Who’s buying where, in a revved-up real estate market?
Published Apr 19, 2014, 1:56pm
By Allecia Vermillion
It’s time to retire the Ballard stereotype of strollers, starter homes, and backyard beehives. Because nearly a dozen new condo and apartment buildings rising along corridors like Market Street and 15th Avenue have changed Ballard’s literal landscape, and its cultural reality. More than 1,000 new apartment units are headed to the neighborhood. Condo buildings like the 20-unit Solo Lofts going in near the library can see the majority of units sold before construction even begins. “There are more people wanting to purchase than there are available homes,” says Sabrina Booth, a Redfin agent who specializes in the Ballard area. One of her clients recently lost out on a one-bedroom condo listed for $289,000—after submitting a $300,000 offer. Cash. (The winning offer was for $305,000 and waived inspection.) In a climate like this, buying can be one hell of a mad dash. Booth sees an average of four offers for each property, “especial-ly single-family homes.” Some of those offers come from developers eager to tear down smaller houses and replace them with multiple units, thanks to Ballard’s density-friendly zoning. However Booth says the market madness hasn’t undercut the community feel that drew people here in the first place. “Urban people feel like they’re in a small town; they can support their local businesses and get to know their neighbors.”
25% Owner Occupied
Population: 7,718
Walk Score: 91
Essential Ballard A full-fledged brewery district has rooted itself within the industrial blocks south of Market, where single urbanites and young families sample brews and food truck fare at newcomers like Hilliard’s, Reuben’s Brews, Stoup, Peddler, and Populuxe.
2. Loyal Heights >> Ballard Bailers
Sweet little prewar houses, proximity to water, a small-town feel within a bigger city: This is the dream of Ballard. And the reason many buyers seeking a home in this part of town end up in Loyal Heights, Ballard’s northerly neighbor just across Northwest 65th. “The further north you go, the prices tend to go down or become more affordable,” says Redfin agent Sabrina Booth. Though prices may drop, the level of competition doesn’t; “there are just as many people going after a $425,000 house” as pricier homes to the south, says Booth.
While home values in Loyal Heights have jumped nearly 19 percent since 2010, they’re projected to go up just under 4 percent this year—a relatively modest gain compared with other parts of town. The neighborhood began life as a bedroom suburb of Ballard, and that neighborhood’s clamor of taverns and restaurants and boutiques remains within easy reach. But easy access to Golden Gardens Park and local landmarks like the Loyal Heights Community Center hold more appeal for families—more than twice as many kids live here as in Ballard.
Projected 2014 Median Home Value: $494,200
Population: 7,407
Walk Score: 72
Essential Loyal Heights Some of the city’s most legendary kringle (and a reminder of the area’s Scandinavian roots) can be found at Larsen’s Danish Bakery. Across the street, Cafe Munir serves lively Lebanese mezzes alongside a surprisingly good whiskey selection.
3. Hillman City >> Investors
Rare is the buyer who actually sets out to live in Hillman City. Some people don’t even know it’s a neighborhood. It won’t be this way in a few years, says Redfin agent Collin Horn. “Columbia City has been an up-and-coming neighborhood for a while. As prices start to get higher and more competitive, buyers start creeping south.” Specifically south to Hillman City, with its streets of older single-family homes in need of basic updates. But some of the city’s cheapest single-family homes are about to collide with some of the highest value-change forecasts. Horn says Hillman City looks a lot like Columbia City did a decade ago; now homes in that neighborhood have received some TLC and are on the market once again at higher prices. “Hillman City has so much in common and is so close by, he says. “The price per square foot jumps over $100 as you head to Beacon Hill or Columbia City.”
Hillman City also has one of the city’s highest percentages of kids (nearly a quarter of its residents are younger than 18) and is relatively diverse (more than three-quarters of residents are not white). And some hospitable newcomers like Union Bar and Tin Umbrella Coffee—home to one of the city’s pilot parklets—are giving a main-street feel to the stretch of Rainier Avenue near South Orcas Street.
Percentage of the Population Younger Than 18: 24
Projected 2014 Median Home Value: $350,800
77% Nonwhite
Essential Hillman City Pale ales and porters from the two women behind Spinnaker Bay Brewing, and sustenance from the food trucks regularly parked out front
4. Bellevue >> Eastside Redefiners
There isn’t much mystery in what brings people to Bellevue. The twin forces of the stellar school district and the proximity to Microsoft propel steep competition for homes. “There are a lot of families with kids high school age or nearing high school age who aspire to go to Bellevue or Newport high,” says Findwell’s Kevin Lisota. Including plenty of newly arrived Amazon employees and parents who work in Seattle but are happy to commute across the 520 bridge each day in exchange for having their kids in the schools. The majority of homes sell within two weeks on the market, and the laws of supply (low) and demand (high) apply across Bellevue’s relatively varied homes and price points, from ultraurban high-rise condos to 1950s ramblers, ’60s and ’70s split levels, Factoria-area townhomes, and West Bellevue compounds with Lake Washington views that command multimillion dollar prices. The latest influx of tech-savvy workers means a more diverse Bellevue; in 2010, 30 percent of residents were an ethnicity other than Caucasian; today that’s up to 37.
Projected 2014 Median Home Value: $574,200
Median Household Income: $90,459
Population: 128,171
Essential Bellevue Take a free First Friday wander through the Bellevue Arts Museum, then head down the block for soup-filled xiao long bao dumplings at Din Tai Fung.
Read about the other 6 hottest markets at: http://www.seattlemet.com/articles/10-hottest-neighborhoods-in-seattle-may-2014
