Where Is Your Heaven?

What do we talk about in the office? The market, the market, the market. Why? Because it’s so unique and interesting. The vast majority of homes available are not in the most sought after price range and in many places the market has created itself an inverted pyramid, where the pyramid is standing on its tip with the largest inventory being for homes over a million, needless to say, it should be the other way around.

Affordability can still be found in the surrounding areas, in the North, South and West but the question that no one really even wants to answer is, for how long? When do we come to the point when you no longer can find affordability in areas like Everett, Tacoma and Monroe as we are already seeing the market change even in these areas.

It is somewhat scary to look at the numbers, to realize that today there are 10 homes listed within Redmond that are priced below $700,000. There are 47 homes listed in Redmond currently, so that means only 21% of these homes are below $700,000. To put it into perspective 51% of all homes listed and 33% of all homes sold are/were listed at or above 1 million dollars. Everyone wants to live close to where they work, but the question is, can you afford to buy near your work, or are you stuck with either renting or giving up the convenience of being close by.

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If we jump outside of Redmond and look at the entire Eastside the numbers are following. 721 homes listed, 125 of them are listed below $700K, and 455 are listed at or above 1 million dollars. This means 63% of all homes listed on the Eastside are listed at or above 1 million, and only 17% below $700K. Yet, 30% of all closed sales in the past month were in the below 700K group. Are you starting to see what I’m talking about?

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Now, let’s look at Monroe, the up and coming area. There are 42 homes currently listed. 83% of those homes are listed below $700K, and only 0.5% at or above 1 million. This being said, if you are aiming for affordability, you need to look further where we still have affordable homes, nice, beautiful homes available.

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For many the answer is telecommuting, but for others that is not an option. There are still plenty of professions where working from home is not an option as the teachers, nurses, doctors and fire fighters still need to go to work physically.

So, should you wait, or should you just take what you can, where you can afford it? That is not a question for me to answer, but at this point of time my question to you is, what the market eventually does crash and drops, say 10%? Well, most likely it would only take you a few months back in time when it comes to home prices. The ugly reality is that the empty nesters aren’t selling because they have nowhere to go, and their children are forced to move further out.