Seattle housing market: "The impecunious in the full pursuit of the unreachable" (sales)

[skiffrace]

Zillow.com choose this house as a Seattle example of typical "middle-sized home"
$529,000 for 1600sf, 90-years old cottage 100 yards from the Interstate 5

In other words, a measly half a mil+ for a quiet, fresh air-filled mansion ;-)

330-NE-55th-St-Seattle-WA-98105

Location

[Hemlock140]

$100,000 increase in less than 3 years isn't bad, but it hasn't sold in 58 days so who knows if they will get that much?
I would consider that to be a little over-priced, probably worth closer to $475,000 but that's still pretty close to a typical middle-sized home in Seattle.

[BATCAT]

Originally Posted by skiffrace

Zillow.com choose this house as a Seattle example of typical "middle-sized home"
$529,000 for 1600sf, 90-years old cottage 100 yards from the Interstate 5

In other words, a measly half a mil+ for a quiet, fresh air-filled mansion ;-)

330-NE-55th-St-Seattle-WA-98105

Location

I don't get it. Are you trying to say the house is tiny and dumpy and therefore overpriced? And somehow bad because it's "old"? (craftsman houses are often lovely, plus this one sounds like it's newly remodeled)
It's got three bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus a backyard with large deck, fireplace, fancy kitchen, fireplace...

As for being "100 yards from I5", as you bolded, do you have any idea how many Seattle residences are 100 years or less from I5? A lot. At that distance car noise and exhaust isn't especially noticeable.

[flyingsaucermom]

That's a cute house and probably would have been listed in my price range when we started looking in 2011, but certainly not now. We nearly put an offer on a very similar home (new kitchen, but a 3-1 and 1.5 miles from I-5) for roughly $350k. It sold in 2 weeks. It would be nearly impossible to find a home like this at that price now. I agree that this particular house seems to be a little high, but probably not more than $30-$40k. We've seen about a $90k increase in property sales for our particular unit over the last 15 months.

[mkarch]

Originally Posted by BATCAT

I don't get it. Are you trying to say the house is tiny and dumpy and therefore overpriced? And somehow bad because it's "old"? (craftsman houses are often lovely, plus this one sounds like it's newly remodeled)
It's got three bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus a backyard with large deck, fireplace, fancy kitchen, fireplace...

As for being "100 yards from I5", as you bolded, do you have any idea how many Seattle residences are 100 years or less from I5? A lot. At that distance car noise and exhaust isn't especially noticeable.

The area between 50th and 60th and 5th and Latona slopes steeply towards the freeway. Houses in those blocks usually have freeway noise in excess of what's normal even for houses 100 yards from I-5. Although it's a convenient neighborhood to live in I didn't consider buying a home there because of the noise and air pollution. You can hear it, smell it and feel the dirt in the air. Before it became 'greenlake expensive' it used to be full of cheap rentals for UW students.

Interestingly, the zillow chart shows a 47% increase from bottom (Feb 2012), and that it's actually worth more now than it was in 2007. That's a bit of an overestimate, but definitely in the ballpark.