(This is a sponsored post from Kris Murphy & Daniela Dombrowski, of Keller Williams)
Wallingford Real Estate Update – Single Family Homes
We all hear so much about real estate every day with the help of good real estate agent, but in this article we are focusing on our micro area so you may get a true picture of what is happening with YOUR real estate investment. In our statistics we have captured just Wallingford and Tangletown (see map) which seem to be keeping on par with one another in housing values and trends. Finally, we break out single family homes including townhomes because analyzing condominiums yields different results and trends. Stay tuned for another article focusing on the Wallingford/Green Lake condo market.
Statistics in table below are based on home sales outlined in map area and are derived from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service data.
Comparison Quarters 2 & 3 from 2013 to 2014 (April – September)
The Wallingford upturn started earlier than in many other Seattle neighborhoods so 2013 was a very hot year in real estate with 12.3% appreciation compared to 2012 and continues to be very competitive in 2014. However, inventory was down by 15.5% this year causing a shortage of homes for sale, leading to a further increase in bidding wars and continued price appreciation. The median sales price rose 9.24% this year from last with the average sales price landing 3.2% over this list price, and we saw escalations as high as 20% over market for certain properties. Average days on market remained the same at 14 days, but only because listing agents almost always held the property on market for at least 1 week before looking at offers, giving the market a chance to discover the property and compete for it.
| 2nd & 3rd Qtr ’13 compared to 2nd & 3rd Qtr ‘14 | 2013 | 2014 | Difference | % |
| Number of Closed Sales | 167 | 141 | -26 | -15.56% |
| Average Days on Market | 14 | 14 | 0 | |
| Median List Price | $585,000 | 630,000 | $45,000 | +7.69% |
| Median Sales Price | $595,000 | 649,950 | $54,950 | +9.24% |
| List to Sales Price Ratio | 101.7% | 103.2% |
What the trends are telling us
The following charts capture all of Wallingford and Green Lake real estate trends over the last 15 months. This bar graph tells us how many homes were available for sale (light green), how many went under contract (red line) and how many sales closed each month (dark green). We can see with the light green bars there were clearly less homes for sale this year, yet buying activity was even stronger than last year (see red line). Yet, actual closed sales (dark green) are fewer than last year due to the lower supply in active listings. Intense bidding wars and price increases are how these statistics played out in the marketplace.
In this chart the green line represents the average list price of a home while the red line shows the final sales price. This picture is a bit erratic and the September numbers show an average list price far greater than the resulting sales prices. It is not unusual after an extreme sellers’ market for sellers to get emboldened and shoot for the moon with their pricing. But eventually buyers push back and prices stop escalating so rapidly causing the market to become more balanced.
Finally, this chart illustrates months of inventory. It is derived based on a calculation dividing the number of homes for sale by the number of homes that went under contract and attempts to project how many months it will take for the entire available inventory to sell. Anything under 2 months of inventory represents a sellers’ market, and in our case, most of the time we were under 1 month of inventory which translates into a “crazy sellers’ market”. Certainly, that is what we have been experiencing this last year as real estate brokers.
This Too Shall Change
We are seeing indicators of a changing market and certainly that is bound to happen. But in Wallingford we are experiencing only a small softening at this time. The true test will come in the early months of 2015 after our usual holiday lull. Will buyers continue to be out in full force? Will more sellers be bringing their homes to market thus bringing up housing inventory numbers? Will interest rates start rising as we have been hearing for some time now? Currently, 30-year mortgages are back below 4%, but for how long?
Barring any unforeseen major changes, we expect the strong housing market to continue in Wallingford, but perhaps not as dramatic as this last year. The strength of our local economy continues, Wallingford attracts exciting new businesses adding to our urban walkable offerings, our schools are excellent and commuting from Wallingford to almost anywhere is a breeze. All these factors contribute to keep making Wallingford real estate a desirable commodity besides being the neighborhood we all love to live and thrive in.
Kris Murphy and Daniela Dombrowski are Wallyhood sponsors and real estate brokers who live and specialize in the Wallingford and Green Lake neighborhoods. They practice out of the Keller Williams Greater Seattle office located on the corner of Stone Way and N 45th St.
Kris Murphy & Daniela Dombrowski
[email protected] / [email protected]
www.Key2SeattleRealEstate.com
Keller Williams Greater Seattle
1307 N 45th St, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98103
Great data and good insights. Thanks for this.
Do you ladies also have information on multi-unit sales like duplexes or triplexes? I’m curious how many we have, how many are for sale and if some developer could buy those, tear them down and build apodments in their places.
My home is a home, not an investment.
Lisa, we do not have a comprehensive database for duplexe and triplex sales in Wallingford as very often people list with commercial agents, so our picture is partial. I consulted with Erik Robbins, a fellow agent in our office, who is more familiar with apodments and larger developments because it really boils down to zoning and density. I also asked him if developers are choosing to re-zone through the city for apodments once acquiring property. Here was his answer:
Generally speaking re-zoning is a very lengthy process and risky so Developers don’t usually pursue that route unless it is a very large project. It something that owners will pursue as they see the greatest value increase.
Also, zoning is generally based on density (FAR) and height, beyond that there are additional elements/details that relate to proximity to transit, shorelines, utilities etc but this is very site specific (ie urban village).
“Apodments” issues are controversial since they fall in this grey area where municipal habitation codes meet building codes and they are in conflict and undefined for the use. Most Apodment developers are looking for NC or MR zoning in urban villages for it to work since the parking requirements will kill the development outside of the urban village. There is some LR Zoning that might work but it is difficult to get the density in LR. This means that for tearing down duplex or triplexes to build Apodments, or regular apartments, you will need to find a site with the right zoning, in an urban village and a large enough lot (5000+). These sites are very valuable and rare.