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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.
Why is this on /. ? Too much eggnog by msmash ?
Yeah and where do you live in the meantime? A box? The point of a house being an investment is that instead of paying rent you are building equity. If person A pays 2000 monthly in rent and person B pays it towards a mortgage then in 15 years person A gets no return but person B can sell the house for 300000 plus. Sure there is upkeep expenses but they rarely exceed equity.
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.
You're both right. In a lot of cases it makes financial sense to buy a house rather than rent one, and ownership gives you greater freedom to improve your home as well. I had the chance to buy my first rental apartment, and the interest + repayments were slightly less than my monthy rent thanks to a tax deduction, which made the decision rather easy. But before 2008 (and these days as well) people were urged to buy a home because "prices are only going up". That's what GP is on about: buy a home to live in if it makes sense, but don't buy only because people tell you it's going to go up in value.
Plan your purchase under the assumption that your home will have 70% of its value when you sell, and you shouldn't have any disastrous surprises.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Ignoring the potential for insane violent property tax hikes that lower the value at the same time owners have to pay obstinate tax rates on inflated property values.. I know several people with yearly property tax bills larger than their yearly principal payments. I am quite lucky to live in a state with a constitutional cap on property taxes.
You think most of this is because people are trying to make money from buying a house?
In Seattle, a lot of it is. There is certainly a demand for new houses from investors and from people moving to the area. But the housing market is booming and people certainly are buying houses to remodel and flip on the market. I was just in the house buying market and there are just about no fixer-uppers left in the city, and even those sales are being determined by insane bidding wars between the buyers, and will most likely be back on the market the next year. Drive through some of the older neighborhoods with 50+ year old houses and you can tell that about half have been remodeled and repainted in the last few years. I'm not saying those house flippers are going to come out ahead in the long run, but it is certainly happening and driving the market that much more.
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