Wendy Leung's Seattle Condo Blog

Developer for Queen Anne High School Conversion ordered to pay $9.4 million

Puget Sound Business Journal and Seattle Times PI recently reported about the lawsuit brought on by Queen Anne High School homeowners against the project's developer. The judge has ordered the developer to pay QAHS's HOA $9.4 million in liability and legal fees. 

"The lawsuit alleged leaks and cracks in the building, including such defects as exposed, unprotected drywall and wood framing, substandard windows and drains, missing and ineffective flashing, insufficient weatherproofing and unprotected joints. Reported damage includes water-stained drywall, covered-up rotted deck sheeting, water-damaged plywood, mortar turned to sand and powder, and cracked and flaking bricks and terra cotta."
(Source: Seattle PI)

If you recalled, the project was converted in the summer of 2006 and completed sometime in 2007 and had a successful close out auction in 2009. Matt over at Urbnlivn has the time line on the suit. It's quite amazing within a few years, the owners discovered the problems, sued the developer and won the lawsuit with such a substantial judgement. What a speedy process! I wonder which firm they hired. It must be a relief for the homeowners. Now, the hard part is probably going through all the repair work. Being through one myself for 1 1/2 years while living in a condo, I sympathize with what the owners will have to go through. On the bright side, when it's completed, it's just going to make Queen Anne High School that much more desirable as a livable historic condo. 

Related posts:

Queen Anne Condo Auction-by the numbers
Updates on Queen Anne High School
Queen Anne High School Updates
Queen Anne High School Begins Selling
Want to own a piece of Seattle History?

1521, Olive 8 & Four Seasons Update

Fifteen Twenty-One has just reported selling 83% (115) of their inventory. There are some selected homes priced below $1M available but are not listed on the MLS and the highest priced penthouse is going for more than $4M.  Eighty three percent sold over the last 1 1/2 year in this market is a pretty good progress. I think one of the reasons is that there are few newers condos on the market right now with direct water views available giving 1521 a little bit more advantage over other newer condos. The website has a cool map showing the number of condos priced above $1M sold since 2000. I think it would be more interesting if they could add another heat map that shows sold inventory over the last 3 years. 

How did Olive 8 fair after the auction and "reset" this year? They have 33 sales since the first of the year and now are more than 60% sold.  Apparently, there was a big buyer who picked up 10 units as an investment. There is also a 5% down payment option available through their lender. The developer is working with Alchemy Collections to furnish their remaining open one bedrooms (for full price offers).

 

The Four Seasons Private Residences has restructured their construction loan and is now back on path marketing the 11 remaining units. The building went through some financial difficulties over the last two years but fortunately was able to restructure the loan with the lender, Washington Real Estate Holdings. Read more here. 

One bedroom       1,328-1992 square feet------$1.475M-$2.555M

Two bedroom      1,850-4,132 square feet-----$2.44-$6.30M

Three bedroom   4,488 square feet-------------$7.15M

 

Hope this helps.  

-Wendy

Seattle Foreclosure Auctions

Last week, I attended a foreclosure auction at the parking garage near an office building in Bellevue. Unlike most condo auctions where you will see a crowd of a couple hundred people showing up, there were only around 50 people attending this auction. Half of them were realtors just like myself trying to get an better understanding of how foreclosure auctions work. The other half were individual investors, aspring investors, and professional group investors assisting their clients in the bidding.

For those of you who are interested in a foreclosure auction, this is how it works. When a bank forecloses on a property, they will hire a trustee (individual or company) to facilitate the foreclosure process. In King County, Trustee sales take place at two locations. One of them is in Bellevue and the other one is at the King County Courthouse in Seattle. They are required to be held in a public place so that members of the public can have access to view the auction. Auctions are held every Friday at 10am and 2pm. You can find a list of foreclosure homes on the USA-Foreclosure website. On this particular day that the auction was held, there were over 200 homes on the list. Three auctioneers were calling out in alphabetical order by the foreclosure owners' names, followed by address and then the minimum bid. 

Gallery Close Out Auction Event

Gallery condominium will be having another auction  on March 5, 2011 at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Seattle. Accelerated Marketing Partners will launch the final close out of their 25 remaining homes. The auction homes are mostly open one bedroom or one bedroom floor plans with sizes ranging from 571 to 672 square feet.  Minimum bid will start from $175,000.

Here are a couple of important points for the auction:

Auction Financing
All Bidders are required to be pre-qualified with a Seller's Preferred Lender(s)

Minimum Bids
A minimum bid has been set for each property. Each property will be sold to the highest Bidder above the minimum bid price.  There is no hidden reserve price so someone could conceivably pick up a unit for close to the min bid.  

Closing
All sales must close on or before April 5, 2011 (approximately 30 days after the auction).

During the last auction held on September 27, 2009, 42 of of the 44 homes closed within 4 months after the auction event.  Assuming all were closed successfully by bidders, the average price per square foot sold was ~$432.

Related posts:

Brix and Gallery Auction Events
More Condo Auctions :Brix & Gallery
Seattle Condo Auction Roundup

Olive 8 Reset Pricing?

There has been some discussion among buyers and realtors on the recent Olive 8's reset pricing.   When the video were announced two weeks ago, many were anticipating that the new pricing will be close to the auction prices.  So, I decided to look up the numbers and make some comparisons on the reset prices versus the pre-auction closed homes and auction closed home.  Here is a sample on the homes that I used for comparison:

As you can see, the reset pricing is between 13-23% lower than the previous listing prices but are still considerably higher than auction prices.  If we look at the reset pricing versus the pre-auction closed homes, the prices are about the same if not slightly lower.

Related posts:

Olive 8's Video & Reset Pricing
Olive 8's New Pricing 
Olive 8 Auction Results
Olive 8 & 5th and Madison Update
Olive 8 going Auction

2010 Seattle Condo Market in Review

The Seattle condo market has definitely gone through a lot in the last few years.  Looking at 2010 as a whole, it did not preform as well as 2009 but it wasn't too far behind.

During the first 6 months of 2010, we saw a higher number of closed sales compared to first half of 2009.  This may have been due to the extension of the tax credit from October 2009 to April 30, 2010 which gave the market a boost in activity.  In addition to the original $8,000 first time home buyers' credit, a $6,500 tax credit was passed for repeat buyers as well.  Buyers had to be under contract by end of April, 2010 and closed by June 30 (the closing date was later extended to September 30, 2010) in order to qualify for this tax credit.

The strongest month was April; probably due to many buyers trying to meet the tax credit deadline closing date.  

Olive 8 and Fifth & Madison Update

The Seattle Times covered the Olive 8 auction last weekend.  According to  David Thyer, president of developer R.C. Hedreen,  all but 4 homes (out of the 32 auction homes) were accepted by the seller last Sunday.  

"Before Sunday, Olive 8 closed deals for 74 of its 227 units, mostly on the building's lower portion between floors 18 and 26.  The 32 units auctioned off Sunday represent nearly all of the unsold inventory on that lower portion, so "we'll no longer have prospective buyers going through those floors," Thyer said last week.  Olive 8 still has a little more than 100 unsold units on the top floors, with price tags from $500,000 to $6.9 million."

This made me wonder if all the Fifth and Madison auctioned homes actually reached the closing table.  I managed to pull some information and put together this updated sheet.  Out of the 16 auction homes, 13 closed within 60 days.  The three homes (#1102, #1200 & #1805) that went back on the market after the auction were subsequently closed within the next five months (presumably, not to bidders).  Out of the 13 homes  that closed within 60 days, a few of them were sold at a higher price.  They are #1803, #2200, and #2202.  The average closed price is still about 66% of the original listing price.  So, in Fifth and Madison's case, they managed to close ~81% of their auction homes, not a bad way to unload a big chunk of unsold inventory in a day.  

Related posts: 

Seattle Condo Auction Roundup
Seattle Condo Auctions: Equivalent of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sales?
5th and Madison and Trace Lofts Update
Queen Anne Auction- By the numbers
Lumen Auction Results
Brix and Gallery Auction Results
Press Auction: Going once, Going twice, Gone!

 -Wendy 

Olive 8 Auction Results

Olive 8's auction event was this afternoon.  Thirty two homes were auctioned off by Kennedy Wilson.  They initially had thirty-four homes for auction but two of them, #1902 and #2102 were removed from the list.  The homes were sold for an average of 66% of the previous listing price, which is very close to the average of the last few auctions (Queen Anne High School, Lumen, Brix, Gallery, and 5th and Madison) since 2009 at 67%.  The average price per square sold for the auction was $450.78.  This is by far the highest average price per square foot sold for all auction events. 

Olive 8 Auction Results

Here are some highlights of the event:

1.) One bedroom's were sold for an average $462.69/sq.ft. and the average winning bids were at 68% of the previous listing price.  Two bedroom's were sold for an average of $415.06/sq.ft and the average winning bids were at 60% of the previous listing price. 

 2.) One of the largest two bedroom homes sold for $625,000, 54% of the previous listing price.

3.) The lowest price one bedroom was sold for $297,000 (650 sq.ft.).  One couple won the bid for a two bedrooms, two bathrooms for $702,000 (1,586 sq.ft.).  It was the highest bid for the two bedroom homes but they were very pleased with the price.  It's going to be their 2nd home.  

Each home has an unpublished reserve price, which means that the seller has set a minimum selling price.  In the event the winning bid was lower than the reserve price, the winning bid is subject to acceptance by the seller.  It would be interesting to see how many of these homes will make it to closing.  

Related posts:

Seattle Condo Auction Roundup
Seattle Condo Auctions: Equivalent of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sales?
5th and Madison and Trace Lofts Update 
Queen Anne Auction- By the numbers
Lumen Auction Results
Brix and Gallery Auction Results
Press Auction: Going once, Going twice, Gone!

 -Wendy

 

5th and Madison Auction Update

 
Kennedy Wilson just released the starting bids for 18 homes in 5th and Madison set for auction on Sunday, March 27th.

Floor Plan--------------------------------------------- --

1 Bedroom/ 1 Bathroom, 808 sq.ft
Starting bid $195,000

1 Bedroom + Den/ 1.5 Bathroom, 978 sq.ft.
Starting bid $275,000

2 Bedroom/ 2 Bathroom, 1,957 sq.ft.
 Starting bid-$994,000

FHA financing will also be available.  More info here.

Related posts:
Downtown Seattle Condos Update
Seattle Condo Auction Roundup

-Wendy

Downtown Seattle Condos Update

 
Four Seasons Hotel/Condo has reduced their prices on 13 of their remaining homes.  I just received the latest price sheet.  The price reduction ranges from 8%-47% with average price per square foot ranging from $1,097-$1,960.

5th and Madison is auctioning off 18 of their remaining homes on Sunday, March 28, 2010. Kennedy Wilson Auction, Inc will be conducting the auction.  Kennedy Wilson successfully auctioned two other projects in Seattle: the Press and Queen Anne High School.  Matt @ urbnlivn has more details.

Related posts:

Four Seasons Hotel/Condo New Prices

-Wendy

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Top Seattle Condo Market Developments and Trends

Before we focus too much on 2010, here's a quick look back at some of the most notable elements of the 2009 Seattle condo story.

1. Auctions 
2009 was the year for auctions. Queen Anne High School, Lumen, Brix and Gallery successfully sold most of their auctioned homes with closed price per square foot ranging from $334 to $439.  Brix and Gallery subsequently adjusted prices for their remaining homes and sales picked up swiftly.  Brix got approved by the FHA.  Meanwhile, Sunrise on the Lake, The Summit, and Avaview sold 19 of their 38 homes last December.

Auctions, Auctions, Auctions

Looks like developers and buyers are warming up to this whole auction thing.  Thirty six units will be auctioned off on December 5th from the Avaview in Crown Hill, Sunrise on the Lake in Broadview, and The Summit on Capitol Hill.

Some advice for potential auction buyers:

New Release from Brix & Gallery

 
 
Brix and Gallery have released new units on some of their remaining homes last weekend.  Prices have been adjusted on these homes based on the recent auction results.  The new pricing is much more in line with the market with a few homes actually more attractive than resale condos.  I wonder if the buyers who were unsuccessful in the auction bidding will be back to look at these homes.

Brix new release
Gallery new release

Related posts:

Brix & Gallery Auction Results
Brix & Gallery Auctions
Lumen Auction
Queen Anne High School Auction
Press Auction
Seventeen07 Auction