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. 

May 2009 Seattle Condo Market Stats

Northwest MLS just released May 2009 stats. As you may recall in April, we had pending sales up almost 50% from March. How did May pan out?

First Church Converting to Townhomes

(Pictures provided by Moira Holley, archived under Seattle Condo Gallery)

As it turns out, First Church of Christ is turning into a 12-unit townhome building.  Last week, they debuted their model home.  During today's broker's open house, I had the chance to tour the building and meet up with the developer.  Even though it is not a condo project, I thought it was still worth checking out and let's be honest, there aren't exactly a stampede of new condos being announced every week like in the good old days (and yes, I appreciate those days are part of the reason we're in a recession but they were good if you liked writing about new condos).

Lumen Auction

 

Lumen announced today that they are auctioning off 19 of their remaining homes on Saturday, July 11th at 1.00pm at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.  A pre-auction seminar will be held for interested buyers on Wednesday, July 1st at 7.00pm.  Home buyers can learn more about the auction process during the seminar and participate in a mock auction as well.

Floor Plan                              Minimum Bid                  Square feet

One Bedroom                     $155,000-$175,000               629-829

One Bedroom + Loft                    $260,000                     1,003-1,034

Two Bedroom                     $275,000-$325,000             1,075-,1286

Large One Bedroom + Loft          $395,000                        1,631

Large Two Bedroom + Den          $795,000                        2,082

Related Posts:

Queen Anne High School Auction

Press Auction: Going once, Going twice, Gone!

Seventeen07 Auction

              

$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.

April 2009 Seattle Condo Market Stats: Pending Sales Up 50%

Remember when we reviewed the Feb numbers in early March and there was pretty much zero good news.  I have to admit, even the optimistic side of me was pretty unsettled that month.

Well, compared to Feb, April was a fantastic month ;-)  Year-over-year prices and closings were down but pending sales were up year over year and way up versus the previous month!  It's hard not to get excited about these glimmers of hope but we'll have to see if next month shows similar trends.  If it does, I think it might be a big step towards a non-falling and hopefully normal market.

Seattle Condo News: Backing Out of a Purchase

 

A client of mine sent this news article today that I thought is worth mentioning.  <Thanks Harold!>  It doesn't come as a surprise given the bubble's bursting last year to hear about some buyers backing out from new condo projects currently on the market.  From the condo projects I have reviewed over the years, I'm hearing of backouts of anywhere between 10%-15%. Of course some of those happened even when the market was doing well.  So in this slow market, how are these condos holding up? 

Here are some highlights from the article:

• At Olive 8, 180 of the 227 condos were presold, almost all by early 2007.  20% of those buyers have expressed concern about getting financing to close, and the developer is trying to help them.

• Fifteen Twenty-one presold 138 of its 143 units.  37 of those buyers have backed out.  75 units have already closed.

• Escala have sold 30% of their 270 homes. The developer hasn't heard from any buyers who want to back out.

• Vulcan Real Estate has pushed back the start of closings on its nearly finished Rollin Street Flats project (due to the new Fannie Mae guideline), where only one-quarter of the units have been sold.  Vulcan recently dropped prices on eight of the 133 units in its 19-story, almost-done Enso project, where about 60 percent of the condos are under contract.

Here is another related article written by an Olive 8 buyer.

Related posts:

Fifteen Twenty One Tour
Fifteen Twenty One Opening Ceremony
Escala Hard Hat Tour
Escala Update
Olive 8 Hard Hat Tour
Olive 8 Update- Price Guarantee
Rollin Hard Hat Tour

Zandi "very confident" we'll hit bottom for end of 2009

Zandi sketched out his "timeline to recovery," which sounds fairly optimistic. The stock market bottomed out in the first three months of 2009, he believes. (He'd originally expected this to happen last November; instead it was in March.) Home prices should reach their lowest point by the end of the year. ("I feel very confident about this.") The fiscal-stimulus program should start to work by this summer. Unemployment will peak in the second quarter of 2010. And economic expansion should begin again in the fall of 2010. "My point is, things can turn pretty quickly," Zandi said, chuckling. "How's that for a happy ending?" 

Zandi is considered a professional, FWIW ;-)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1890405-2,00.html

March 2009 Seattle Condo Market Stats

 
The March statistics are out.  Are they looking as sunny as the weather we have been getting the last few days?  Here is a quick look:

Months of inventory
Months of inventory for March was 11.6 (i.e., it would take 11.6 months to sell all of the current inventory at the present purchasing volume).  This is an improvement from the previous month at 13 months but still higher than a year ago which was a much more brisk 6.4. 

Pending sales
Pending sales continue to remain 44% lower than same period last year and a modest improvement of 3% higher than previous month.  

Seattle Condo News

 

This has been in the news for a week but at first, I didn't feel like blogging about it since Thornton Place is kind of far away and their new layoff protection program seemed more like a PR strategy than anything else.  I would much rather they lower their price, buy down points, or throw in some nice upgrades.  Layoff protection is hard to value and probably is most valuable to buyers who might not be qualified.  If you're curious, here's the article in the PI.

 

King 5 just ran a story about more condo owners breaking homeowners rules.  Particulary renting out their condo month-to-month instead of the typical minimal 6-12 month lease period that most condo associations allow.  Frankly, I won't be suprised if they rent it out even week-by-week.  Although I'm not a big fan of short term rentals, I don't blame those homeowners for trying to rent out their property to minimize their losses given recent market conditions.

 

Related posts:

Northgate's Thornton Place Development

Elektra Short Term Rental Update

Elektra- Does your condo come with VRUs

4217 Fremont- Sealed Bid Auction

 

Remember 4217 Fremont Condos?  The developer for this 6 unit condo had sold two homes and turned the remaining homes into rental units.  Apparently, one of the owners is trying to sell the unit using a sealed bid auction but did not received any bids.  It seems to me that individual auction isn't as effective unless there's a critical mass grouped together.  Maybe someone in the real estate industry will start providing this type of service where every month, a whole bunch of condos get auctioned off. 

Related Posts:

4217 Fremont Condos
Queen Anne Condo Auction- By The Numbers
Canal Station Auction
Press Auction- Going Once, Going Twice, Gone!
Another Condo Auction
Capitol Hill Condos- Homes for Auction!

Queen Anne Condo Auction - by the numbers

As promised, here's a neat chart I whipped up showing the original listing prices and their ultimate auction winning price.  As you can see, some people picked up 2BR units for just over $300K which I suspect, at the risk of putting chum in the water for the pessimists, will turn out to be a really good price.

Overall, a few things struck me about yesterday's auction:

Queen Anne High School: Inventory Close Out Auction Review

            

Queen Anne High School Condo is following the foot steps of Press Condominiums and Seventeen07 and will be auctioning their 12 remaining homes on Sunday, March 22nd at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at 1:00pm.

Minimium bids for these homes start at $145,000 for the studio, $325,000 for the one bedroom plus den, $245,000 for the two bedrooms, and $650,000 for the penthouse.  Click here for more details and the auction video. 

I visited the project again today and took another look.  Of all the homes, #367 and #402 (penthouse) seem most interesting.  The penthouse was previously listed for $1.29 million and the price was dropped to $999,950.  It has a great view of the city, 14 foot ceilings and large vintage arched windows (though they are single pane).  As for #367, I like the fact that it is facing the fountain courtyard, well laid out, and the deck is accessible from both bedrooms.

In the last auction for Press Condominiums, 350 people attended the event and all the homes were sold within 45 minutes at ~ 92% of the asking prices.  Queen Anne auction will be conducted by the same company, Kennedy Wilson Auction Group, a real estate company based in Beverly Hill, California.  So far, they are not extending this type of service to individual owners yet but if this method continues to find success, I wouldn't be surprised.

Ruby Update

Fannie Mae's new guidelines requiring new construction to be at least 70% presold before they will fund loans has affected some projects in Seattle.  One such case is Rollin in South Lake Union delaying their closing.  As for Ruby in Eastlake, it looks like they have found a way to get over this hurdle.  Ruby has started partnering with a local lender (Seattle Mortgage) that has committed to close homes with no presale requirement.  The developer is also working with other regional lenders for additional commitments to close homes with no presale requirements.  The building is also FHA and VA approved which opens up more doors for them to appeal to home buyers with low down payment.  To encourage purchase, the developer is offering rate buy- down's for home buyers.  I wonder if other projects will follow suit.

Related posts:

Ruby Condos Update
Ruby Condos
Rollin Hard Hat Tour
South Lake Union Update

Housing Rescue Plan

President Obama announced the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan today.

Under the plan, many homeowners whose loan-to-value ratio was previously too high to refinance will now become eligible to refinance their homes at the current low rates.  The plan will also reduce foreclosures and provide transitional help for those who are facing difficulty making their payments.  

Read here for more details, Q&A and some housing example situations.  Mortgage lenders will start accepting applications after more details of the program are announced on March 4th.

There seems to be a lot of thought put into the plan (e.g., not providing assistance to speculators or flippers).  It's probably the most direct effort to stem the bleeding in housing markets we've seen since this whole thing started turning south.

Now we've got a stimulus and a housing plan.  Still need to work on those zombie banks but definitely a take-charge start for Obama's first month at work...