The impending Seattle housing market collapse. (Highland: best cities, houses, neighborhood)

[MarketingGuy]

Originally Posted by 70Ford

Actually, I do plan on buying a home in Seattle, around 2011.

I wanted to make a post in the Seattle forums about you Ira500, but I don't think it's allowed. People should rep you higher. You have good info - and you're not pushy. That's awesome. I wish that was represented in your score. (Maybe people will read this and hit the freaking + button, dang it.)

Thanks for your insight. Nice to see the Realtor's side of it.

Agreed with above.

[70Ford]

Seattle-area house values fall further in March

Good news? Bad news? Guess it depends where you are in the market....

[Ira500]

Maybe it's not good for someone who overpaid for a house here a year ago and is now trying to sell it, but there are a lot more people who couldn't afford to buy a home here. Strikes me that prices here are still a bit out of whack, but maybe they're starting to get more affordable?

[Beenaroundabit]

Strikes me that prices here are still a bit out of whack, but maybe they're starting to get more affordable?

They are in my neighborhood, mainly because people are starting to come to their senses. I realize everyone wants to get the most that they can out of their home, but we have had several townhomes in my community (Issaquah) on the market for well over a year, all asking around $450,000. That was wishful thinking before the market started to go into its downturn and is quite unrealistic for the way things are now. Now they've dropped prices by 20-30K and the houses are starting to move.

Of course, it's the prime home buying season, as well, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Ditto on your consistently solid advice, Ira

[Ira500]

Generally speaking, a lot more homes come onto the market in May and June, but in a normal market the existing inventory wouldn't be so high, and new homes would be more prone to be sold....But right now, existing inventory is sky high, so there's a whole lot to choose from. That's one reason that some agents say that it's a good time to buy. But at the same time, some sellers paid too much too recently and don't want to( or can't) lose money, and other sellers are only listening to what they want to, that the Seattle market is fine, we've hit bottom and they don't need to lower their prices....Then after the place has sit on the market for way too long, reality sets in.

[sean98125]

I wonder how many of the houses sitting out there now are flips. There's a house near us that was bought by a realtor about a year ago. He did all the stereotypical upgrades inside and put it back on the market about six months later. He started off about $50,000 more than he is at right now. He started as FSBO, then listed it, then had a different realtor list it, and now its back to FSBO. I think the asking price is within $15,000 of what he originally paid for it.

Meanwhile, a house half a block away that wasn't flipped sold in about three weeks after being put on the market. The sellers made about 71% more than they paid for it in 2004.

I've heard about the high foreclosure numbers and such, but I wonder how much of that is from people that were speculating on houses rather than buying their homes.

[Jennibc]

Our realtor told us that the townhouse market is really soft right now, but that SF houses in the city neighborhoods are still going fast if priced right. A small two bedroom, one bath in Wedgwood sold for just under 400K after 3 days on the market (less than two blocks from here). The realtor didn't tell us about that, the owners did. I am not sure, at least in my neighborhood where nothing stays on the market that long (if it's not on an arterial), can be described as a housing market collapse. I've seen prices come down after a house sits on the market for two weeks, but typically the sellers are only lowering them in the neighborhood of 10 to 20K. That's not a whole lot when one is talking about starting prices of 500K or more.

I also think that housing close into the city (within 7-8 miles from downtown) will never drop that much because there are so many people moving from more expensive markets that are willing and ABLE to pay 400K or more for a house. If you move from the Bay area, 600K seems like a bargain.

Now, single family homes in Puyallup, (I think that's where the realtor quoted on an earlier post was located), I can see how those would drop.

[sean98125]

A coworker of mine bought a $600K house near Puyallup a year ago that is now worth about $550. He bought a Navigator at the same time. He works on First Hill.

He just started taking the bus to work.

[texastrigirl]

Have had my house in Sammamish appraised three times in the past year (purchase, LOC, refi) since I bought it. On the appraisal from yesterday, it is only $5K off what it appraised for when I bought it and has comps to support the appraisal. Fortunately I paid quite a bit less than the original appraisal so we have some room. Maybe the downturn is still coming though...makes me nervous. I email my realtor weekly. I think he is going to start blocking me.

[Kingsnkali]

This thread sounds exactly like the Sacramento/San Diego/L.A./Orange Co. real estate market threads from about a year and a half to two years ago. Same types of opinions and feelings. For lots of us Californians, that was about 100 to 200 thousand dollars ago in lost home value...

Good luck up there in the Emerald City.