The Seattle Times has had some good real estate coverage if you’re looking to get a feel for the flavor of the market. One is a behind-the-scenes look at the negotiation for a house in West Seattle. Another is a compilation of Mike Rosenberg’s reddit AMA on the local market and housing in general.
The Puget Sound Business journal dug into demolition and construction permits to find the areas of the city that are the hottest for teardowns and the answer isn’t surprising: Ballard is the winner. Of the hot neighborhoods in Seattle, it’s the one with the largest inventory of property that hasn’t been through an upgrade cycle or wasn’t built to the top of the market in the first place, so teardown activity now makes sense.
The Seattle Bubble appears to be running out of headlines for the perpetual sameness we’re seeing with the latest market numbers. I’m sympathetic to the sentiment, though I think Tim and the NWMLS both missed the important takeaway from the data indicating that more houses are sitting on the market past their review date and other listings having price reductions: it means that marketing a property does still matter and buyers aren’t literally buying anything. That’s good news of a sort, if you’re willing to strain for it. It means things can still get worse.