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The Emerald City Overview
Home » Seattle » Seattle - Real Estate / Market / Neighborhoods » The Emerald City OverviewSeattle sits between the Olympic Mountains, which lie to the west and the crazy volcanic peaks of the Cascade Range to the east. The Cascade Range boasts the great Mount Rainier that stands as the tallest of its peaks at 14,411 feet. The city actually sits between Lake Washington on the Eastside and Puget Sound on the Westside. So if you live in Seattle you have the best of both worlds in regards to outdoor sports.
There is water surrounding you so that affords opportunities for kayaking, rowing, scuba diving, roller blading, jogging, golf, jet skiing, and sailing, among other things. The mountains offer all kinds of opportunities for mountaineering, hiking, mountain biking, camping, rock climbing, ice climbing, fishing, skiing, snowboarding, and whale watching. There is so much to do and see in Seattle. This is definitely one of the great draws to this beautiful city. And to those people that think Seattle is just this gloomy place where it rains all the time, a recent study showed that New York, Boston and Atlanta all receive more annual rainfall than Seattle. It is Seattle’s fair weather that allows the area its lush landscape. Because of its location Seattle has mild winters and cool summers. The great weather allows the city remain lush and green for much of the year, thus the moniker “The Emerald City”.
Understanding the draw to Seattle will give you an understanding for its strong economy and booming housing market. Lately real estate seems to be inflating all over the country. Seattle is no exception. The bubble has yet to pop and keeps getting bigger. Recently a couple with a 1600 square foot, 3 bedroom, 30 year old home received notes on their door about every three months asking for a call when they were ready to sell. When the time finally came for them to sell the house sold immediately. The selling price reflected a 7 percent profit. The house was old, didn’t have a sidewalk in the front and did not come with all the new amenities that all the pristine new houses have.
The Seattle Times reports that the home sales over the past year are “no fluke”. The Times reported that even though new homes bring all the newest of everything they still do not bring the return that the older homes do. The Times reports “Countrywide over the past five years, new houses have posted 4.8 percent annual appreciation, while older homes saw about 7 percent. Over the last year older homes yielded an average of 3 percent profit over newer homes.
So the general rule in Seattle is if you want more bang for your buck, buy a new house as they usually run around 20 percent cheaper than a resale. However, if you want your house to more of an investment right off the bat, buy a resale and watch your money grow.
Last year a 2600 square foot house sold for an average of $385,000. This is the average cost of a resale home. The reasons for the disparity between the new homes and the old ones are interesting. A Seattle Times analysis reported that home that were built from 1900-1930 cost more per square foot than a brand new home. Some say the disparity is due to smaller new-home lots, which are sometimes as small as 3,000 square feet. Another contributing attribute may be the vintage detail of the older homes. The biggest reasons are the age-old real estate monikers—location and demand.
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