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Seattle Region Home To 10 of Nation's 30 Most Competitive Neighborhoods For House Hunters (geekwire.com) 84

Posted by msmash from the how-we-live dept.
After a recent report revealed Seattle had the nation's hottest housing market for the second month running, it should come as no surprise that many of the most competitive neighborhoods in the country are clustered around the Seattle region. From a report on GeekWire: Redfin, a Seattle-based real estate and technology company, crunched the numbers on the most competitive neighborhoods from house hunters across 27 U.S. metro areas. Four of the top 10 and 10 of the top 30 hottest neighborhoods are in or near Redfin's hometown of Seattle. Bellevue, Wash.'s Factoria neighborhood, home to T-Mobile, is the most competitive neighborhood in the country. Seattle's University district is second, followed by two neighborhoods in Boston, Mass. Redfin ranked the neighborhoods based on the percentages of homes that sold for cash and sold for more than their asking price. Analysts also considered the median days on the market and home price growth in each neighborhood. Home prices in the Seattle area are soaring, fueled by booming job and population growth.
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Seattle Region Home To 10 of Nation's 30 Most Competitive Neighborhoods For House Hunters More

Seattle Region Home To 10 of Nation's 30 Most Competitive Neighborhoods For House Hunters

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  • Too much eggnog? (Score:3)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Friday December 30, 2016 @11:44AM (#53579275)
    Why is this on /. ? Too much eggnog by msmash ?

    • There seem to be a number of companies right now which are trying to get established via press release. We've seen a number of "Flurry" submissions on Slashdot of late... I expect we'll probably start seeing "Redfin" stuff in the Firehose, going forward.

      • There seem to be a number of companies right now which are trying to get established via press release.

        That's because journalism has been on a downhill slide since the dawn of web browsing. Journalists prefer to copy and paste the PR announcements as actual news instead of doing the actual work legwork of fact checking.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        We've seen a number of "Flurry" submissions on Slashdot of late...

        Flurry is a mobile analytics company. They're well established - they've been around at least as long as the Apple App Store and many apps use them for app analytics (usage, crash logging, etc).

        They're embedded in a ton of popular apps which is why they're able to get you information like phone activation data.

        Any simple firewall for any phone would tell you all the apps that report to flurry. Android requires root, iOS requires jailbreaking.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tomhath ( 637240 )
      This is the requisite "gentrification is evil" story we see on /. every day.

    • Why is this on /. ? Too much eggnog by msmash ?

      Because Seattle is one of the major concentrations of skilled computer labor? Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon, etc. are all here and hiring which is why the housing market is booming as all their employees with nice salaries are wanting to buy houses.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by lgw ( 121541 )

        Amazon is growing so fast right now that they'll basically need to keep building one skyscraper a year just to keep up. That seems to be their plan, too: #2 looks ready to open, and construction is underway on #3, with land for several more.

        • Yep. I think there is plans for a building even taller than the Columbia Tower. Not sure if it is Amazon's or not. Sort of relates to my time spent back in Trumpland for the holidays. It's hard to see their point of view when it seems the blue "left coast" states are booming economically. Of course, combine that with that many, if not most, of the people in Seattle are from all those states because we saw the writing on the wall growing up, got an education, and moved away from such economically and cultura

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by lgw ( 121541 )

            Heh, I too dropped out of college because "it just wasn't something for me". Fortunately, that wasn't a barrier to a dev job back in the day. I think the same may be true for skilled manufacturing today, as they're really getting desperate (more than a million jobs unfilled in the US), but of course you still have to go where the jobs are.

            • Yeah, that seems to be a big problem with the people in "Trumpland". They don't want to move to Michigan or wherever, where jobs are. They want the jobs to come to them in Podunk, Alabama, hours away from the nearest city. It doesn't work like that. Suggest it to them and they whine about "my family is here!" or "the cost of living is too high there!"

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by lgw ( 121541 )

                Funny that - /. posters whine exactly the same way about not wanting to move to the tech hotspots where the jobs are.

                • Yep, there's a bunch of curmudgeonly /. posters out there like that. I'll bet a lot of them are Trump supporters too. Make no mistake, there's a ton of people here on Slashdot who are right-wing extremists.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Nethead ( 1563 )

          Today I had to head from a bit north of Everett to the top of Snoqualmie Pass to meet family to exchange gifts. Instead of going through Seattle or Bellevue to 90 I headed to Monroe to SR203 and south to where 18 meets 90. In the last three years the only reason I've been through Seattle was to get to SeaTac. I can't handle that city anymore and I'm an old hippie that spent years in Fremont/Wallingford, I use to worked in the Westin Building for a decade. Nope, can't handle it anymore. Now I just 'comm

    • Are these folks using Linux? So why is the parent post existing? So what.
  • The mythology of making money from your own house is only that - mythology. We still have untold thousands (at least) of people who watch too much H&G TV and other cable programs that exist to bring customers to realtors, without concern for the fact that it is a pyramid scheme they (consumers) can never profit from.

    If you want to buy a house for your own sake because you want to own a house for some reason, great. If you want to make improvements to said house for your own sake, great. But it is

    • Re: Some people will never learn (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yeah and where do you live in the meantime? A box? The point of a house being an investment is that instead of paying rent you are building equity. If person A pays 2000 monthly in rent and person B pays it towards a mortgage then in 15 years person A gets no return but person B can sell the house for 300000 plus. Sure there is upkeep expenses but they rarely exceed equity.

      • Which all works great until the reckless investor speculation crashes the housing market and your equity disappears in a flash. Because that totally couldn't happen ever. Or ever again.
      • You're both right. In a lot of cases it makes financial sense to buy a house rather than rent one, and ownership gives you greater freedom to improve your home as well. I had the chance to buy my first rental apartment, and the interest + repayments were slightly less than my monthy rent thanks to a tax deduction, which made the decision rather easy. But before 2008 (and these days as well) people were urged to buy a home because "prices are only going up". That's what GP is on about: buy a home to liv
      • Ignoring the potential for insane violent property tax hikes that lower the value at the same time owners have to pay obstinate tax rates on inflated property values.. I know several people with yearly property tax bills larger than their yearly principal payments. I am quite lucky to live in a state with a constitutional cap on property taxes.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        A house isn't an investment unless you're either flipping it or renting it. If you're living in it, then it's not an asset, it's a liability.

        Also, why is this on /.? I happen to live in Seattle, but even I wouldn't consider this appropriate to the site.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You think most of this is because people are trying to make money from buying a house? HAHAHA

      It's the Asian influence. Most of those cash buyers in the Seattle area are from 2 locations. Asia and California. They are buying houses to either move to or have their children live in while they attend college.

      I live in the area and see it on a daily basis.

      Also, if you don't think that real estate is a good and smart investment, well you don't really know what you're talking about.

      you won't get the money back when you're old enough to stop working.

      Yep, proof right there, you

      • Re:Some people will never learn (Score:4, Informative)

        by painandgreed ( 692585 ) on Friday December 30, 2016 @01:06PM (#53579803)

        You think most of this is because people are trying to make money from buying a house?

        In Seattle, a lot of it is. There is certainly a demand for new houses from investors and from people moving to the area. But the housing market is booming and people certainly are buying houses to remodel and flip on the market. I was just in the house buying market and there are just about no fixer-uppers left in the city, and even those sales are being determined by insane bidding wars between the buyers, and will most likely be back on the market the next year. Drive through some of the older neighborhoods with 50+ year old houses and you can tell that about half have been remodeled and repainted in the last few years. I'm not saying those house flippers are going to come out ahead in the long run, but it is certainly happening and driving the market that much more.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lgw ( 121541 )

      If you want to buy a house for your own sake because you want to own a house for some reason, great. If you want to make improvements to said house for your own sake, great. But it is time to give up on the notion of "investing" in your house; you won't get the money back when you're old enough to stop working.

      House prices in the US, on average, keep up with inflation (long term - watch out for bubbles). That's been true for 100 years, and isn't likely to change. That makes a house a better "investment" than a savings account, but that's not saying much. It can work out pretty well, though, if you get a mortgage when interest rates are low, then go through a period of high inflation - then returns are quite nice.

      The thing is, most people are incapable of thrift, and have no clue how to invest safely, so a hous

  • Another reason to avoid Seattle! (Score:3)

    by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Friday December 30, 2016 @12:01PM (#53579369) Journal

    I'm all for the idea of relocating to get a better job. (I think that's increasingly necessary just to reward states with a pro-business/commerce mindset and punish the ones without it.)

    But markets where real-estate gets so "hot", you can't ever imagine owning your own home without becoming a millionaire first? That's a huge negative, in my opinion. The "American dream" is all about home ownership and a good paying career type job should be one that makes that dream possible for you (even if you're still in a situation where you only want to rent, at the moment).

    I moved to the DC area for a new job myself, and it has this same problem. So I compromised by moving to a small, more rural community in Western Maryland. Now I have a 50+ mile commute each direction for work, BUT we have a commuter rail system I can make use of, AND I have the option to work from home several days a week. So it's completely doable, and I get the benefit of enjoying peaceful, quiet rural living AND a regular does of the "big city" at the same time. Results may vary for others who opt to come here for a job ... but it's all stuff to consider.

  • Hot Housing Markets a Sign of Too Few Houses (Score:3)

    by ranton ( 36917 ) on Friday December 30, 2016 @12:03PM (#53579375)

    All these hot housing markets just show where there should be more development in new housing, especially more compact housing. Put some high rises in and around those neighborhoods along with more public transit and problem solved.

    • Put some high rises in and around those neighborhoods along with more public transit and problem solved.

      NIMBY.

    • No, they will just put up luxury highrises. Why build $300k houses when you can build $300k houses and sell them for $1 million?
      • There isn't infinite demand for $1 million housing. If you put up a luxury highrise with units priced at $1 million, and 50 tenants move in, that's 50 fewer people looking to spend $1 million on a house. That decreased demand will lower house prices slightly in the rest of the city. In fact, to decrease housing cost the most, you want to get the rich people off the market first. There are a lot fewer rich people looking to buy a home than middle- or low-income people, so you're operating on a steeper po

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dangle ( 1381879 )

      I don't see how the situation will improve without more compact, denser housing either. Here in Portland, our formerly middle class neighborhood is being infilled with large, circa $1M homes, which are typically occupied by an average of 2.x people. We specifically bought our 1200 ft^2 home because we didn't want to have to take care of a big place full of stuff. I get concerned about the related social housing trends, too. For example, I bought our house in '11 from a retired firefighter's widow, whose (em

    • All these hot housing markets just show where there should be more development in new housing, especially more compact housing. Put some high rises in and around those neighborhoods along with more public transit and problem solved.

      There is, at least in Seattle. A couple of new skyscrapers go up every year. Blocks are being turned into large mixed use condos and apartments in all the neighborhoods all over the city. There are reports that show that this is the only thing keeping Seattle's prices from really being insane. So far, this seems to be because once the home loan industry went bust, much of all that money that was in it that was managed to get pulled out, needed a new place to be invested. Now, instead of investing in home lo

    • That's exactly what Seattle is doing. http://www.seattle.gov/hala

  • UpUPandAWAY (Score:3)

    by sdinfoserv ( 1793266 ) on Friday December 30, 2016 @12:16PM (#53579475)
    I live 30 miles North of Seattle. Housing prices are doing the same thing here. People are paying $400K for run down shacks. Tiny 2 bedroom apartments have gone from $800 - $1600/mo in 3 years. 2000sqft new construction in Edmonds are going for $1.4M. The biggest problem is infrastructure. The commute 30 miles to Seattle has gone from 40 minutes per way 3 years ago to 1-2 hours per way today - and getting worse by the month. Seattle has punted on public transportation so long they had to shove $54B transportation spending bill down land owners throats that will take 25 years to build and won't fix the problems now or in 3-5 years. The streets are undriveable. Homeless are everywhere and growing. Crime is on the rise. If you're not pulling in $100K+, you can't afford to live in Seattle. .
    Flippers are everywhere. But I don't see all the negatives turning the trend.
    If you look at California, housing prices are still insane and higher than they are in Seattle. By CA comparison, there's a long way to go - on the up side - for pricing.

    • I don't think it's realistic in most of the metro until you're pulling in at least 200k these days. Median houses in King County are ~625k now. Anywhere that isn't pretty rough or an unconscionable commute from somewhere two working adults can make that much will start in the 750-800k range. The only marginally affordable houses are in the ghetto of South Seattle where a post-war shack with 1 bathroom and 2-3 bedrooms are being remodeled and snatched up at 400-500k these days. It's mind boggling.

      I live some

  • ..and people still move there? Nothing like moving for a hot salary and then having it killed by a house.
    • Seattle has been in the top 5 relocation destinations for almost a decade. On the positive side - there are lots of jobs, the social scene has anything anyone wants. I live a couple of blocks from the Puget Sound (fishing, crabbing, whale watching), I'm a hour from the mountains. You can't beat the hiking, camping and outdoor activities. The culture is very pro work/life values. AND - DONT FORGET THE HAWKS! (if you're into sports, it's like a religion out here) - I moved here from the midwest 4 years ag
      • Still, if you have to spend most of your money on a house it's not worth it. Long hours, two working parents, kind of makes for a sucky life.

  • Easy explanation: HAM (Score:3)

    by citylivin ( 1250770 ) on Friday December 30, 2016 @02:35PM (#53580523)

    Because of the 15% foreign buyers tax that vancouver instituted in sept, our HAM (hot asian money) has moved slightly south. I thought this was a well known fact so its a shame the article seems to have another hypothesis that is much less likely. Seeing as the spike almost exactly corresponds with the tax and not any massive hiring in the last 6 months.

    Welcome to unaffordability seattle! probably a good time to buy property, hold it for a few months and flip, if the lower mainland BC is any indication of whats in store for you guys.

  • Seattle is all in all a decent place to live. It also leads the nation in having the highest rate of car theft, lol, but that's what garages are for.

    As for real estate, yes, the market is on fire here. If your asking price is even remotely close to reality you can sell it in no time. A $200K house priced at $230K will sell, no problem, and after the bidding wars you may get $250K or more.

    For example, I could *easily* sell my home for triple it's original price and it wouldn't take more than a day or so. Gi

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