and supply.<\/p>\n<p>This year, The Seattle Times did such an analysis, based on data from the King and Snohomish county assessors. The Times analyzed condominium data in much the same way it has done for its annual report on single-family home values.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the condo results are surprising.<\/p>\n<p>Take appreciation. Lore relegates condos to default housing, if you will, for people who can&#8217;t quite swing a house purchase. But buyers apparently don&#8217;t feel that way.<\/p>\n<p>Demand has caused condos to appreciate handsomely, thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2000, King County condominiums have outperformed single-family houses two out of five years. And even when they haven&#8217;t, their appreciation has been strong.<\/p>\n<p>In 2005, for example, the county&#8217;s single-family houses appreciated 16.3 percent per square foot. Condos climbed a healthy 13.5 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the kicker: Last year, the median price per square foot for condos in King County was $211 \u2014 or $4 more a square foot than houses in the county.<br \/>&#8230;<br \/>&#8220;It&#8217;s not a second-class form of living \u2014 no, not at all,&#8221; said Marilyn Hill, who with her husband, Don, recently bought a one-bedroom-plus-den unit on the 22nd floor of Cristalla in downtown Seattle.<br \/>&#8230;<br \/>&#8220;A condo is a different mentality than being in a home,&#8221; Marilyn Hill said. &#8220;You have to think entirely differently.&#8221;<br \/>&#8230;<br \/>In the Seattle area, there are three main categories of condo owners: first-time buyers, often singles; empty nesters ready to downsize; and investors. They&#8217;ll have a lot more to chose from in the coming years, <i>[Matthew]<\/i> Gardner, the economist, said.<\/p>\n<p>There is significant condo construction in Bremerton, Bainbridge Island, Everett, Federal Way, even Bellingham. Downtown Seattle is expected to add more than 8,000 units over the next four years.<\/p>\n<p>Gardner thinks the county&#8217;s strong job growth guarantees that the area won&#8217;t be overbuilt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What I find most interesting about this report is what it <i>doesn&#8217;t<\/i> say.  Notice that at the end they tacked on a passing mention of &#8220;investors&#8221; as one of the &#8220;three main categories of condo owners.&#8221;  Why didn&#8217;t their &#8220;in-depth analysis&#8221; reveal what percentage of condos are being bought by these &#8220;investors&#8221;?  Or maybe it did, and they didn&#8217;t feel like reporting the result?  If they&#8217;re a &#8220;main category&#8221; of purchaser, how much of an affect will it have on the supply when large numbers of them get cold feet and start to take out their money?  And how does strong job growth &#8220;guarantee&#8221; that we won&#8217;t have an oversupply of condos?  Frankly, this report raises more questions than it answers.<\/p>\n<p>(<i>Rex Nutting, <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/realestate\/2003159708_homesales30.html\" title=\"Number of U.S. homes, condos for sale rises to 9-year high\">MarketWatch<\/a>, 07.29.2006<\/i>)<br \/>(<i>Elizabeth Rhodes &#038; Justin Mayo, <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/realestate\/2003159699_condoappreciation30.html\" title=\"Condos appreciate strongly; studios lead\">Seattle Times<\/a>, 07.29.2006<\/i>)<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; font-weight: bold; color: #B6655F; font-variant: small-caps; float: right; font-size: 85%; margin-top: 10px;\">Please read <a href=\"http:\/\/seattlebubble.blogspot.com\/2006\/07\/more-user-friendly-seattle-bubble.html\" title=\"A More User Friendly Seattle Bubble\">the rules<\/a> before posting a comment.<\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\">\n<div style=\"margin: 0 auto; padding: 2px; font-size: 12px; width: 150px; text-align: center; border: 1px dashed #4386ce; background-color: #D5E2F1;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/xclick\/business=paypal%40timandjeni.com&#038;no_note=1&#038;tax=0&#038;currency_code=USD&#038;lc=US&#038;item_name=Seattle%20Bubble%20Donation\" title=\"Seattle Bubble Tip Jar\">Seattle Bubble Tip Jar<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A pair of articles over the weekend joined forces to paint a rosy picture of the Seattle home market in general, and the Seattle condo market specifically. First, a proud moment for the &#8220;Seattle is Special&#8221; crowd, with this mention in a national article about slowing home sales: The correction in the U.S. housing market&#8230;<\/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":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[4,3],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-condos","tag-rhodes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Condo Cheerleading Continues \u2022 Seattle Bubble<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/condo-cheerleading-continues\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Condo Cheerleading Continues \u2022 Seattle Bubble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"A pair of articles over the weekend joined forces to paint a rosy picture of the Seattle home market in general, and the Seattle condo market specifically. First, a proud moment for the &#8220;Seattle is Special&#8221; crowd, with this mention in a national article about slowing home sales: The correction in the U.S. housing market...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@The_Tim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SeattleBubble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Tim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/condo-cheerleading-continues\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/condo-cheerleading-continues\/\",\"name\":\"Condo Cheerleading Continues \u2022 Seattle Bubble\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-08-01T15:42:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7de7c0dd14bee1a2c67f7ce86bc4505f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/condo-cheerleading-continues\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/condo-cheerleading-continues\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/condo-cheerleading-continues\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Condo Cheerleading Continues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Seattle Bubble\",\"description\":\"local\u00a0real\u00a0estate\u00a0news, statistics,\u00a0and\u00a0commentary without\u00a0the\u00a0sales\u00a0spin.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7de7c0dd14bee1a2c67f7ce86bc4505f\",\"name\":\"The Tim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/37756956c11dcc50d2559761ffa5ee70\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/19e5770990a1681615608091b2de571b10c3e03bbac7d07bb2ae15297ee72fbc?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/19e5770990a1681615608091b2de571b10c3e03bbac7d07bb2ae15297ee72fbc?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"The Tim\"},\"description\":\"Tim Ellis is the founder of Seattle Bubble. His background in engineering and computer \/ internet technology, a fondness of data-based analysis of problems, and an addiction to spreadsheets all influence his perspective on the Seattle-area real estate market. 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