This is a great time to buy homes in and around Seat­tle, espe­cially if you do not have to sell. Two of my first-time buy­ers are tak­ing advan­tage of the local buy­ers’ mar­ket. One young cou­ple will close in two weeks on their first home in Mon­roe, the other just started look­ing with their eyes set on homes in the Issaquah High­lands.

Ready and Qual­i­fied to Buy their First Home

Both cou­ples share a trait that is becom­ing rare these days: save before you buy and then buy less than what you could afford. Need­less to say, it is a treat to nego­ti­ate a deal for buy­ers like that.

What and Where?

Hav­ing deter­mined the basic min­i­mum spec­i­fi­ca­tions — 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,500 sq ft, 2 sto­ries, small yard — and what was com­fort­ably afford­able and with pre-approval in hand, we started the search online. To help in choos­ing the right Seat­tle east­side neigh­bor­hood I sug­gested that they imag­ine a work day and a week­end — get­ting up in the morn­ing, com­mut­ing to work, tak­ing a tod­dler to day care, tak­ing a walk, doing errands, going out to din­ner, hav­ing friends over, etc.

Old or New, the Prices are Down

Before set­ting off for the High­lands we looked at a home south of down­town Issaquah. Built in the early 80s, vacant and on the mar­ket for months, the best prop­erty fea­ture was the size of the lot with a siz­able, mature back yard. We decided that any offer would be at least $35,000 below the ask­ing price; money needed to upgrade the kitchen, bath­rooms and remove the pop­corn ceilings.

To save gas we left one car in down­town Issaquah and drove across 1–90 at exit 18 and up High­land Drive. Over the course of two hours we saw the eight homes on our list and two more we came across by chance. Seven of the eight homes were priced between $480,000 and just below $500,000; only one was listed close to $525,000. Look­ing at the homes’ list­ing his­to­ries, it was clear that $500,000 had become the “high water mark” — five of the eight homes had once been listed over $500,000 before being reduced below that mark. The most extreme was a home that was reduced over the course of 140 days by 11.1%, from $540,000 to $480,000. The Zillow.com chart above illus­trates the one-year price trend for Issaquah and the 98029 zip code which includes the Issaquah Highlands.

Keep­ing Count and Pick­ing the Winner

Look­ing at sev­eral homes in short suc­ces­sion can become con­fus­ing. My method to keep them apart and mem­o­rable is to give each home a name, usu­ally a dis­tinc­tive fea­ture. In our case, we named the three favorites “Stairs in the Back,” “Buy Three, get Four,” and “Secret Garden.”

In my opin­ion, Secret Gar­den is the clear win­ner. At $254.40 per square foot the least expen­sive, by loca­tion it is in the qui­etest neigh­bor­hood, yet clos­est to the Park & Ride. Built in 1999, it is the old­est of the three. But how else can you get such a beau­ti­ful gar­den with roses and clema­tis and enjoy your bar­be­cue hid­den from view by mature vegetation?

Look­ing for Alternatives

I searched the North­west Mul­ti­ple List­ing Ser­vice web­site for homes in Red­mond, Belle­vue, Kirk­land and Sam­mamish with match­ing cri­te­ria: built between 1999 and 2008, 3 or 4 bed­rooms, up to 3 bath­rooms, between 1,900 and 2,000 sq ft, 2-stories, min­i­mum of 4,500 sq ft lot, and 2-car, attached garage. The result: zero.

Expand­ing the age of the homes back to 1995 made no dif­fer­ence. Elim­i­nat­ing the lot size spec­i­fi­ca­tion entirely and reduc­ing the required square footage to a min­i­mum of 1,500 sq ft resulted in nine prop­er­ties, three on the Red­mond Ridge and six in Sam­mamish. The least expen­sive is a $424,950 Sam­mamish home with 1,550 square feet. How­ever, lan­guish­ing 138 days on the mar­ket and located deep in the heart of the Sam­mamish plateau it is a tough com­mute and per­haps not such a good deal.