Seattle Suburbia

Speaker 1: [0:09] Hello there, and welcome to the Awesome in Seattle podcast. This is your host, Christian Nossum, with the Awesome Nossum Group at Wilson Realty, and I have with me the entire team of the Awesome Nossum Group. First off, we have Mr. Jason Saldarriaga. As

Speaker 2: [0:24] always.

Speaker 1: [0:27] The lovely Charlotte Reynolds.

Speaker 3: [0:29] Hi, friends.

Speaker 1: [0:31] And welcoming back to the team, Mr. Les Cutting.

Speaker 4: [0:35] Surprise.

Speaker 1: [0:39] So on today's episode, we are going to talk about some of the suburbs of the Seattle, surrounding Seattle area. Um, and the reason why is because, you know, as soon as this pandemic hit, people realized that, you know, they didn't always need to live super close to work. They didn't need to have, uh, you know, a small apartment that was close to walking distance to things. They could have some more space. In fact, they often wanted more space because they are working from home, and they need that extra office. Uh, and today's, today's episode is all about what is happening in these suburbs, and how popular are they getting, and how competitive is it, and what can you afford, uh, in, in some of those areas. We're also gonna talk about some of the transportation projects that are in these areas. So, you know, a big reason why people are moving, and I kinda touched on this, but a lot of times a lot of our clients, uh, they're in, you know, either a one or a two-bed apartment, and they're sharing it with someone sometimes, and they're just sick of having to fight over the kitchen table or who gets to work in the office or, you know, how they're gonna figure out who's on, you know, using all the bandwidth from the internet and, and all that stuff, so they need some more space. It's also happy, or it makes them a little happier because they're able to sometimes move closer to family. Uh, and so that's, that's really what this is all about, so let's jump into it. Charlotte, let's talk about some of the neighborhoods that you know a lot about. What are you, what are you telling us about today?

Speaker 3: [2:16] Yeah. So I will start with Edmonds, which is-

Speaker 1: [2:18] Okay … Speaker 3: probably one of my favorite suburbs, and the reason being is its location. Um, so if you guys aren't familiar, it's pretty much right between Shoreline and Lynnwood, but right on the, on the waterfront there on the coast. So, or I guess- Mm-hmm … is that technically a coast? 'Cause it's… Anyways. Not really the coast, no. Not

Speaker 3: [2:35] the coast, but it's on the water. Um, and that's what I like so much about it, and I think that's, um, one of the more appealing things about Edmonds is, uh, to other people as well. Um, that's definitely one of the top things people say. It has like a little beachfront downtown area. And then also its proximity to Seattle as well. While it is north of Shoreline, it's still just a, you know, a quick trek to get to downtown, and it does have the Sounder train station there as well, so it's quite easily accessible. Um, with regards to transportation, um, as well as the Sounder train, um, I mentioned before its location, which is right between Shoreline and Lynnwood, and those are both about to have light rail stops as well. So that will, um, help even more with its, um, already pretty accessible location. So that's, those are kind of the biggest reasons why myself and other people do like Edmonds. Um, and then, oh, I forgot to mention too, um, the ferry. So it goes straight over to the Kingston station, uh, sorry, ferry terminal, and then gives you access to Kitsap as well. So with, uh, the addition of downtown, you can also get over to the islands, which is nice. Um, and then some stats on kind of market trends and things. So in September, the median sale price of a three-bedroom home in Edmonds was 635,000, and that was up 11 and a half percent year over year from 2019. So they've definitely- Oh seen some increases. And then in September they were selling, it wasn't super competitive base- just based off of this stat, but they were selling at about 100.5% over the list price, so just half a percentage point over what it was listed for.

Speaker 1: [4:18] Sure.

Speaker 3: [4:18] Yeah. And then if you go kind of over to actually the east side, um, I'm gonna talk a little bit about Woodinville. Um- Okay … I love Woodinville particularly because of its alcohol industry. Um, it's very, very well known for obviously the wineries, and it brings in a ton of tourists, I think, just for the wineries themselves. But they also have quite a few, like, distilleries specifically for whiskey up there as well, so.

Speaker 4: [4:47] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [4:48] Yeah. Basically, if you like to drink, go spend some time in Woodinville. And I think I read something crazy, they have, like, over 100 tasting rooms or something, like, in the main corridor. Wow. Yeah, so there's lots to choose from. I'm just gonna give a little shout-out to Mark Ryan, that's my favorite. Yep. If

Speaker 1: [5:06] you go to Mark Ryan, say hi to Billy in the tasting room. He's the manager.

Speaker 3: [5:09] Yeah, that is the place.

Speaker 1: [5:11] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [5:12] Um, other than that, though, um, that's probably their biggest, like, draw, is the wineries. Um, they even do, like, a summer concert series at Chateau St. Michelle, or they did last year but not this year 'cause of coronavirus. But Mm-hmm … that is generally a yearly thing that happens, and it's really cool. It's like, uh, I don't know if you guys specifically have been there, the team, um, but that is just a stunning venue, and they have really nice, like, beautiful grounds for their concerts and stuff. So definitely a good outing for the summertime. And then-

Speaker 1: [5:43] Yes, it is awesome going there- Yeah … for, for concerts. It is fun.

Speaker 3: [5:47] Yeah. I love it. But, um, other than that, it is very, like, residential, I would say, Woodinville. The, the, the town area's pretty small, and it's pretty spread out as well. Um, so that being said, it is a little bit easier to find quite a bit larger lots out there. Um, and then with some stats here, the median sale price of a three-bedroom home in September was 750,000. That's up 7.1% year over year, so again, a pretty good price increase. Um, and then they're selling a little bit over list price, so somewhat competitive. They're selling at 102.7%, so 2.7% over the list price.

Speaker 2: [6:30] Sweet. Yeah, I love Woodinville. Um- Me

Speaker 3: [6:33] too.

Speaker 2: [6:34] I go there, uh, uh, whenever there's, like, the first snow, I always am like, "I'm getting in my car and driving to Woodinville," because it's just magical, and there's always, like, a lot more snow in Woodinville- Yep … where I am in Seattle. Continuing on with kind of the east side that we're talking about with Woodinville and whatnot, I'd love to touch base about Bellevue and Kirkland for a second. So Bellevue, it's one of the main hubs in the Seattle-Tacoma metro area. It's very centrally located. There's a lot … There's a very large job industry there, um, Amazon being a huge part of that, and only growing in the future. They've only, with time, just made it clear that they're really doubling down on growing in Bellevue. I believe currently there are plans for the tallest tower in Bellevue under permitting right now. I don't think they've started construction. But it's gonna be an Amazon tower right next to the, the transit center in downtown Bellevue. It's very exciting. Obviously light rail is coming to the heart of Bellevue, and there's multiple stops in Bellevue, and that's really going to connect- The region in a new way, so I'm really excited about that. Um, and I know a lot of clients are as well.

Speaker 1: [7:49] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: [7:49] So just talking stats about Bellevue specifically, median price of a three-bedroom home is currently at $885,000, which is up a little more than 15% year over year. It- that's slightly more than Seattle, um, how far, how much Seattle increased, which was up 11 and a half percent year over year last month. If you look at all property types though, Bellevue is just knocking it out of the park. They are up almost 25% in price- Wow … year over year. Wow,

Speaker 1: [8:24] that's crazy.

Speaker 2: [8:25] Yeah, crazy. Uh, it's a little over 1.1 million. Seattle is a measly 10.4% increase year over year. Um, and I- measly is, I'm being very sarcastic here, if you can't tell by my flamboyant body language. You know, you, you do expect the more variability in Bellevue's numbers than Seattle because, quite frankly, Seattle is about five times larger in terms of the amount of listings. Yeah. So the more listings you have, the less variability generally you would expect in the, in the sample size. So Bellevue's very competitive. That said, on average, pr- properties are selling for about 100% list price on average. So you're not seeing a- across the board a huge amount of things selling way above list price. But on a case by case basis, you'll see very competitive, um, properties, some of them selling for 20% over list price and that sort of thing. Um, if you take a step back from Bellevue though, and you look a little north, you're gonna see Kirkland. Kirkland is known for its beautiful waterfront along Lake Washington. It's a really fun place to walk around, grab a drink and some dinner. In the summer and early fall. And, uh, it's also known for its access to Microsoft. It's just north of 520, so its access to Seattle is very, um, it's very accessible to Seattle. And of course, it is home to Kirkland Signature, the world's greatest toilet paper. Um, from Costco. Uh, anyways, they don't have, compared to Bellevue, they don't have some hu- amazing news with new transportation, but they're going to enjoy all of the things that Bellevue's getting in terms of light rail and whatnot. Because of its proximity to Bellevue, it's gonna tag along and it's gonna be much more accessible a- as, as a result. The park and ride, the main one in Kirkland, is right north of 520, and it's a really popular park and ride for people commuting into, into Seattle, and they've expanded that recently as well the last few years. Kirkland's a tad cheaper overall compared to Bellevue. The median price of a three-bedroom home is 840,000, and prices are up about 21% year over year. So slightly less than Bellevue, but still very high. That is a very aggressive price appreciation within 12 months.

Speaker 1: [10:57] Yeah.

Speaker 2: [10:58] And just across the board, it is also very competitive. The cumulative days on market for both Bellevue and Kirkland are between 43 and 50% year over year. Uh, they're up 40% and to 50% year over year, so things are, have gotten competitive in the last 12 months compared to what we were seeing last year when things were kind of, it kind of just stagnated as across the board for Seattle Metro.

Speaker 1: [11:26] Yep.

Speaker 2: [11:27] COVID really lit a fire under a lot of these, uh, markets, especially these bedroom communities and stuff that we're talking about today. But yeah, that's my spiel on the east side. If we move north- From Kirkland, you hit Bothell

Speaker 4: [11:44] And I love me some Bothell. We should all love us some Bothell. So anyway, um. Anyway, so let's talk about Bothell. Uh, medium price of a three-bedroom home is about 590,000, and it is almost up 14% year over year. So what does that mean? Super competitive. Um, the amount of inventory, um, versus the m- amount of month's supply is down almost 63%, and that is a huge decrease. But obviously with COVID and all that stuff, I mean, things are a little bit messed up, but it's still very competitive area. One of the main attractions to Bothell in particular, why a lot of people love to live there, is its school district, the Northshore School District. It's one of the top school districts, if not in the state, I believe in, in the nation. It's, it's pretty… It's up there. Um- Yes, it

Speaker 1: [12:39] is … Speaker 4: and I know this because my girlfriend works in the Northshore School District, so I, I get all the, the f- the, I get the 411 whenever she has any news about the Northshore School District, the changes undergoing. It's one of the leaders in the nation for sure. So let's move a little bit north to my neck of the woods, and we're gonna talk about Mill Creek, where the median price of a three-bedroom home is around 580K, and that is up .7% year over year. So it's a little competitive, but I think that number's a little bit off because if you're familiar with the Mill Creek area, Mill Creek, it actually, uh, borders a lot of cities. So it borders Everett, it borders Snohomish, and Bothell as well. And- And Lynnwood

Speaker 4: [13:28] And Lynnwood, actually. Huh, good call. And in that area, what it was around 10, 12 years ago, um, it was absolutely nothing. And what's happening now, that nothing, which was a bunch of trees and forest and woodland, is all being chopped down and developed into brand-new neighborhoods. So if you're looking for a newer home and you wanna get out of the city, and you want something, you know, brand spanking new, you can come up this way. There's tons of inventory to choose from as far as brand-new homes. One of the biggest attractions in Mill Creek is the Mill Creek Town Center, and when it's not COVID time, you can catch me at Azul yelling at a TV or two for whatever sports game they have going on. So if you see a big 6'4" man with an afro, that would be me. Just come say- … just come say hi, and I'm probably drinking either a Rainier or a Mac & Jack. So that is that. And we will head on down to Lynnwood

Speaker 1: [14:27] Actually, I'm gonna go first to Shoreline. Oh,

Speaker 4: [14:29] Shoreline.

Speaker 1: [14:30] I'm gonna start, I'm gonna start south and go north.

Speaker 4: [14:33] Got it.

Speaker 1: [14:34] So I'm going Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, and Lynnwood. So Shoreline, people love Shoreline because, well, it's the first city outside the Seattle city limits when you're going north. Uh, it borders Seattle, and the border starts at 145th. So Shoreline also has just a fantastic school district, the Shoreline School District. So you have to live in Shoreline to go to Shoreline schools. Their property taxes are slightly higher, not a lot more, but slightly higher than Seattle because they really fund their school district very well, and a lot of those, that funding comes from property taxes. There's also, you know, along the sound to the west, there are a lot of beautiful view homes. Uh, Richmond Beach is technically part of Shoreline. It's, it's just a nice area overall. Very… There's some pockets that are a lot less expensive, some that are a lot more expensive, but it's a pretty big city. Transportation-wise, there's a lot going on in Shoreline. So the Lynnwood Link Extension of the light rail is expanding from Northgate, which opens in 2021. Uh, it's expanding from Northgate up to Lynnwood, and that's gonna be completed in 2024. So really only about three and a half, three-ish years away from opening up. It's really not far at all. That, that ri- light rail extension will actually add two stations in Shoreline Most people know about the first one, which is at 145th in I-5, because it's pretty apparent. But most people don't know about the station going on at 185th in I-5. Um, so yeah, there's actually gonna be two stations. Uh, it's gonna really change the feel around the areas that these stations are happening. The upzoning has happened big time. Around that 185th Street station, it used to just be like a lot of really kind of small two, maybe three-bed, uh, cinder block style homes, and they were on big lots. They're pretty inexpensive, and now because of the light rail, they've upzoned, meaning they've changed the zoning and allowed for up to a seven-story building to be built in this area around the light rail station, which is a huge change. The median price of a three-bedroom home in, uh, Shoreline is six hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars. That's actually eighteen point one percent higher than last year, which is a huge increase. So obviously, people are getting out of the city. The next closest suburb from Seattle is Shoreline to the north, and as you can see, it's become very competitive there. Overall price gra- gains, not just for a three bedroom, but overall home prices have gone up sixteen point one percent year over year. And again, it's, it's pretty competitive. One interesting thing is that the list price to sales price ratio was right around a hundred percent all year, but in September it actually jumped to a hundred and two point nine percent, which means September was very competitive. Home prices increased quite a bit over what the asking price was, which was pretty unique. It really hadn't happened a lot of other months, so it was, it was kind of fun to see that. One other thing is that Shoreline has had under one month of inventory all year long, so they really have not had very much homes for sale the entire year. Moving north, the next city north of Shoreline is Mountlake Terrace And it's pretty well known for being a kind of a lower priced neighborhood in comparison to Shoreline, but it's also a very small city. It's not huge, so you're gonna see some larger fluctuations in the data for sale prices. It's very close to I-5. Uh, well, it's along I-5. It's close to Lynnwood. It, it actually also is having a light rail station opening up, and that is going on at the transit center that's already there, which is, uh, at 236th and I-5. And you've-- If you've ever driven north on I-5, you know exactly what I'm talking about because you've seen it. It's the park and ride that is … It has a pedestrian overpass over I-5 and drops down in the middle to get to the buses. So that's exactly where the light rail station is going on in Mountlake Terrace. One interesting thing is that once the light rail opens in 2024, you'll actually be able to go from Mountlake Terrace to Bellevue, downtown Bellevue, in just forty-eight minutes, which if you try to do that right now, it's gonna take you more than that in your car, and you're gonna have to pay some tolls. So it's, uh, it's gonna speed things up Price-wise, so median sale price of a three-bedroom home is actually kind of skewed. Mountlake Terrace, like I said before, is pretty small, and, uh, actually, there's not a lot of three-bedroom homes there. Uh, there's a lot of two-bedroom, but not a ton of three-bedroom homes. Uh, on average, there's only 21 three-bedroom home sales a month, f- and that's been for the last year. So there's not a lot to choose from, and there's some large fluctuations in the median sale price for those three-bedroom homes. In July, the av- or the median was $605,000. In August, it dropped to $590,000, and in September, it dropped all the way down to $498,000. So pretty interesting how those large fluctuations can happen when you only have, you know, 21 home sales. So year over year, prices still actually went up 16.7% for a three-bed, even though, and that's using September's low number of 498. Overall, prices in Mountlake Terrace jumped 8.2%, um, and it's been, again, fairly competitive. It's been right around 101 to 102% list price to sale price ratio. It's never gone below the asking price, uh, on average for home sales. But if you look back in May, the, uh, list price to sales price ratio, which if y- you remember, if you're paying attention to the market, March and April were really slow because of COVID. May was super competitive, and in May, sales prices, or yeah, sale prices increased 105.4% over the asking price, or it increased 105.4%. How am I saying that, Jason? Tell me, help me out. I'm saying that wrong. Yeah. Homes are selling at 105.4% of the sales price. There you go. There you go. That's what I'm trying to say. So it really peaked in May, which is when, you know, people started to move out of the city. Uh, it was pretty interesting. All right. Finally, Lynnwood. So I'm just going north here. Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, and Lynnwood. I'm following I-5, going north. Uh, and that's really what Lynnwood is known for. It's right on the border of both the intersection of I-5 and I-405. It's been kind of this hub for people that need to work either on the East Side or downtown Seattle, because it is right where 405 and I-5 meet. For a long time, like, if one spouse worked on the East Side and one spouse worked downtown, Lynnwood was a very logical place to live because of that. Lynnwood's known for the Alderwood Mall. It's been there for a long time. It was, uh, actually right across from my old high school, Lynnwood High School, which is now a Costco. It's close to the job centers, like I said. You can go to the north to Everett. You're very close. You can go downtown. You can go to the East Side. The 2024 light rail expansion is going to end in Lynnwood And at that point, you'll be able to go from Lynnwood to downtown Seattle in just 28 minutes, which I don't know if you can drive that fast, to be honest, um, without traffic. That's actually about what it would take to go from Lynnwood to downtown without traffic. So you'll be able to do that consistently every single day from Lynnwood to downtown once it opens in 2024. All right, let's get to median sales price of a three-bedroom house. It's actually pretty low. It's only 555. And one thing that was surprising was it only increased 6.1%. And I think the reason why, and I looked this up, was there's a lot more larger homes in Lynnwood. There's a lot of split-level homes, uh, you know, four, five-bedroom homes. And if you look at three-bed and four-plus bedroom homes, prices actually went up 10.7%. So you can get a little more home for your money up in Lynnwood. Overall, prices have increased 14.3%, and it's, again, pretty competitive, uh, except September, uh, just like Mountlake Terrace. In September, there was quite a bit of a jump of the sale price to list price ratio, where it jumped up to 102.1%. So that's it for the Lynnwo- or for the, uh, for the suburbs around the Seattle area. If you are interested in learning about any of these areas, or you wanna discuss buying a house in a suburb, uh, don't hesitate to reach out. We are happy to chat with you, even if you just wanna bounce some ideas off someone who knows these areas. You know, we've, we've all lived in some of these neighborhoods, uh, around and, you know, we, we understand, uh, kind of the nuances of, of these neighborhoods. So seriously, just reach out if you're interested in any of them. You can always, if you are interested in buying a house, you can always sign up for our next upcoming home buyer class. We hold them generally once a month. Uh, right now they're all online, but when we can do them back in person, they're gonna be fun 'cause we, it is called Beers and Home Buying, and you can always sign up at beersandhomebuying.com. Uh, you'll just look on there. You'll see when the next class is. And that's about it. If you do wanna reach out and schedule a time to chat with us, you can just go to awesomeandnossum.com/schedule. So don't, uh, forget to subscribe to the podcast. It's available on all platforms. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell everyone. And, uh, anybody else have anything, or you just wanna say bye? No,

Speaker 2: [24:49] I'm good.

Speaker 3: [24:49] Yeah. That was awesome, guys. Woo-hoo. Thanks for the info.

Speaker 1: [24:51] Awesome. Peace

Speaker 4: [24:52] and blessings.

Speaker 1: [24:53] All right, guys. See ya.