Posts in Real Estate Trends
Home Building Confidence Reaches Four-Month High

The National Association of Home Builders recently released their monthly confidence index and at 62, February 2019 marks the highest index in the past four months. The index may be broken down into a subset of categories, all of which show impressive gains, including sales conditions at 67, six-month expectations at 68 and buyer traffic at 48.

Read More
The Eastside Continues to Emerge as a Tech Hub

As a recent Puget Sound Business Journal article put it, “The Eastside office market has FANGs.” However fitting, they aren’t referencing the region’s sharp teeth; they are talking about a group of tech titans: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google.

Read More
The Seattle Construction Boom

The Emerald City has seen a record number of construction projects in recent years and activity does not seem to be slowing down, as Seattle Times reports that there are currently 66 major projects underway in the city — that’s up by 1 compared to six months ago.

Read More
How to Time the Market

I was recently holding an open house when a curious neighbor came into the home to check out the new improvements and ask about current market conditions. After showing her the home and added value/improvements made by the seller—and asking her to tell everyone she knew—I briefly explained that we are going through a market correction, which began in mid-May (like a light switch on May 10th), and touched on the probable causes. I went on to say that current market conditions seem to have stabilized: generally, sales have increased and inventory began decreasing around mid-October (I saw it October 18th). I summed it up quickly with, “I believe it’s a great time to buy.” She looked at me and said “yeah, but what would you say to your friend or a family member. How would you advise them?” I shrugged and smiled as I replied, “I just did.”

Read More
Will Investing in Smart Home Technology Increase Your Home’s Value?

Smart home technology is rapidly advancing and ranges from a smart home assistant — such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa — to complex systems managing every aspect of a residence. While some homeowners make the assumption that adding smart home technology will increase their home’s value, Mansion Global warns that things aren’t quite so simple: “Your home’s smart technology could give you an edge over other sellers whose homes don’t have it, but it’s challenging to assign a dollar value to it, experts say.”

Read More
9 Real Estate Trends for 2019

We are mere days from the start of the new year and with it, comes an onslaught of expert predictions from a range of industries. Nerdwallet recently put together a list of the top nine trends for the coming year, which outline another challenging year for home buyers (though less so than in recent years), tight inventory, home price and mortgage rate rises, and more.

Read More
Slower (Not Lower) Home Price Growth

S&P Dow Jones recently released the Case-Shiller Home Price Index for August 2018, revealing that Seattle home price growth continues to slow. Up until just two months before that, Seattle led the nation in single-family home price gains for 21 consecutive months, but that run was ended as Las Vegas took over the lead.

Read More
As We Head into Winter, Seattle is Named a Favorable Market to Buy a Home

Just a few months ago it would’ve been hard to believe, but according to Puget Sound Business Journal, a recent Zillow report names the Seattle metro region “the third best large market in the country in which to buy a house this winter.”

Read More