Will Seattle buck the trend?
Argh, another article I was interviewed for but I didn’t make it in. Washington CEO, Will Seattle’s condo market continue to buck the national trend?
Fortunately this article is much more critical of the Seattle condo market than other articles have been. However, I am disappointed it didn’t dig deeper and talk about the struggling developments (Trio, Domaine) and the number of re-sales and rentals stacking up at developments like 2200 and soon to be Cosmo.
Perhaps more interesting is the number of multifamily housing proposals filling up Seattle’s pipeline. The total number of proposed low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise multifamily units, including condos and apartments, increased 24 percent, from 13,823 in February 2006 to 17,140 in February 2007, according to New Home Trends. Meanwhile, apartments are converting to condos at a rapid clip: from 430 apartments in 2004 to 1,551 in 2005 to 2,352 in 2006, according to Seattle Planning and Development Director Diane Sugimura.
Do all those numbers point to a coming condo glut? It’s hard to say. Some of the condo proposals now in the pipeline, for example, could be canceled because of rising construction costs, and that could help keep supply in check.
I’m beginning to track inventory any help with the numbers would be appreciated. Hopefully I can have it produce some graphs like the one in the article so we can keep up with the numbers in real time:
