I'm seeing an interesting trend develop. I've been watching lakefront properties on the Eastside for over a year. Just in last few weeks I've seen three listings unlike any I've seen before. Two of them were listed significantly lower (ie, 20-35% lower) than like properties have been in the past. The fisrt time I saw that I thought "someone really wants to sell". The second time I saw it, the real estate agent had added the following comment to the listing: "priced for multiple offers". When the eastside was REALLY hot, you didn't have to price for multiple offers, they happened at asking prices! This is the first clear sign that even on high end properties things are slowing down. I suspect that by doing this, these properties will attract interest and sell, but they will be lucky to get bid up to the level where many of the others are just sitting there. The third property is listed with a "free waterski boat with a full price offer". When is the last time you saw that around here! You see, Seattle IS DIFFERENT - it's different because the downturn here is lagging a bit from the rest of the country.
From a very narrow-perspective, I can say that homes in my neighbourhood (near the Microsoft campus and Marymoor park), seem to be selling like hot-cakes. Several homes near us have sold within days of being listed, often with bidding wars resulting in a closing higher than asking price.
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