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

1111 E Pike Tour

     

The 1111 E Pike building is nearing completion.  The 6-story building has 26 residential homes and two commercial spaces.  One of commercial spaces will be occupied by Cupcake Royale.  I took a quick tour on Tuesday but unfortunately was unable to take any pictures as they are not allowed.

There are 6 homes on each floor with the exception of the penthouse level which will have 3 homes (2 of which has been spoken for).  2nd floor homes have concrete floors and the other homes have dark hardwood floors.  The lobby and roof top decks are the only amenities.  Homeowner dues are expected to be less than 50 cents per square foot.  Square footage for these homes ranges from 600-1,200.  Most of the homes are priced $250,000 to $450,00.  There is only one penthouse unit available priced at $450,000 (~652 square feet). 

Enso Update

I attended Enso's sneak preview event for brokers a couple days ago.  In response to the current market conditions, the developer has revised their pricing on their homes.  There was a pretty big turn out for the event.  All their 12th floor homes were opened for viewing. 

Here are a couple observations:

Athena Condo (Queen Anne)

The Athena condo was one of the first apartment conversion projects during the condo boom in 2005.  This 91 residential condo building is conveniently located on lower Queen Anne (323 Queen Anne Ave N).  The project was developed by Pryde Corporation, which is the same group of developers who did the conversion for Onyx and Asia Condos.

Studio, one bedroom and two bedroom units offer square footage ranging from ~400 for a studio, 485 to 759 for a one bedroom, and 880 to 952 for a two bedroom.

The Florentine- Pioneer Square Condo

 

The Florentine Condominium is a historic building located on the south edge of Pioneer Square on 526 1st Ave South.  It was built in 1909 and converted from a warehouse into 116 condos in 1990. 

During the conversion, an additional floor was built on top of this four story building as the penthouse homes (2 level townhomes).  Some might like to call it a loft style home.  Floor plans go from one bedroom, one bathroom to two bedroom penthouses.

One Bedroom plus den & Two bedroom     1,036-1,644 sq ft

Penthouse Homes                                 1,253-2,106 sq ft

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?

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

              

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).

Azul & Live Fremont Condos

I've been reviewing quite a number of condo projects in downtown and Capitol Hill lately so I thought this time I would venture a little further from the downtown core and look at some conversion projects that I have been wanting to check out in the center of the universe, Fremont.

 

Azul is a 4-story building located on 120 N 39th St.  This building was converted in early 2007.  There are 30 homes with studio, one bedroom, and two bedroom floor plans.  Studios are a little under 500 square feet, one bedroom's range anywhere from 476 sq.ft. to 705 sq.ft. and two bedrooms are 729 sq.ft. to 1,010 sq.ft.  Since the conversion, they have sold out of almost all the homes except for a studio ($175,500, 448 sq.ft.) and a one bedroom ($212,310, 464 sq.ft.).  More pictures.

Rollin Update

Vulcan has announced that Rollin will be officially converted into an apartment building.  With only 25% presale, they were unable to meet Fannie Mae's new requirement of 70% pre-sale.  Matt has more here.

One thing that comes to mind is requiring the high pre-sale threshold of 70% makes a lot of sense long term (it used to be 51%).  

The question I have is: is that the right thing to implement when the market is still trying to find it's footing? I wonder if it would have been better to ratchet the more stringent requirements up over a couple of years in line with the market recovery.

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

744 Harvard Condo

Studio Meng Strazzara has designed another upscale condo project in the Harvard Belmont Landmark district.  This time it's a boutique style 4-unit home on 744 Harvard Ave E.  The architect's other prominent projects in the same neighborhood include the completed Harvard Estate and the currently under construction Harvard and Highland Condo.

(Photos courtesy from 744 Harvard Condo, archived at Seattle Condo Review Gallery)

744 Harvard Condois a 3-story concrete and steel building with two homes on the 1st level (with shared foyer entry), one on the 2nd level, and the last one is a huge penthouse unit with a large outdoor terrace. Both bigger units have private elevator access.  It's worth noting that even though the structure is concrete and steel, I was able to hear footsteps (high heels) from people walking on the 3rd floor when I was touring the second floor.

#101     1 BR + Den/ 1.5 BA         1,180 square feet     $  625,950 (New price $589,950)

#102     1 BR/ 1.5 BA                     920 square feet     $  799,950 (New price $749,950)

#200     3 BR/ 2.5 BA                  2,251 square feet     $1,850,000

#300     3 BR/2.5 BA                   2,091 square feet     $1,950,000

Escala Hard Hat Tour

I managed to take a hard hat tour of Escala yesterday.  We started the tour from the restaurants and proceeded to the lobby.  There will be two restaurants on both sides of the lobby.  It hasn't been determined what restaurants will be going into those spaces but we will probably find out in a few months.  The structure has reached its full height but construction is still ongoing for the interior.  They are expecting completion around this summer and first move-in in November.

As we went through the lobby, we saw the stairs that lead up to Club Cielo.  Residents will be greeted by a concierge stationed right below the stairs.  The fitness center is on the north end of the building.  Fitness equipment will be lined up along the windows and residents can get some city view while working out.  The indoor resistance pools (a rare treat for Seattle) and hot tub area will be separated by glass windows from the fitness center. 

Madison Tower / Hotel 1000

Madison Tower/ Hotel 1000 was Seattle's first hotel/condo project completed in 2006.  Fourty-seven homes sit above the Hotel from the 15th level to 24th floors.  The building is located between Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market on the corner of 1st Ave and Madison St and occupies a quarter block.

There are five homes on each floor with the exception of the penthouse.  The 00 and 01 floor plans are west facing and offer the most optimum water views. 

00 Floor plan         Two bedroom 1980-3,010 sqft.       NW 

01 Floor Plan         Two bedroom 1,562-3,740 sqf.       SW   

02 Floor plan         Two bedroom 1,444 sqft.               SE 

03 Floor Plan         One bedroom 805 sqft.                   E

04 floor plan          One bedroom  877 sqft.                 NE

Click here for the floor plans.