Eastside Housing Prices: Waaaay Up, Little "Affordable" (Seattle: sales, how much)

[Blondebaerde]

My realtor, a sharp young man I work deals with occasionally, sends out a monthly newsletter via his current firm. I find it interesting reading, since I'm not in that business per se.

Here is a snippet I found especially compelling from latest:

"...Further, if you jump across Lake Washington to the Eastside, the average sales price for a single-family residential home in 2016 was $907,000, up 12% from the year prior - 29% more than Seattle Metro! The Eastside has the infrastructure to support their own job centers, making it a second Seattle with the benefit of newer and larger housing stock, which reflects the pricing. Many folks are living and working on the Eastside, or using the 520 toll bridge to jump over to Seattle."

First paragraph was that vast bulk of his clients list "commute time" as No. 1 priority when buying. Wondering if one, work in Seattle stay in Seattle (if you can find a home there), and two, ditto Eastside. Latter is its own epicenter of commerce these days. Of course, plenty work in one and live in the other, it's doable but I'd personally never do so outside of mass transit. I've always lived Eastside or north end and oddly enough never worked in Seattle regularly.

Next interesting point:

"Another pricing hot button to consider are the future locations of the upcoming Light Rail stations. We have seen home values in these locations come with a premium. Northgate, 145th, 185th in Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood are all slated to open over the next 6 years."

Hmm.

[mhays25]

He forgot Roosevelt, an actual walkable neighborhood. They're adding homes at a high rate, though not a ton of the single-family variety.

[thatguy950]

Well it is an easy choice is you have the money, a dilapidated garbage dump vs. the eastside.

[OneTimeSEALover]

Prices a short distance from park and rides to the North? Driving south past them from Bellingham made me wonder how far people drive to drop their cars there.

[homesinseattle]

thatguy, Come visit my Phinney Ridge neighborhood. I'll show you around, we'll grab a beer at one of about 15 pubs or cafes walkable from my house. Garbage dump surely it is not. New York Times thinks it is one of the hottest neighborhoods in the country.

[bluehorseshoe]

The Eastside will be renamed Chinatown in a few years though.

[mkarch]

Originally Posted by mhays25

He forgot Roosevelt, an actual walkable neighborhood. They're adding homes at a high rate, though not a ton of the single-family variety.

Have you been there? It's blocks of fenced off dilapidated vacant shacks along 65th immediately east of the rail station. It's been like that for decades.

[mhays25]

Huge exaggeration. And much of that's being redeveloped.

[OneTimeSEALover]

Originally Posted by bluehorseshoe

The Eastside will be renamed Chinatown in a few years though.

How much investment money from China is involved in making Seattle less livable? Some enterprising writer should look into that. China has shadow markets. The newly rich are skulking around, trying to prevent the Communist Party from controlling their fortunes. I have no proof, but I do think some places on the planet are being impacted.

[mrsengle]

Originally Posted by OneTimeSEALover

How much investment money from China is involved in making Seattle less livable? Some enterprising writer should look into that. China has shadow markets. The newly rich are skulking around, trying to prevent the Communist Party from controlling their fortunes. I have no proof, but I do think some places on the planet are being impacted.

I would like to see these numbers as well.