Bitten by the bubble...

femto

I don't know if it's karmic payback for all the time I spend reading bubble blogs, but the unit downstairs from me just got foreclosed on and returned to the market at 20% below the last sale price (from a year ago). The kicker? the FB was a local real estate agent. More details on my personal blog.

femto

So the unit below me finally sold about 3 weeks ago for $305K. It's peak (very bubbly) price was $400K in Nov 2006. Here' the last 5 years sales data courtesy of Redfin:

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/print ... al_id=6698

Date Price
Jul 01, 2003 $193,000
Sep 22, 2005 $322,000
Nov 15, 2006 $399,950 (bought by a real estate agent)
Oct 10, 2007 $315,000 (foreclosure)
Mar 13, 2008 $305,000

It's interesting to me that even with the massive (almost 25%) decline from peak, this unit has still appreciated a quite respectable 10.25% per year since 2003. What's baffling are the guys across the street (in the Meridian) trying to move stuff at more than double this price.

In other news our building made The Stranger this week (in a quite unflattering way), including some odd quotes from one of our board members. I'm guessing the board meeting next week will be tense.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Cont ... =552742&hp

mike2

On Capitol hill? Only time will tell if the $305K buyer is catching knives. Any idea what the actual market value is supported by (very) recent comps?

ira s

So the wise real estate agent who bought this property lost it to foreclosure, and the genius who bought it in foreclosure sold it for less than what he paid.
Morons are not on the endangered species list.

femto

This is at the Capitol Hill/First Hill/Downtown juncture (next to the convention center). I think $305K is actually a pretty good deal on this place, and there's some upside for the buyer, it works out to $340/sq. ft. which is pretty cheap by downtown condo standards, and about half what stuff in the Meridian across the street is selling for. There's actually a smaller unit (2bed/1bath vs this 2bed/2bath) in the building on the market right now for $335K. I think the bank got real motivated when we finally sued them to collect the delinquent HOA dues (which are pretty steep, a bit over $450/month for that unit).

femto

The foreclosure price wasn't a real salesl price, that's just what the bank recorded (I believe the value of the 1st mortgage), I think this was originally an 80/20 100% financing deal.