Real Estate
Condo Searching Just Got Easier
John L. Scott Real Estate rolled out its new home search feature allowing users to pinpoint their home searches to a specific neighborhood or block. The feature, called “Neighborhood Wizard”, allow users to use a polygon tool to draw any shape search parameter they desire. For condo searches, this is a great tool to narrow…
May Seattle Condo Market Update
May continued to exhibit an active condo market with double digit increases in units sold city-wide. Interestingly, NE Seattle and West Seattle showed the greatest increase in unit sales, mostly attributable to a robust resale market. City-wide, condos appreciated approximately 6% based on average sales price. However, across the board, median prices took a tumble…
Design Insights
Came across the website for the architect of 5th and Madison, Ruffcorn Mott Hinthorne Stine, and noticed they had designs for number of downtown/Belltown projects. Most were office space but they did have renderings for 114 Pike, the old Liberty Loan and Pawn building. The design includes 7 levels of office space and 5 residential…
5th and Madison Update
The tall, slender 5th and Madison (website) project is well underway across the street from the Seattle Central Library. Occupancy is on-target for October making the project one of the few due to be completed this year. I had an opportunity to take a hard hat tour of the building to see how it was…
The Friday Round-up – 5/25
Land Use Update Just saw a bulletin for a new 46-story hotel/residential project at the corner of 5th Avenue & Stewart which is currently a parking lot (next to the Escala presentation center). The proposal calls for 175 hotel units and 190 residential units which I presume will be condos. A 2nd early design meeting…
ICON Tower Info
Laconia Development (fomerly Levin Menzies) received city-approval for the master-use permit of its 29 32-story ICON Tower. Designed by Weber+Thompson and Vancouver, BC – based engineering firm Glotman Simpson, the slender tower sits on a triangular 10,665 square foot parcel at Denny Way, Wall Street & 6th Avenue. Construction is slated to begin in early…
Entry-Level Inventory Shrinkage
The Seattle Times recently had an interesting graph on the availability of entry-level condos over the past 15 years. The last few years have seen a drastic decrease in sub $200,000 properties. The majority of buyers that my team and I work with are first-time homebuyers and we definitely feel the squeeze. In fact, under…
Luxe Condos – Queen Anne
The Luxe Condominium (website) located at 500 5th Avenue West on lower Queen Anne is the newest conversion project by Metropolitan Homes. Metropolitan recently developed the Plaza del Sol and Mezzo condo projects on Capitol Hill. Luxe consists of only 39 one- and two-bedroom condominium homes including multi-level penthouses that surround a central atrium. The…
Seattle Condo Expo – recap
Amid great fanfare the Seattle Condo Expo was held this past weekend. The event provided a great opportunity for potential buyers to get a feel of the upcoming condominium projects in the downtown & Bellevue areas. And, many of the presentations provided useful and insightful information about the future of Seattle’s condo market. For consumers…
CityScape 2010 Virtual Tour
The highlight of the 2007 Seattle Condo Expo was the CityScape 2010 Virtual Tour developed by Weber + Thompson and Urban Condominiums. The tour can be found on the Urban Condominiums website. Click on the CityScape banner at the top of the page. The tour starts with a flyover of the downtown area. Once the…
