Long time Ballard resident and local Real Estate Broker Sharon Giampietro shares a regular post on My Ballard to keep readers informed about the local real estate market.
For homebuyers who want to live in the Greater Ballard area, it’s a challenging time. March and April saw a jump in the number of homes on the market with 463 new listings – that’s compared to 261 new listings in January and February. Buyers had more choices and these “new listings” were snapped up. When homes sell quickly, the inventory stays low and at the end of April we had just over a month’s supply of homes, with King County’s shortest average for days on the market at 22 days.
Obviously, it’s still a seller’s market. In a balanced market that does not disproportionately favor the buyer or seller, there would be about a 4-6 month supply of inventory. What would that look like? Waiting a week or more to look at a home, waiting to make an offer in hopes that the price would come down, offering a price substantially below asking – you know, a somewhat relaxed approach. Today’s buyers hoping to move into the greater Ballard area aren’t relaxed!
Bidding wars have been common due to multiple buyers with interest in the same home. In 2014 it was par for the course to see homes fetch $10,000-$30,000 over the asking price. The last couple of months have seen some homes bid up $60,000, $100,000 and in one case almost $200,000 over asking. Some examples: Olympic Manor- asking $685,000 sold for $820,000; Ballard –asking $669,000 sold for $775,000; Whittier – asking $559,000 sold for $717,000. Buyers are starting to look in a price range substantially below their budget to leave room for a bidding war and/or to look in areas, perhaps out of the city, where they can get more for their money.
The pent-up and ongoing demand for housing continues to drive up prices. At the end of December 2013, the average home sale price was $510,000. By the end of 2014 it was $557,000, and now at the end of April 2015 we are at an average sale price of $606,000. At the end of 2014, the average condo price was $290,000. At the end of April it was $298,000, and for new construction the average sale price has risen from $672,000 to $699,000. Our area continues its steady housing transformation with the continued addition of new construction homes which for the most part are “modernos,” which are modern new homes and townhomes. In Ballard they made up half the homes sold in the first four months of 2015.
It does not seem that long ago that it was very hard for sellers to find buyers and our home prices were down about 25%. Homeowners who wanted to move were stuck and foreclosures and short sales were not uncommon. Sellers are seeing the pendulum swing in their favor with the increase in prices. People moving into our area, a good economy, great neighborhoods; all of these factors contribute to the tremendous housing demand, a reality which at this time shows no sign of slowing down.
Greater Balllard is Greenwood, Green Lake, Wallingford and other close by neighborhoods identified as “705” in the Northwest Multiple listing Service. All residential and condo numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand and unless noted do not include new construction. Statistics not compiled or published by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
