RE market still going strong in Seattle, but I'm getting nervous

RE market still going strong in Seattle, but I'm getting nervous

Rental Property Investor · Bellevue, WA · Member since 2016 · 35 posts · 11 votes

I just accepted a full price offer on a property we listed 5 days ago in the Bellevue/Eastside of Seattle area. This is a property we acquired a year ago, it's a fix-upper in a conveniently located neighborhood, the project took much longer than we anticipated, and with a quite a bit of budget overrun as well. I have been watching local RE market very closely in the past 2 months as we are finally getting ready to sell. With all the lockdown, stock market crash, and many folks got impacted and lost their jobs, I was getting nervous.

So last weekend we decided to take the property to the market, before the government lockdown is lifted. RE is considered essential business and it's allowed to have people tour the house with PPE and social distancing. It's a really weird time to sell a house, it'll be one experience for history books :-). We listed property and received a full-price offer 4 days later, and we reach mutual the next day. I was quite nervous going in and wanted to get the property sold asap, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the RE market is still going so strong in Seattle area. Even during the midst of lockdown, we had many groups touring our property over the course of 5 days. I didn't see price drop at all, it probably went up 5-10% YOY in the area our property is located. There are definitely less buyers given the covid-19 situation, but there is very few houses available for sale as well, so whatever are in the market all got sold pretty quickly. I will make ~10% net profit from the sale.

I think the housing market will retreat in Seattle area in the next 1-2 years, the full economic impact of the virus and lockdown is not yet showing up in RE market yet. That's why I was nervous and want to sell quickly, I want to get some funds back as cash and have the dry powder to load up if another crash comes.

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Real Estate Broker · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 427 votes
6y

High end over $2m have always been hit or miss. The house has to be super awesome and someone will buy it. 

I've recently been showing homes ranging from $800k to around $1.4m.

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  • Real Estate Broker · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 427 votes
    6y

    Yeah, I have been actively showing properties in the Eastside.  Definitely still multiple offers and bidding wars.

  • Rental Property Investor · Bellevue, WA · Member since 2016 · 35 posts · 11 votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Adrian Chu:

    Yeah, I have been actively showing properties in the Eastside.  Definitely still multiple offers and bidding wars.

    What kind of buyers do you see are still buying? Banks are tightening up lending, a lot of buyers couldn't get mortgage now, the high end housing (>$2M) are moving very slowly these days.

  • Real Estate Broker · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 427 votes
    6y

    High end over $2m have always been hit or miss. The house has to be super awesome and someone will buy it. 

    I've recently been showing homes ranging from $800k to around $1.4m.

  • Lender · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 2k+ posts · 899 votes
    6y

    that is good news regarding the ease you were able to sell and get full price .....the buyers seem to be active in the area in King county ....not much new inventory so yours was probably noticed right away...the other element helping stimulate activity is the low interest rates .......the post above mentioning the lending tightening is definitely accurate especially for " jumbo " loans ( > 741,750 for SFR) ..

  • Real Estate Agent · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 87 posts · 39 votes
    6y

    My neighbor asked for my opinion on his home entering the market at 800k. Based on the active and sold comps, I was thinking it'd be more like 775k, but to my surprise, went mutual after 3 days OTM and sold for list price. 

    On the flip side, you can find good deals on homes that have been on the market for a while. Recently went pending on an MLS listing for 10% off the asking price.

  • Ryan GarrisonPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Olympia, WA · Member since 2017 · 236 posts · 83 votes
    6y

    Seattle Metro has a unique protective bubble around it, not to be confused with a real estate bubble. The scarcity of housing and the volume of high paying tech jobs (that are able to thrive in the current pandemic) will keep things strong until people no longer need to live locally due to working remotely. Ironically, that could be a side effect of the stay at home order.  In my humble opinion... But man, the city of Seattle makes you not want to be a landlord. 

  • Investor · SEATTLE · Member since 2019 · 11 posts · 20 votes
    6y

    In the last 30 days, I've noticed a lot more sales coming at 95% to 98% of asking price  than I have in last 5 years , and more "Back on Markets" than I have seen in last couple of years as well. Banks are definitely tightening up. Some people saying if you don't have a 700 credit score don't bother even trying. I'll let you know how bad it is in about a month, looking for a $200K commercial loan to do some improvements. 

  • Real Estate Broker · Bothell, WA · Member since 2019 · 17 posts · 11 votes
    6y

    Yep, houses are still selling like crazy in my area. Less inventory with more buyers wanting to take advantage of low-interest rates. As a first time buyer myself looking for my first deal, I'm holding off for now and hoping to see less competition and influx of buyers thinking these mortgage rates won't last long (which my lenders have claimed they will likely last for the next few quarters). We looked at a duplex in Everett a few weeks ago that had 20+ offers, and a broker in my office had a buyer that outbid on a $6m property with 8 offers by an all-cash buyer. Definitely an interesting time, and not a bad time at all for sellers.

  • Julie MarquezPro Member
    Investor · Skagit County, WA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 807 votes
    6y

    @Jason Woods Congrats on your flip and I'm glad you got a great offer!

    We had a great experience with our latest flip. It was a 1000 sq ft 2/1 in Mount Vernon and we rehabed it for 94 days and nervously went on the market April 5 asking for $299k. We just closed on May 15 at $305k with an FHA loan that luckily went through easily for the buyer. I think it is an even better market now than it was 6 weeks ago - there is a little more certainty about the uncertainty. At that price point we got 4 offers, and I think it would do even better today. I saw a little slow down at the beginning, but it seems to be picking up again.

  • Rental Property Investor · Bellevue, WA · Member since 2016 · 35 posts · 11 votes
    6y

    @Julie Marquez thanks Julie!

    This market surprises me. I can’t imagine housing market going this strong in midst of lockdown, 15% unemployment rate and GDP down 35% this quarter by estimates. There is probably more money to be made if I wait a bit, but I’d rather take profits and hold cash now than getting an extra 5% gain.

  • Member since 2019 · 4 posts · 4 votes
    6y

    @Jason Woods high end luxury homes have definitely lost out on buyers for many reasons. While these homes are still selling and having bidding wars on the Eastside, I have seen decent price cuts in particular markets. For example, if you are familiar with the lower Kennydale area, there’s been a lot of new construction homes and development over the past few years. In March of this year, my dad who is a builder himself, sold a 4 bed 4.5 bath 3,800 sf spec build for $1.5M in less than 5 days. Quadrant homes, along with a other reputable builders have built similar homes, less than a .25 mile away for $1.6-2M range and at least 5 homes have dropped prices $120-165k. While this may be a small haircut for the price point, it does make me nervous also.

    The affordable housing sector as many mentioned in this thread is still going strong, especially further south towards Auburn, Kent, Puyallup etc.

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