benkjls' Blog: Seattle condos

The Green Lake neighborhood in North central Seattle is centered around Seattle's most active recreational spot, Green Lake Park.  The lake is ringed by a 2.8 mile path popular with a diverse group of patrons including joggers, bicyclists, rollerbladers and those wishing to take a casual stroll.

For years Green Lake has moved along slowly in respects to real estate development.  However, since 2004, the condominium market in the neighborhood has taken off and it's now undergoing a significant transformation.  Here's a look at what's going on in Green Lake. 

The Greenlake - The Greenlake was one of the first major condominium developments in the Green Lake neighorhood.  Completed in 2004, the 6-story complex includes 106 homes just two blocks from Green…

Queen Anne Hill sits majestic as it overlooks the Emerald City below.  Originally home to many of the city's prominent citizens, Queen Anne still reflects its heritage with its many turn of the century mansions and Queen Anne style homes.  As the city grew, Queen Anne evolved and is now home to a diverse group of people, businesses and activities.

Current condo developments in Queen Anne include a mixture of revitalized conversions (apartments to condos) as well as new construction.  Here's what's coming up in the neighborhood.

Expo 62 - Expo 62 is the newest condo development, planned in the lower Queen Anne area next to the world-famous Space Needle.  This new project includes 114 homes.  Read more about Expo 62.

22 West Lee - This small boutique…

Wedged between Lake Union and Capitol Hill is Seattle's Eastlake neighborhood, one of the city's oldest.  Eastlake contains a mixture of office & commercial space, apartments, condos and is dotted with single-family homes and well-established small businesses.  The neighborhood is a popular place to reside given its easy access to the University of Washington and downtown.

While most of the new condo projects are focused around downtown and its core neighborhoods, developers have not overlooked Eastlake with three new condominium projects underway.

Eastlake Lofts - The first of Eastlake's new projects, the Eastlake Lofts contains just 18 one-and-two story loft homes in the heart of the neighborhood.   Read more about Eastlake Lofts.

Equinox Condos -…

Part of Seattle's condo revolution includes the transformation of the South Lake Union and Gateway districts just north of downtown.  South Lake Union owes its revitalization from a sleepy light commercial district into a bio-medical and residential hub to the vision of Microsoft's co-founder, Paul Allen.  Allen, through his Vulcan Real Estate arm, envisions transforming the area by emulating Portland's population Pearl District

Allen initially began acquiring land in the South Lake Union area in the 1990's in support of the community-based Seattle Commons Park initiative.  Voters, though, said no to creating a major in-city park.  The rest is history.

So what's underway in the South Lake Union & Gateway districts?

Carbon56 - A low-rise conversion in…

May continued to exhibit an active condo market with double digit increases in units sold city-wide. Interestingly, NE Seattle and West Seattle showed the greatest increase in unit sales, mostly attributable to a robust resale market.

City-wide, condos appreciated approximately 6% based on average sales price. However, across the board, median prices took a tumble from the prior month. Inventory has increased helping to create a buyers market, particularly with high-end properties, though I believe interest rates play a role as well. As rates continue to creep upwards, buying power decreases which move buyers to a lower price point. And, though the market has softened, sellers are receiving +/- 1% of the asking price.

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Press Release

Seattle Condos and Lofts (SCL) is pleased to announce that King5.com, the NBC affiliate in Seattle and part of Belo, has selected the SCL blog to provide content for King5.com's new condo section.   King5.com receives over 6-million visitors per month giving Seattle Condos and Lofts tremendous exposure.

SCL is the top-ranked condo blog in the Northwest and among the most visited consumer-focused real estate blogs in Washington (per Alexa).   Additionally, SCL regularly out-paces industry blog such as RSS Pieces, Real Estate Tomato and TransparentRE (per BlogTopSites).