Seattle Real Estate Values for 3rd Quarter 2008 Released by Zillow

November 19th, 2008 categories: Clyde Hill, Magnolia, Market Conditions, Mercer Island, Montlake, Normandy Park, Queen Anne, Real Estate, Zillow

Yesterday Zillow released its’ Seattle Real Estate Trends for the third quarter (July, August, September) of 2008 and posted that Seattle home values decreased -7.53% compared to the third quarter of 2007.  As a point of comparison, Zillow reported that home values Nationally decreased -9.7% for the same quarter.
 
I clicked through the links: Seattle Real Estate Trends, to Click for Seattle values and, on the left under Seattle, the Excel icon  , I found 5 tabs at the bottom of the page. There was a “Summary”, “Metro Area & County”, “City”, “Neighborhood”, and “Glossary”.  I found the information shown under City and Neighborhood to be the most interesting as the values data that Zillow has compiled is broken down to what most Seattle home buyers and Seattle home sellers will find the most interesting; their particular neighborhood or city. 
 
These numbers are “Year over Year” of the “% change for the Zillow Home Value Index or “Zindex” over the last year (12 months)”.  In other words, Zillows “Zestimate“, the median value for homes for in that area, and the percent less value compared to last years’ Zestimate median value.
 
Now, these Zillow numbers are not just the actual sales based numbers like the numbers calculated by the NWMLS, although actual sales data is used by Zillow as a part of calculating Zestimates, so they are a model for comparing value.  This makes the numbers a good tool for understanding value and comparing value, but are not the only way to measure an individual homes’ value.
 
A snapshot of Year over Year % for a few areas/neighborhoods of current interest to me (as well as current and recent clients) are:        
 
 
Beacon Hill     -8.0%
Clyde Hill     -4.4%
Columbia City     -12.7%
Magnolia     -8.3%  (Magnolia is shown twice)
Magnolia     -6.5%
Mercer Island     -6.3%
Montlake     -7.0%
Normandy Park     -5.8%
Queen Anne     -4.7%
West Seattle     -7.4%
 
Just follow through the links to find the City or neighborhood that interests you, and check out the numbers…they are very interesting!

Spoken by Deborah Burns | Discussion: 379 Comments »

Normandy Park Real Estate and My Chat with Another Real Estate Agent About Current Market Conditions….

May 24th, 2008 categories: Market Conditions, Normandy Park

Sold Normandy Park listingYesterday while I was working on my computer, I received a call from a Normandy Park real estate agent. He called me to ask questions about a listing I had for a Normandy Park home that recently sold.

He has a listing with a similar home in the same neighborhood of Normandy Park that was listed about the same time as mine, and was asking about the selling price of my clients home. Last fall, with the Subprime Meltdown, the Normandy Park housing market really froze up and there were very few sales last fall. The market still has not loosened up much for the traditional heavier spring market, and prices are coming down since inventory is still high. The agent was trying to help his seller clients understand that they were going to need to lower their listing price to be competitive in todays current market conditions.

The agent and I discussed the current market conditions for Normandy Park real estate, the homes for sale in Normandy Park, and their listing prices. While we were talking I pulled up one of my mls searches for Normandy Park so I could verify the numbers we were talking about. I personally think that the home prices peaked in Normandy Park last May (2007), and that the prices are now adjusting downward a bit. While this is not good news for Normandy Park sellers, it is good news for buyers interested in buying a Normandy Park home. I am very happy that my sellers’ home sold, it was an unusual transaction, but it did sell during a challenging time.

Spoken by Deborah Burns | Discussion: 90 Comments »