In 1999, when I still worked in the Rainier Tower in down­town Seat­tle, I mostly com­muted by bus from the East­side across Lake Wash­ing­ton. That’s when I learned the mean­ing of the phrase “the moun­tain is out” which means in Seat­tle that you can see Mount Rainier. Since then I’ve never stopped mar­veling at the incred­i­ble scenery that sur­rounds Seat­tle in all directions. Meanwhile on the real estate front: the most sig­nif­i­cant fac­tor in Seat­tle area real estate is the lack of inven­tory. In some areas the num­ber of active list­ings is down by nearly 40 per­cent from a year ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Seattle home sellers can’t believe prices are coming down, buyers are wondering by how much. Read the rest of this entry »

Kirkland condo sales in 2007 and condos for sale on January 2nd, 2008 - will the trend repeat in 2008? Read the rest of this entry »

As we enter 2008, let’s take a quick peek in the rear view mir­ror, specif­i­cally at Kirk­land con­dos by two zip codes: 98033 (down­town Kirk­land and mostly west of I-405) and 98034 (fur­ther north, like Juanita area and east of I-405, like Kings­gate area).

98033 Zip Code Kirk­land Condo Sales

Sales in this more expen­sive and, thus more pres­ti­gious, of the two zip codes peaked in March and dropped off con­sid­er­ably after July. This is not abnor­mal but the arrival of the first bad news about the sub-prime mort­gage surely played a role in the rate of the drop in sales.

98034 Zip Code Kirk­land Condo Sales

In the 98034 zip code, sales show an unusual three 4-month cycle with the first peak in March (nor­mal) and a sec­ond peak in Augusts — per­haps the “last hur­rah” for the year. After Sep­tem­ber, the mort­gage malaise, real or imag­ined, put sales in a steeper than usual decline.

More of the same for Kirk­land Sin­gle Fam­ily Homes to follow.