The Puget Sound Business Journal Reports on NEXUS: "A New Center of Gravity in Downtown Seattle"

An article published today by the Puget Sound Business Journal says “a new neighborhood is emerging in the northeast section of downtown Seattle, and by 2020 it will be a new residential core featuring cutting-edge apartment and condominium buildings, a variety of restaurants and retail, as well as places to meet and work. In the heart of this so-called ‘East Village’ neighborhood will stand NEXUS, the first condominium tower to open in the neighborhood, offering buyers the opportunity to own their share of downtown Seattle’s future and a slice of the ever-expanding skyline.”

The highly anticipated condominium tower NEXUS, which will offer reservations June 4th and is scheduled for completion in 2019, will be bordered by I-5, Olive Way, 6th Avenue and Denny Way, which means it “will be uniquely positioned between, and in walking distance to South Lake Union, the downtown/retail office core, and Capitol Hill, and will offer quick access to a multitude of transportation options within the city, as well as enviable freeway access to reach the region’s outdoor recreational activities.” It will appeal to first-time homebuyers, millennials, urban professionals and downsizers for its prime location within Seattle’s emerging “East Village” neighborhood.

As Christian Chan, Executive Vice President of The Burrard Group told the Puget Sound Business Journal, “Seattle is enviably poised economically and geographically as a global gateway of the future . . . This is where people want to live, and where many prominent companies want to do business. The city’s quality of life, relative affordability, and a lack of state income taxes promotes employee retention. Peer cities like Vancouver, San Francisco and New York have significantly higher real estate prices and an increased cost of living. Now is the time for people to take advantage of what is, relatively speaking, a more attainable homebuyers’ market in Seattle.’”

And the future remains at the forefront of all design and planning, as Carrie Smith, Principal of Interior Design with Weber Thompson said “NEXUS represents a balance between the natural materials and beauty of the Pacific Northwest, ergonomically designed spaces, and an increasingly technology-oriented lifestyle” that will speak to a vision of life in 2020.

Dean Jones, President & CEO of Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty added that “NEXUS will establish a new, fresh mindset for this neighborhood. It’s an intersection of design, technology, convenience and lifestyle . . . NEXUS is the next generation of living in downtown Seattle.”

Given anemic condominium inventory, NEXUS will be a prime opportunity for would-be buyers to jump into homeownership. As the article reads, The Burrard Group believes “there’s pent up demand to buy downtown” and that if even a fraction of current renters explore buying, there will be an inventory imbalance: “‘if only ten percent of the renter population decided it was time to buy, that would absorb the pipeline of available condominiums – and I think that’s going to happen,’ said Carese Busby, a senior mortgage consultant atCaliber Home Loans, a preferred lender of NEXUS. ‘Like all market cycles, opportunities exist for the first responders who can spot the trends and act.’”

Nancy Glover, another a senior mortgage consultant at Caliber Home Loans echoed Busby’s insights and added that now is the time to begin the process as pre-approval is required in order to reserve a condominium at NEXUS. She also described the benefits of owning, because “you don’t have to worry about the landlord increasing rent or selling the apartment that you’re currently renting and forcing you to move. People like knowing they have their own piece of property. It’s theirs. They can personalize it the way they want to.”

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High Median Home Prices in King County Prompt Spike in Condo Sales; Values

Appreciation in Downtown Seattle 2015 is Greater Than the Top 100 Global Cities

According to the latest figures released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) in February 2016, King County posted a new record high for median home prices at $515,600– increasing by nearly 19 percent over the prior year. And condo prices in the area increased even more countywide, rising 26 percent with a median price of $343,975. That means that Washington’s most populous county has officially recovered from its prior 2007 peak pricing when the Great Recession corrected home prices. Yet in some close-in markets near jobs and lifestyle attractions, home prices are rising even faster. In the 2015 Year in Review Report released by Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty(RSIR), which compared the full year with the prior year, it was noted that West Bellevue posted 17.6 percent gains at$1.08M last year and Downtown Seattle surpassed all with increases of more than 30 percent year-over-year at$561,000.

“If ranked as a micro market, Downtown Seattle actually eclipsed the top 100 global cities for median home price appreciation in 2015,” said Dean Jones, President and CEO of RSIR. “While we haven’t officially made the list among global cities yet, we’re certainly on our way.”

Jones points to the recent Knight Frank Wealth Report, which recognized Vancouver, BC as the top global city posting a meteoric 24.5% median home price increase – other leading cities with double-digit appreciation included Sydney, Shanghai, Melbourne, San Francisco and Auckland. Among the 34 cities where real estate prices fell in 2015, the majority (22) were in Europe, highlighting the economic woes of the region.

“A clear trend among these top Pacific Rim cities is the rising demand from foreign nationals, most commonly from China and throughout Asia,” adds Jones. “When prices grow this quickly, it’s not just expanding jobs and incomes – housing has become a safety deposit box for a flight of international capital.”

In January, the Seattle Times released an article entitled “High-end Home Sales Booming as Tech Execs, Foreign Buyers Shell Out Millions” in which RSIR provided data suggesting that Chinese investment was among the largest stimulants of luxury home sales increases in 2015. It’s a theme that Jones and others believe will continue to propagate in 2016.

But it’s not just foreign buyers driving up the market locally – there is population growth as a lot of inbound residents are coming into King County too. According to the yearend report issued by theWashington State Department of Licensing, King County welcomed 71,383 new drivers to the region and 14,792 of them came from California – the largest producer of new residents to the region followed by Texas (4,227) and Oregon (3,489).

“Our economy offers a tremendous bounty of jobs and despite the rising housing prices, we are still relatively affordable and we have no state income taxes,” adds Jones. “Most new residents will rent for a few years until they get settled in the market but we believe a rising percentage of them will look to buy, which is why we believe developers are increasingly exploring condominium development again.”

RSIR predicted the condo comeback in June of 2015 when they released research and a special insert in thePuget Sound Business Journal called the “Manhattanization of Seattle” found here >>

Interestingly, in 2015 more new residents arrived in King County from key Asian countries (3,585) than from the neighboring state of Oregon. The Asian countries were India (1,592), Korea (731), China (692), Taiwan (418) and Japan (152).

The Puget Sound Business Journal Reports an Increase in All-Cash Buyers in Seattle Area

Cites Realogics Sotheby's International Realty Research

In an article from Janaury 22nd, Marc Stiles of The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that, “All-cash buyers dominate region’s luxury home market,” as “nearly two-thirds of the people who bought high-end homes last year in the Seattle area paid cash.” In the feature, Stiles citesRealogics Sotheby’s International Realty (RSIR) research which found that the most expensive sale of 2015 was a waterfront estate on Mercer Island at $13.8 million.

Stiles likewise describes that in these cash deals, “thirty-nine percent of the buyers were from overseas, primarily China.” This finding aligns with a recent article in The Seattle Times that included RSIR’s market research and found that luxury sales have increased in the area thanks to the presence of tech executives and foreign buyers. Of particular interest was that RSIR found that the distinctive waterfront neighborhood of Newport Shores in Bellevue attracted 13 sales during the past two years that exceeded $3 million and 86% of the surnames on these newly recorded titles appear to be on Mainland Chinese origin. There were no such sales in 2011, 2012 or 2013.

In response to this steady rise of Chinese nationals arriving to the Seattle/Bellevue metro area, RSIR and Tiger Oak Publications recently released a 92-page, all-Mandarin magazine called Seattle Luxury Living, which generated a front-page article in the Seattle Times and was a featured story on the Perspectives blog by Sotheby’s International Realty®.

This recent slough of news pieces also comes on the heels of Palace Magazine’s recently published special report that added Seattle to its list of top markets sought by Asian homebuyers. “We are proud to represent our region within this elite publication and be included amongst our peer markets,” said Dean Jones, President and CEO of RSIR. “There is now little doubt that Seattle is on the map overseas and I believe this wave of foreign direct investment is just getting started.”