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Market Update: Capitol Hill – March 2015

By April 17, 2015No Comments

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that the Seattle real estate market is on fire – which is great for sellers but proving to be increasingly difficult for buyers. As a city, home prices in Seattle soared 19 percent over last March to $535,000. So what are we seeing in the trenches of our neighborhood? Let’s dig into it!

Capitol Hill March 2015

 

My first reaction when I saw this chart was “WHOA”.  This represents the number of homes for sale vs. the number of homes that have sold in Capitol Hill over the past 15 months and as you can see, inventory has been consistently dropping pretty much every month over the past year. Clearly buyers were chomping at the bit to buy because February and March saw more homes sell than there were homes coming on the market. In fact, there were 75% fewer listings in March of 2015 than there were in the same month 1 year ago and sales were up a whopping 42.9%.

Now let’s take a closer look at the inventory levels:

Capitol Hill Inventory - March 2015

 

You can see that we haven’t seen inventory this low in – well – we’ve never seen inventory stay this low for such a consistent amount of time. We saw a spike of homes coming on the market in January, a little earlier this year than last which is likely attributed to the extremely mild winter we experienced (no complaints here though the skiers in our office would disagree) but even that spike was not nearly as significant as what we saw in 2014. Inventory is DOWN 81.7% in Capitol Hill (yes, you read that right, 81.7 percent) in March of 2015 compared to March of 2014.

What does all of this mean? For would-be sellers, it means that if you plan to sell, get ready to move because it is likely going to happen quickly. But keep in mind that even in this market, your success is directly tied to how well your home is priced, how well it shows and how well it is marketed – so you still want to employ the services of an expert real estate team like Wilcynski Partners.

For buyers, this intense market means that you need to not only be willing and able to act quickly, but you need to work with an agent who is going to do everything they can to present you as the strongest candidate when you are in multiple offer scenarios and help you win. It doesn’t always come down to price so having an agent help you craft a compelling offer on all fronts is going to be crucial to your success in the marketplace. If you have any questions about how we can assist you with your Capitol Hill real estate needs, don’t hesitate to call Larry (206-227-1725) or Dan (206-715-5349) or shoot us a message.

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