It’s Spring; fresh air, blooms, and more listings!

We have gone from living in a snow globe to blue skies and daffodils! Our snow pack should ensure we have plenty of water this year, and, for skiers, Stevens Pass and other resorts have extended the season into April. 

Teaching skiing has been a blessing for me this year, and I love the diversity of people I meet. This year I have taught children to adults, and people from all over the world including China, India, Russia and Slovenia.

Last week I drove to the Skagit for a bit of bird watching, Mount Baker was out in all it’s glory, with a yellow stripe of daffodils and a sprinkling of swans.
 

Real Estate

I recently made contact with a lender in Issaquah, Paul Dolan, who has a great “cost of waiting” presentation. Here is a link to his presentation for $350,000 and $800,000. Of course the various factors are not fixed, and in a competitive market such as ours there are many factors which make a difference such as the lender, down payment, days to closing, contingencies, etc. 

One of my preferred lenders, Julia Harford, from our Lake Union office, mentioned that some second homes/investment properties may be seeing some foreclosures. She says: it seems we may be looking at higher interest rates for second home purchases as well as investment properties simply due to the higher risk.  Covid has effected rents being collected and second homes being rented so in turn there is some anticipation of these loan types going into default.

More News
Click-here to see the recent news release from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.This comes out the first of each month and is printed by the Seattle Times. I like to wait a bit on sending out so that I can also compile the information below.

With spring come the usual flood of listings, but we are still far from a normal market of six months supply. According to the statistics, we have been experiencing three weeks of supply. 

Open houses are back, and listings are seeing a lot of traffic! Examples: Mercer Island – 60 groups. Madison Valley – 25 groups, Magnolia – 16 groups. The number of people inside a house is still limited, and so the lines have been long.

Real-time links from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service data for Seattle show that we are still in a seller’s market. If you are interested in selling, or know someone who is, contact me for help.

Note the rise in new listings, and the drop in sales price due to the increase of supply: 
New Listings 
Sales Price 
Pending Sales
Days on Market, (went up a bit for all listings)

Links to Market Watches:
Feel free to contact me about the following areas. I have clients downsizing in Seattle, and moving to smaller towns in the outlying areas, so I keep track of the activity.
Seattle
Ballard
Magnolia
Queen Anne
Edmonds
Anacortes
Bellingham
Leavenworth
Port Townsend