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Lungren Homes has opened their newest community of rambler and two-story homes in Burlington called Brighton. This peaceful, cul-de-sac community is just minutes from I-5 and SR 20 with 3- to 5-bedroom homes from the Low $400’s. Stop by the furnished model to see the wide variety of plans, designer finishes, beautiful streetscapes and fully-landscaped yards.
Before we start, and sticking with our quote of the week, here’s a little extra for you faithful readers in honor of the Pearl Jam Home Shows. I heard they played for over three hours last night. Great track. Great album. Enjoy.
Anyway, back to business. Here’s the latest NWMLS press release. You should read it, but ignore the quotes.
From the PR: King County’s number of active listings surged nearly 48 percent from a year ago, rising from 3,465 active listings to 5,116. Snohomish County also had double-digit increases, up nearly 15.8 percent, but 15 counties reported less inventory than twelve months ago.
From me: I do think the surge in new listings represent a large swathe of homeowners who have been hearing the words “escalation,” “multiple” and “inventory” in conjunction with “clause,” “offers” and “low” for so long they’ve decided to jump into the game.
The true fact remains. Inventory is still way below anything considered “normal” and I think it is going to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
For new construction, prices need to stabilize a bit for sure. However (here’s the broken record), land is expensive, sticks and bricks cost more as does the labor.
It’s clear pricing needs to be very sharp right now. The arbitrary, incremental price increases should take a backseat to strategic pricing and case-by-case evaluations. And, as always, salesmanship, sound processes, customer follow-up, broker outreach and expertise are still required every day onsite; perhaps even more so right now.
Zillow and HERE Technologies have released a very interesting analysis aimed to track down the best home and rent values when compared against the commute to downtown Seattle. It’s a slick tool to help answer one of the biggest issues facing today’s homebuyers: “what is it worth to spend more time in traffic?” With the population growing, more businesses opening downtown and traffic conditions almost certainly to get worse, not better, it’s arguably the #1 question for most people.
Here are the big takeaways:
Of course we all know “15 minutes” is a relative term in this area, but the graphic helps.