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Seattle Region Home To 10 of Nation's 30 Most Competitive Neighborhoods For House Hunters (geekwire.com)
After a recent report revealed Seattle had the nation's hottest housing market for the second month running, it should come as no surprise that many of the most competitive neighborhoods in the country are clustered around the Seattle region. From a report on GeekWire: Redfin, a Seattle-based real estate and technology company, crunched the numbers on the most competitive neighborhoods from house hunters across 27 U.S. metro areas. Four of the top 10 and 10 of the top 30 hottest neighborhoods are in or near Redfin's hometown of Seattle. Bellevue, Wash.'s Factoria neighborhood, home to T-Mobile, is the most competitive neighborhood in the country. Seattle's University district is second, followed by two neighborhoods in Boston, Mass. Redfin ranked the neighborhoods based on the percentages of homes that sold for cash and sold for more than their asking price. Analysts also considered the median days on the market and home price growth in each neighborhood. Home prices in the Seattle area are soaring, fueled by booming job and population growth.
It can tell us which houses are being bought by the rich. No one else has that kind of money.
Why is this on /. ? Too much eggnog by msmash ?
The mythology of making money from your own house is only that - mythology. We still have untold thousands (at least) of people who watch too much H&G TV and other cable programs that exist to bring customers to realtors, without concern for the fact that it is a pyramid scheme they (consumers) can never profit from.
If you want to buy a house for your own sake because you want to own a house for some reason, great. If you want to make improvements to said house for your own sake, great. But it is time to give up on the notion of "investing" in your house; you won't get the money back when you're old enough to stop working. You're just as well off putting the same money in a checking account (as savings accounts don't pay interest in this country any ways) and letting it sit there.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I'm all for the idea of relocating to get a better job. (I think that's increasingly necessary just to reward states with a pro-business/commerce mindset and punish the ones without it.)
But markets where real-estate gets so "hot", you can't ever imagine owning your own home without becoming a millionaire first? That's a huge negative, in my opinion. The "American dream" is all about home ownership and a good paying career type job should be one that makes that dream possible for you (even if you're still in a situation where you only want to rent, at the moment).
I moved to the DC area for a new job myself, and it has this same problem. So I compromised by moving to a small, more rural community in Western Maryland. Now I have a 50+ mile commute each direction for work, BUT we have a commuter rail system I can make use of, AND I have the option to work from home several days a week. So it's completely doable, and I get the benefit of enjoying peaceful, quiet rural living AND a regular does of the "big city" at the same time. Results may vary for others who opt to come here for a job ... but it's all stuff to consider.
All these hot housing markets just show where there should be more development in new housing, especially more compact housing. Put some high rises in and around those neighborhoods along with more public transit and problem solved.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Not tech, not news, not interesting, not surprising, not important.
I live 30 miles North of Seattle. Housing prices are doing the same thing here. People are paying $400K for run down shacks. Tiny 2 bedroom apartments have gone from $800 - $1600/mo in 3 years. 2000sqft new construction in Edmonds are going for $1.4M. The biggest problem is infrastructure. The commute 30 miles to Seattle has gone from 40 minutes per way 3 years ago to 1-2 hours per way today - and getting worse by the month. Seattle has punted on public transportation so long they had to shove $54B transportation spending bill down land owners throats that will take 25 years to build and won't fix the problems now or in 3-5 years. The streets are undriveable. Homeless are everywhere and growing. Crime is on the rise. If you're not pulling in $100K+, you can't afford to live in Seattle. .
Flippers are everywhere. But I don't see all the negatives turning the trend.
If you look at California, housing prices are still insane and higher than they are in Seattle. By CA comparison, there's a long way to go - on the up side - for pricing.
The "American dream" is all about home ownership
it has this same problem.
good grief, Bush's "ownership society" bullshit speech is still echoing in your brain,
Of all the property assets on the planet, the one worth your investment just coincidentally happens to be the one you are living in?
wake up fool
Put some high rises in and around those neighborhoods along with more public transit and problem solved.
NIMBY.
so you want to live in an economic ghetto? good for you
..and people still move there? Nothing like moving for a hot salary and then having it killed by a house.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
begone, fake news
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Because of the 15% foreign buyers tax that vancouver instituted in sept, our HAM (hot asian money) has moved slightly south. I thought this was a well known fact so its a shame the article seems to have another hypothesis that is much less likely. Seeing as the spike almost exactly corresponds with the tax and not any massive hiring in the last 6 months.
Welcome to unaffordability seattle! probably a good time to buy property, hold it for a few months and flip, if the lower mainland BC is any indication of whats in store for you guys.
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
Seattle is all in all a decent place to live. It also leads the nation in having the highest rate of car theft, lol, but that's what garages are for.
As for real estate, yes, the market is on fire here. If your asking price is even remotely close to reality you can sell it in no time. A $200K house priced at $230K will sell, no problem, and after the bidding wars you may get $250K or more.
For example, I could *easily* sell my home for triple it's original price and it wouldn't take more than a day or so. Given a 30-day window for competitive bids it would be considerably more than that. I get flyers from real estate agents all the time begging me to sell, and it's tempting, very tempting. But then I'd either have to move a fair distance away or hunt for another home in the same super competitive market, neither of which appeal to me at this time.
Frankly, I expect another housing market crash within the next few years, so if I was smart I'd sell now. But my house payment is super low and I don't want to move, so I'm staying put. Hell, my house payment is less (a lot less) than what most people pay for rent around here.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
This is one reason I moved away from Seattle a few years back. Living there was getting far too expensive. And the traffic keeps getting worse and worse. Seattle now has the second worst even rush-hour in the country. Why? There's a growing population, but there are fewer N-S arterial lanes than in the late 1960s. And thanks to Puget Sound and Lake Washington, most Seattle commuting in north-south.
Why Amazon wants to cram most of its white-collar workers into a few skyscrapers in South Lake Union is beyond stupid. More and more, I'm wondering if Jeff Bezos is plain weird.