Seattle weekly wrap-up: 32 offers!?
With Seattle’s median home price now down 20% from its peak last April/May and in the face of 6.5% interest rates, the market continues to heat up for well-priced million-dollar single-family homes! Lots of examples of bidding wars this past week:
- West Seattle home on a busy street gets 6 offers
- Magnolia home gets 6 offers
- Montlake Tudor gets 6 offers
- Madrona corner lot gets 10 offers (I really dig this home)
- Madrona home gets offers 10 offers
- Wallingford craftsman on a busy street at $1.5m goes for north of $1.8m
And of course, the craziest example is this $1m Lake Forest Park home from last week’s newsletter that had 32+ offers. I’m curious to see where the price ended up! The takeaway here is that for a well-priced million-dollar single-family home be prepared for a bidding war and to waive all contingencies and release your earnest money. But keep in mind that less than 20% of new listings last week had offer review deadlines. Most homes aren’t selling fast or getting bid up so for those homes, you can write a much more buyer-friendly offer.
Digging into the numbers, sellers listed 190 homes, down 4.5% week-over-week (some agents don’t recommend listing over the Superbowl weekend…) As for buyers, they put 179 homes under contract, down 2.7% week-over-week. As for inventory, it notched a new low for the year at 985 active listings. Expect next week to be a slow one for new listings as many listing agents will advise against listing over a long weekend, and will advise against listing until after Seattle Public School’s midwinter break (Feb 20-24).
Last week was busy for us – we listed a southwest corner two-bedroom at the Meritage (which is the building I bought my first condo in!) and our Capitol Hill listing next to the Volunteer Park Cafe went pending. Though we’re still looking for a buyer for our Fremont townhome, condo at the Emerald and Perkins Lane contemporary.
Listings that caught our eye this week – a $2m midcentury in View Ridge, an updated loft in the acclaimed Banner Building, a penthouse atop the SLU Whole Foods, and these new homes atop Snoqualmie Pass – mountain houses with a year-round heated pool! On the Sound, we spotted a (medium bank) waterfront a-frame. Though what I’m really enamored with is the Richardson Fuel Dock on Lopez.
