Do you think demand for commercial space will result in a continued rise in property values in King County?<\/p>\n
Evidently, Susan Ryan at the P-I Real Estate Blog<\/a> thinks so…<\/p>\n An article in today’s PI<\/a> on the institutional investor interest in Seattle, highlights one of the reasons the local residential real estate remains strong.<\/p>\n Low office vacancy rates and investor\/retailer interest in commercial property means more people working dowtown and wanting to live near where they work. If you’re not one of them — as in you can’t afford a home or condo close in — it seems hard to believe that there are enough folks who can afford to live in town to sustain the prices. But there are.<\/p>\n The problem is that there aren’t enough houses to buy. It’s kind of a weird point in the market cycle. There are both more buyers actively seeking homes that are still in short supply with other buyers afraid to buy right now, scared by what’s happened in other parts of the country and the unrelenting news coverage of the real estate downturn in those places. They don’t want to get stuck with a property bought at the top of the cycle.<\/p>\n But with the strong Seattle economy, in order for there to be a downturn, there has to be a flurry of homes coming on the market — like when sellers trying to cash out before prices drop. It is that glut of homes for sale that that makes them get cheaper. So far there’s no flurry, no glut.<\/p>\n It’s like a collective holding of breath with buyers and sellers both waiting to see who will blink first.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Blink. Blink.<\/p>\n (Susan Ryan, Seattle Real Estate Professionals<\/a>, 09.29.2006<\/i>)
(Andrea James, Seattle P-I<\/a>, 09.29.2006<\/i>)<\/p>\n