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May 18, 2012

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Retail Core Sales for 2010

January 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

What were sales like this year compared to last?  The year before that?  How about all the way back to 2007? This is a snapshot of a 4 year market survey we have compiled for Retail Core by building for each downtown Seattle neighborhood.  By entering your name and email below, you will receive a spreadsheet which clearly outlines how many sales have been recorded for each address and get an inside scoop on which buildings maintain the most value.  To keep abreast of our comparison charts for other downtown neighborhoods, subscribe to our RSS in the top right of our site.

Retail Core Yearly Review 2010

An overview of sales for 2010 in Retail Core. View by building, number of units sold, volume in sales, sold median, median square feet, and average cost per square foot. Enter your name and email below to view a comparison chart from 2007 to 2010.
RETAIL COREUnits SoldVolume SoldSold MedianMedian Sq. Ft.$Avg/Sq. Ft.
TOTALS34$24,033,900.00AVG: $426,625.00AVG: 967.75AVG: $440.84
5th and Madison6$2,549,000.00$382,500.001,094$349.63
ESCALA25$18,905,000.00$524,000.00952$550.42
Fischer Studio0$0.00$0.000$0.00
Seaboard Building3$2,579,900.00$800,000.001,825$438.35

Entering your information below will only subscribe you to our exclusive reports unlike our RSS subscription which subscribes you to all future posts on seattlesavvy.com.

Filed Under: 2010, Featured, Retail Core

MetLife & ESCALA offer buyers jumbo loan options

December 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The team at ESCALA sent out an email with some sample mortgage payments for three of their units on the 16th floor.

Suite 1609 (floorplan)
1B/1.5 B  910 sq. ft.
$449,000.
Total Monthly Mortgage – $2,170.73
Suite 1612 (floorplan)
1 B/1.5 B  952 sq. ft.
$519,000
Total Monthly Mortgage – $2,437.75
Suite 1611 (floorplan)
2 B/2 B 1607 sq. ft.
$829,000
Total Monthly Mortgage – $3,851.98

The address still has a number of active listings.  You can review what’s still remaining along with a record of sold units here.

Filed Under: ESCALA, Featured

New home buyers for Escala offerred 15% off installations.

November 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Boyce Commerical Services, a Seattle based office relocation and installation company, is offering a 15% discount off to new buyers at ESCALA for the month of December.

Boyce Commercial Services is proud to announce that we will partner with Escala during December to undergo appliance installations throughout the building. We are also offering a 15% discount to new home buyers in Escala.

For more details on the beautiful, luxury hotel, visit Escala. Contact Boyce Commercial services at 800-248-1023 for more information on our moving services and FF&E installation.

They must be referring to custom appliance installations and/or FF&E (Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment) move ins? I’m not going to hold it against them for being vague with thier blog post. At least thier blogging! They do have a lot of great pics to look at.

click here to look

On a side note, dang ESCALA is lookin good!  View more about ESCALA including for sale and sold inventory.

Filed Under: ESCALA, Featured

New neighborhood specific searches for downtown Seattle.

October 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

NWMLS IDX: Other than more technology rooted real estate websites like Redfin, seattlesavvy is to my knowledge the first to have downtown neighborhood specific searches, and over the next couple of weeks we'll be narrowing down the simplicity even more. For example Denny Triangle, Retail Core, Waterfront and West Edge make up one search for "Downtown" and we're working towards providing that feature next.

Every successful business online has some secretes to their sauce and in real estate it’s being able to display an active inventory of condos for sale.  Well, that’s the way it used to be.  Today, my opinion is that blogging has become even a more powerful ingredient to a tasty website.  It’s proof that you’re involved with your profession.  It proves that you’re an expert.  It requires a lot consistent attention to your profession’s surroundings.  What’s current?  What’s changing?  Where’s it going?  In real estate it can be particularly difficult because of what things you cannot say which I’m extremely flattered to see Matt Goyer had pointed out here (thanks again!  can’t say how much that was appreciated).

In 2002/3, I had started a blog with Google’s blogger and another site from a real estate template where I simply created pages collecting pictures of all the cool images for condos downtown while exploring a life in San Diego.  It was catering to that niche out of hobby that has resulted into what this site is today and what it will become January 1st, 2011.  That niche is of course downtown Seattle living.   Believe or not, while drinking beer on the beach and almost breaking my neck from the amazing sights of…the ocean, I missed Seattle.  The Teriyaki.  The electronic music, hip-hop and grunge.  The summer celebrations at Seattle Center–specifically The Bite.  The 4th of July.  Pike Place Market.  All the art.  The Green.  The Pavement.  My mother. *sheds tear.

Creating a profession based on what I was passionate about was a no brainer, and this site does just that.  It’s all about the ten neighborhoods where I love to live: Belltown, Capitol Hill, Denny Triangle, First Hill, Pioneer Square, Retail Core, South Lake Union, Uptown, Waterfront and West Edge.  I know these neighborhoods better than I do the back of my own hands.  Later, I’m excited to even attribute personality characteristics to each neighborhood given how unique each of them are.  But, getting to that fun part of seattlesavvy’s development has anxiously been awaiting the ability to provide neighborhood specific searches on active and sold condos.  Yesterday, the best 3rd party vendor for providing such data text me saying it’s ready after my kicking, screaming and later even apologizing for my impatience.

Sample Neighborhood Search

We strive to be, in addition to a couple of our favorite competitors, your number one source for what’s happening downtown.  Be sure to subscribe in the top right area of this site for market updates, and to be one of the first to…Top Secret Project unveils January 2011;)

More active inventory than Realtor.com

More up-to-date listing data than Zillow.com

No duplicated listings or scams like found on Craigslist.com

100 times the service!

Check out our newly updated neighborhood pages that will always be under development (Core Value #2: Committed to Constant and Never Ending Improvement).

  1. Belltown
  2. Capitol Hill
  3. Denny Triangle
  4. First Hill
  5. Pioneer Square
  6. Retail Core
  7. South Lake Union
  8. Uptown
  9. Waterfront
  10. West Edge

For any other real estate professionals reading this that are considering what IDX provider to use, Terry McIntosh with IDXNW is THE man!  FB

Filed Under: Belltown, Capitol Hill, Denny Triangle, Featured, First Hill, Pioneer Square, Retail Core, South Lake Union, Technology, Uptown, Waterfront, West Edge Tagged With: , ,

A spectacular gallery of downtown Seattle condos by Jacob F. Lucas

September 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Seattle Public Library

Seattle Public Library

I must say, we are very pleased with Jacob’s consistent variety in approximately 30 different building’s we hired him to shoot downtown.  The variety was very important to us, and we wanted someone with an artistic eye in addition to the photoshopping ability you just can’t do without the education.  Jacob had a special style which we like to say added a candy coating to downtown Seattle’s condo buildings.  There’s really no address that you can compare with another.  They all offer a different personality, lifestyle and representation of…you.  Therefore, they all needed to look good.

Tacoma Train Station

Pioneer Square Bus Tunnel

Another important factor in choosing Jacob was that as a licensed agent, there are rules preventing any listing photos with an artistic flair.  Any new listing’s primary photo added to the NWMLS (Northwest Multiple Listing Service) must be an accurate representation of either it’s exterior or view.  Since you can search all active listings on seattlesavvy.com, you’ll see the normal pictures whether you click on what’s For Sale, or what has Sold.  We hope you like the personality Jacob has helped us interpret.  All pictures are featured on the condo pages in the right sidebar of our site.  Each has a fun and informative description, active listings for sale, sold history, neighborhood map and more. Not all of our pics were from Jacob, so we just wanted to say thanks by showing off his seattlesavvy portfolio all on one page.

Please help us say thank you by checking out his Seattle photography website.  We hired him for architectural photos, but the Australian (of course he doesn’t enjoy a beer after a photo shoot) also does listings, weddings and has a pretty good collection of stock photography.

THANK YOU JACOB!

MLS (Multiple Listing Service): An organization that all licensed real estate agents must be a member of and has number one priority when putting a new home on the market.  You can search all MLS listings right here on seattlesavvy.com.  SEARCH ALL CONDOS FOR SALE NOW

Savvy with what’s for sale, but what you’re looking for has yet to come on the market?  Create an account to notified of new listings matching your specific search criteria.

Filed Under: 2200 Westlake, 5th and Madison, 98 Union, Architecture/Design, Avenue One, ENSO, Featured, Four Seasons, Hillclimb Court, Madison Tower, Market Place North, Millennium Tower, Mosler Lofts, Newmark Tower, One Pacific Tower, Pike & Virginia, Royal Crest, Seaboard Building, Waterfront Place, Watermark Tower Tagged With:

ESCALA Auction? Never!

September 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Some people have asked, and during a late night follow up of blog comments regarding auctions, I wondered what project could possibly be next.  ESCALA is the only one with a significant number of units still for sale–less than half.  The 269 unit project has gone through it’s ups and downs until Team Builders JLS and Bob Rennie took over sales earlier this year.

Erik Mehr told us today that ESCALA has not only averaged 10 sales per month for the last three, but since the Olive 8 auction has made an additional five.  With more than 80 sales (over half), the building has even gained FHA approval.  Of course the rumor of ESCALA going rental is a pie in the sky, and Erik’s confidence and record of sales for the address also prove that an auction is a similar story for even the most critical critics.

I must say that I am very impressed with this building. It is truly spectacular!  Thank you Erik!

Filed Under: Auction, ESCALA, Featured Tagged With: ,

Will ESCALA hit the auction block next?

September 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

With the successful trend in condo auctions in Seattle, I’m not sure it’s a bad idea.  New construction sales are way up, and it might be a nice relief to see that building unload some inventory.  Resale prices are way down, and the only way to get those numbers back on a positive climb would be to reduce the amount of new construction inventory which has been holding a steady high price per square foot.

It would be a tough call to make as we come to the slow season for our local real estate market.  Before the holidays you can pretty much bet that there will always be a final push to make sales before entering the colder, slower months.  Will ESCALA announce an opportunity to take advantage of “HUGE discounts” off original listing prices, or cling on to a market pick up till next summer?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Filed Under: Auction, ESCALA, Featured

Review of final pricing from all Seattle condo auctions

September 12, 2010 By 1 Comment

There sure does seem to be a lot of excitement regarding the Olive 8 auction which takes place on September 19.  Seattle has had seven auctions for dowtown condominium properties since March of 2009 and hopefully we won’t be seeing any more.  Curious if the history of these auctions have proven to be a significant amount of savings for buyers, I went around and collected all the sales results for six of the seven buildings that went to auction (no results for The Press could be found).  Here is the median for the original list price, minimum bid and final sold price for each condo project.

Auction Date Condo Project Orig List Price Auction Min  Bid Final Sold Price
3/22/09 Queen Anne High School $510,000 $280,000 $355,000
7/11/09 LUMEN $579,040 $260,000 $347,500
9/27/09 GALLERY $491,995 $225,000 $344,000
9/27/09 Brix $475,000 $185,000 $319,500
3/28/10 5th and Madison $607,500 $235,000 $390,500

NOTE: The minimum bid price was approximately 45% off the original list price.  After comparing final sold prices the discount average out to be approximately 35% off the original list price.

Now, if we were to take the median price of $592,950 and apply 35% off, that gives you a 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath with approximately 1,100 square feet on the 24th floor facing south for around $386,000.  If you were to now do a search for units around the area between $375,000 and $400,000 with a minimum of 1,000 square feet, here’s what your options look like.

Not only will several buyers get new construction for less than the price of current resale properties, but buyers for the Olive 8 auction will also be able to enjoy the benefits of living above a hotel.  As of today, the only other places in Seattle where you can live above a hotel are the Four Seasons, Madison Tower and 2200 Westlake which are all priced at significantly higher price points.

If you’re considering a purchase, prices look good.   We can also provide you with more information about the building, the neighborhood and what it takes to write an offer for free.  Contact us if you have any questions.

Filed Under: 2200 Westlake, 5th and Madison, Auction, Featured, Four Seasons, GALLERY, Madison Tower, Olive 8 Tagged With: , ,

Seattle’s highest priced condo listed in MLS closes today

July 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Escala AwningOne of the things we have to do as we continue to revamp our blog is to make a call or shoot an email to those who send out press releases or can provide some good information regarding our downtown Seattle condo market.  We called Eric Mehr with John L. Scott today who is representing ESCALA because there has been a lot of positive news about sales continuing to go up.  As Seattle’s only emerald green glass high-rise the project has struggled as it was the last of all the new construction to open for occupancy during the crash.

Since, Bob Rennie with Rennie marketing has pulled some pretty amazing ideas that have helped cater to the market over the last several months.  Today, Mehr had a little bit of excitement in his voice, and I had to later send a congratulatory text message because today ESCALA breaks a record.  Originally listed around $6.7 million, today they are closing on a completely built out East, West, and North facing penthouse for around $6 million.  This is big news for everybody who has an invested interest in downtown real estate.

CORRECTION: Ben Kakimoto at SeattleCondosAndLofts.com reminded me on Facebook that this is the second most expensive to sell in Seattle history.  First was Four Season’s which sold for somewhere around $7 million, as well as a private sale for around $15 million.  Can I get a Mulligan Ben?

I’ve actually been in that unit when it was just a shell with drills and ladder’s laying around everywhere.  The 5,200 square foot unit is nothing short from spectacular when you kink your neck looking right, then spanning the room to look left towards the sound.  Amazing!  I can’t imagine what it looks like today!  Congrats team ESCALA!

Filed Under: ESCALA, Featured, Sales Tagged With: ,