Seattle Condo Review: Blog with News & Advice about Seattle Condos

Condo Updates

I've been working OT on a few deals so have a lot of catching up to do for the blog.  Here is some of the latest Seattle condo market news:  

First off, The Schuster Group's proposed project on the corner of Elliott and Cedar St (previously named as Bellora 2 at UrbanCondominiums.com in 2007) is heading for Downtown Design Review Board on June 23rd.  The proposed project will housed 120 condos and may go as high as 14 stories.  The last time I spoke to the developer's office, they were waiting for the market to recover.  Construction may not start for a year or two.  So, it will be a few years before we see this project.  Read more here. 

Alex Condo Update

I received this update from the Alex condo marketer. It looks like Alex will be completing in the summer though the developer is hoping the market picks up some more before they officially start selling.

Furthermore, it also looks like they're going to try and avoid over-pricing and dropping prices after a few months by pricing more "reasonably" and consistent with market conditions.  

Lastly, if/when the developer does decide to start selling the homes, they plan to have 3 model homes available to show it to the public.

Related posts:

Condo Update
Alex Condos Update

$8,000 Tax Credit can be used as down payment

The Secretary of Department of Housing and Development, Shaun Donovan said yesterday that FHA would permit lenders to allow first time borrowers to use the $8,000 tax credit recently put into law as all or part of a down payment on a home.  Read more here.  Details of the plan will be published soon.

Gallery Gets Creative with Condo Purchase Incentives

Here's the low down on Gallery's latest buyer incentives:

You pick one item from Column A:

(1) 3-2-1 Rate buy down (rates starting as low as 1.875%)

(2) 3% credit for closing costs

(3) No homeowner dues until Jan 2011

You pick two additional items from Column B:

(1) $500 gift card to Crate and Barrel, Target or Best Buy

(2) 2 hours design time with an interior designer

(3) Portable Air conditioner installation

(4) $500 credit to California Closets or Bartlett Blinds

(5) 3 Hours with a professional organizer

It kind of feels like you're ordering an entree and appetizer from a restaurant prixe fixe offering.  I think many buyers would prefer a price reduction or cash but there is some value in these options (especially category A 1 and 3 which helps buyer cash flow post-transaction).

Feb 1 Seattle Condo Update

Well, it has only been a week since I was gone for my vacation but it seems like a number of condo projects have some news for us.

• Fifteen Twenty-One kicked off their grand opening event with a light show and tour of their model home. There are 11 homes remaining with the lowest price starting at $975,000.     

• Alex in Belltown announced that they are moving ahead in full speed as a condomium project. They will be selling their homes sometime in May. Completion for this condo building is going to be in late spring.  

• Market Street Landing, the condo project replacing the Denny's in Ballard is still under going design review. The 5 and 8 story buildings will house 330 homes. The design review board thinks that the design still needs a little bit of work. Read more here.  

• Equinox has updated their website. The construction progress is on track with windows installed and sheet rock started in the North Building. A model unit will be available for viewing in late March. Homeowners can be expected to move in in June.  

• Trace North is featuring 5 homes under $300k.    

• Ruby will be holding their grand opening on February 7th and 8th (Saturday & Sunday). Prices for their lake view homes start at $329,990 and bridge view homes start from $259,990. The project is also FHA approved. Read more on the hard hat tour.

Related Posts:

Alex Update
Equinox Update
Fifteen Twenty-One Opening Ceremony
Trace North Update
Ruby Condos Update

Parc incentives

As we are heading towards the end of the year, the Seattle condo market will be slowing down as part of normal seasonality trends and amplified by jitters about the economy and housing markets. If you are considering purchasing a condo before the end of the year, some attractive incentives are to be had given the high inventory and sellers being more realistic about market conditions.

There are a few condos that I think are worth checking out. One of them is the Parc in Belltown. The building was completed late last year and they have 24 homes remaining on the market. The developer is offering a couple of incentives. If you purchase a home, there will be a $15,000 buyer's bonus and an additional $1,000 referral bonus if you're a current Intra-corp homeowner. These homes are VA and FHA approved. The developer is also making some price adjustment on some of their homes so I think this condo building is worth checking out.  

Related Posts:

The Parc Update
Pre-construction marketing and reality
Rent a condo or hotel?
The Parc

-Wendy

Gallery Update

Gallery Condos has started moving in home buyers. Approximately 50% of their inventory has sold with more than 30 homes closed so far. If you are thinking of touring this building, the sales center is located on the street level on the North end of the building.

When it was initially launched, the sky lofts floor plans (2 level homes) were available from the 7th floor in the middle glass section of the building. However, due to higher demand for smaller floor plans, they changed to more single level open floor plans. The skylofts are available only on the ground level and penthouse levels. 4 penthouse level skylofts are sold. Only 10 sky lofts homes are available in the building.

The developer also raised prices on some of the homes since their launch. No buyers' incentives are available. Gallery will have an opening event sometime early next year when all the units are completed. Compared to its close competitor, the Parc, Gallery is a good looking building with more amenities but offers less variety of floor plans.

Related posts:

Gallery Update-Belltown condos
Gallery
The Parc Update 
Pre-construction Marketing versus Reality

Future Pipeline for Downtown Projects Slows to a Trickle

There was a good article in the Seattle Times today about how after the existing projects get finished, there's unlikely to be many more commenced for a few years. Aside from the obvious concerns about credit and demand, I actually find these stories partially heartening since the last thing we need is any more inventory on the market.

"Brokers and developers agree that few, if any, proposed office buildings will start construction soon. So many condo projects in downtown Seattle's core have been postponed that there could be nothing new on the market until 2012 once the crop now under construction is completed next year."

Full Article

Site 17 Condos

Site 17 in Belltown was originally an apartment completed in 1998 and then was subsequently converted into a condo in 2005. The condo is divided into two buildings located along Western Ave, only a few minute walk north of Pike Place Market. Site 17 consists of 129 homes with 97 units in the south building and 32 units in the north building.

A wide variety of floor plans includes studios, one bedrooms, one bedroom lofts, two bedrooms, and 2 bedroom town homes.

Square footage:

Studio ~496-650

One bedroom ~513-715

One bedroom Loft ~723-896

Two bedroom ~764-1058

Virtual tour video

Amenities include: Fitness center, club house and roof decks.

Site 17 is one of the few established buildings in Belltown that also offers loft floor plans. Ceiling heights for these homes go as high as 18 feet. Although there is nothing striking about the exterior (which in some ways reveal its apartment origins), Site 17's affordable price points offer many first time home buyers one of the opportunities to own a home in this vibrant urban neighborhood.

There will be a group open house for this building on Sunday, 10/5/08 from 1-4pm.

-Wendy

Condo Update

I have only been away for a week and yet there were quite a number of updates in Seattle Condos. Here is a quick summary:

2.) Following the foot steps of Expo 62 (Axis Apartment) and Domaine in Queen Anne, Moda is officially converted to an apartment. Moda homes were initially sold out two weeks after the sales center opened back in 2006. Two years later, several home buyers decided to back out from the purchase because the homes turned out to be smaller than they expected. That resulted with a handful of units becoming available on the market. However, with completion just around the corner, the developer has decided to turn it into an apartment citing that many home buyers are unable to secure financing as their 2nd home or investment property and others getting cold feet leaving them with no other alternative but to convert to an apartment. The slow market conditions did not help them as well. Read more.

Previous posts:

Moda Update
Moda: Small, smaller, smallest!

Insignia Update

Just like several projects in town, Insignia condos on 5th Ave and Battery St is on hold and the developer is waiting for the market to recover. They are hoping to launch sales sometime in the Spring of 2009. More information will be added to their website in about four weeks. The developer has no intention to turn it into an apartment complex.

Insignia will offer quite a comprehensive range of amenities including 24 hour concierge service, indoor swimming pool, fitness center, wine tasting room, sky lounge on the 41st level, library, meeting room, and a party room.

636 Homes in these two towers will be primarily 2 bedroom and 2 bedroom plus den floor plans with sizes ranging from 950 square feet to 2,000 square feet. The project will be built in two phases. Phase 1 will take 2 1/2 years to complete. Estimated completion for Phase 1 and Phase 2 will be around later 2011 and 2012, respectively. Judging from the size of these homes, it will probably appeal to empty nesters and urban professional couples.

Related Posts:

Seattle Condos 2.0
Seattle Largest Condo Project- Insignia

Avenue One Condos

Avenue One is one of Intra-corp developments in Belltown. This is a fairly new building completed in 2005 when the market had quite a healthy demand for new construction in Belltown.

Avenue One is a 13-story building comprised of 116 homes offering a variety of floor plans: studio, 1 bedroom, 1 bedroom plus den, 2 bedroom, and 2 bedroom plus den. Studios start at 469 square feet and the largest penthouse is around 1,300 square feet.

______________________________________

Floor Plan                    Approx. Sq.ft.

One Bedroom                512-722

One Bedroom plus den    900

Two bedroom               1,120-1,240   

Two bedroom plus den   1,333

Waterfront Landings Condos

Waterfront Landings Condos is the largest condominium project near Pike Place Market and is located at 1900-2000 Alaskan Way. The building has 234 units made up by three different complexes, the Viaggio (1900), Lumiere (1950), and Minato (2000). If you are looking for a condominium close to the waterfront, it's hard to get better than this building.

Floor Plans                                            Square feet

Studio                                                  533-710

One bedroom & One bedroom plus den        591-960

Two bedroom                                         1,012-3,143

This 5-story wood framed building has a good number of amenities including onsite building manager, exercise room, guest suites, club room/party room, roof top deck, business center, and courtyard in between the complexes. Waterfront Landings's major selling points are the location and the great water views. Pike Place Market, Seattle Aquarium, and Olympic Sculpture Park are all within walking distance.

Ultra High End Condo

Last week, a private broker's open house was held in the Market Place Tower penthouse near Pike Place Market. If you are wondering what you can get for an ultra high-end $12M condo, check out this Penthouse.

The penthouse was originally built for local renowned developer, William Justen back in 1988. The building was designed by architect Bill Bain of Naramore, Bain, Brady and Johanson (NBBJ), the fifth largest architectural firm in the world.

This home was sold to a 2nd owner in 1998 and was remodeled by Rocky Rochon. The entire home is approximately 4,663 square feet with 2,711 square feet of wrap around terrace. It includes a master suite with a spa room, guest bedroom, media room, home office, lap pool, and..... views, views, more views of the city, Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains.

Like rare designer jewelry, it's not for everyone.

2nd and 3rd and Bell at Night

The PI has a great article calling out the homeless and drug transactions on 2nd and 3rd and Bell.  As a recent Belltown resident, I have to say the aggressive panhandling and open drug use on the southern side of Belltown in the evenings were definitely not my favorite parts of in-city living.

I'm sure some folks choose not to live in Belltown for those reasons.  It will be interesting to see if the City is able to do anything about this issue. 

Read the article here.  The references to Rudy Giuliani's efforts in New York were interesting. That's definitely not Seattle's M.O. but who knows, maybe this issue will start getting some more attention soon.