Bellevue Real Estate » West Bellevue

Distressed Inventory Report 3-19-11

George Thurtle — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:28:44 +0000

The numbers finally ticked up a bit this week and there is more listed bank owned and short sale inventory coming to the market in the MLS. Other than West Bellevue the quality of the inventory is degrading and needs a lot work. Don’t expect to get that new bank home that was avaialble last year. In fact there are only two new bank owned homes available. One is in the Beaux Arts area in Bellevue and the otehr is in the Gelndale area and is listed by yours truly. The interesting thing when looking at the numbers in the amount of churning in the homes with Notice of Trustee Sale (NTS) is you will see four or five new homes in the NTS category but the increase in the over numbers in nil or only up one or two homes. At this point in time it looks like the market is consuming the distressed inventory at about the same rate it is being created.

The spreadsheet is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 3-19-11

Weekly Scorecard 3-14-11

George Thurtle — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:18:33 +0000

Overall the sharp decline in inventory seems to have leveled off. West Bellevue was down a little and the other areas up a little. The number of closed sales was very high in all areas but the pending sale numbers were substantially under the number of closed sales. The combination of declining inventory and closed sales could not continue for ever. Looks like buyers are getting picky regarding the present inventory judging by the Pending sales. In looking at the individual homes this week closing there were only two bank owned homes and very few short sales. If you look at the Altos stats you can see a small bounce in pricing. It looks like the combination of declining inventory with a high rate of sales has at least stabilized pricing.

The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 3-14-11

Distressed Inventory Report 3-12-11

George Thurtle — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:23:25 +0000

Another downturn this week in the overall amount of distressed inventory. Generally it should be going up but it looks like a lot of things have worked through the system. Overall the amount of distressed inventory (Bank Owned Homes and Notice of Trustee Sales) is at 307. Down from its near term peak of 317 two weeks ago and down from the long term peak of 422 homes in August of 2010. However while it does appear to be leveling off the amount of the drop is not convincing and the overall numbers could be “basing”. It looks like this could be a case of the “muddles” as looks like they could be a new range of of between 300 to 350 homes but lets see.

The listed inventory is also down for both bank owned and short sale. There does not appear to be new listed inventory coming to the market all except for West Bellevue. In that area there were two new homes. The interesting thing about West Bellevue is that the least expensive bank owned home is $1,549,000 and they top out at almost $5,000,000. This is a switch where before the bank owned inventory was at the lower end. Also in South Bellevue a waterfront came on the market at almost $3,000,000 in Kennydale.

The spreadsheet is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 3-12-11

Weekly Scorecard 3-7-11

George Thurtle — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:09:07 +0000

The sales are taking their usual seasonal upturnb but not the inventories. South Bellevue did finally see its inventories rise by 12 homes. The other areas were flat to down a little. East Bellevue dropped to 159 homes which is a ridiculously low number. The sales however are starting to surge with the usual seasonal regularity. Again South B ellevue was the winner with 14 sold homes and 14 pending sales. This is a pretty brtisk sales rate. The inventory is starting to fet pretty well picked over and the new inventory comes to the market it is gemerally in the lower prioce ranges and in many cases needs some work. I am starting to see some very short sale times for homes that have been brought to the marklet which are well well priced and have been redone inside and out. Many sellers look like they are updating their kitchens and bathrooms in order to obtain a better price. If the home needs repairs the price really gets hammered.

The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 3-7-11

weekly Scorecard 1-3-11

George Thurtle — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:22:24 +0000

A short report this week but taking a look at the closing this week the last week of the year saw a flurry of closings. MLS Area 500 (south Bellevue) had over 16 closings and West Bellevue had 14. These are the highest nu,mbers of the year. Also the inventories are the lowest they have been in years. As an example south Bellevue started the year with 309 homes. The inventory peaked at 419 homes in the last week of June and the year was closed out at only 288 homes. East Bellevue is another good example. Th eyear started with an inventory of 210 homes and peaked at 298 homes in the second week of July and closed the year out at only 187 homes. usually inventories do peak early summer no matter what market conditions. However there appears to be a trend of overall declining inventory and increasing sales volume. Let’s see how thuis trend plays out in the next couple of months.

Th espreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 1-3-11

Distressed Inventory Report 12-18-10

George Thurtle — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:59:08 +0000

I am finally getting caught up on my posts. The storyu here is the decline in distrssed inventories bot listed and unlisted. The listed inventories experinced a surge of sales this last week before Christmas. It will be interesting to see what activity the first of the year brings. Generally foreclosure activity at the larger institutions slows down this time of year and picks up in the last half of January. My gut feel is that it will pick it up it will be at lower levels than last year and that amount of distressed inventory in the overall market will see further declines with bigger drops in the last half of 2011. In the upper end there is a couple of new opportunities in West Bellevue. There is a $1,600,000 former builder’s home in Beaux Arts for $1,600,000 owned by Wells Fargo and also another one owned by East West Bank in came on for $1,800,000. Both of these are newer homes in good West Bellevue locations. It has been hard to find this type of inventory for the last six months. If anyone has any interest please le tme know.

The spreadsheet is here: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 12-18-10

Weekly Scorecard 12-13-10

George Thurtle — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 01:51:41 +0000

The sales volumes are pretty high for this time of year except for west Bellevue which had a large number of sales but no pending sales and the pending sales for West Bellevue have been done the last couple of weeks. However the other areas have both a higher volume of sold and pending sales which could mean this market is settling out at a higher overall volume now that the sold homes and pending sales are starting to track a little more.

The inventorues fell like a stone this week. don’t know if that is due to sales or seasonal conditions. Later in the next month we should see inventories start rising but my gut feel is they will peak at a lower level this year than last year. The other notable trend is the amount of highend inventory closing. A waterfront in West Bellevue closed for $9,500,000 and you can see by the South Bellevue average home sale prices that some more expensive inventory was sold.

The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 12-13-10

Weekly Scorecard 11-22-10

George Thurtle — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 15:43:11 +0000

This week the amount of inventory continues to decline however the pending sales and sold home numbers seem to be diverging some. In East Bellevue there were 11 sold homes and only 4 pending sales. In South Bellevue the same trend 15 sold homes and 7 pending sales. West Bellevue was different with 4 sold homes and 5 pending sales. Given the time of year it is hard to determine if this is seasonal or a developing market trend. However West Bellevue does show some underlying strength. Also there were two sales not included in the West Bellevue numbers this week since they were essentially land sales. One was a waterfront lot on Evergreen Point for over $3,000,000 and a view lot on Clyde Hill with a small tear down for $1,350,000. This again is showing strength in West Bellevue with the purchase of very expensive vacant land parcels to build high end custom homes.

The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 11-22-10

Distressed Inventory Report 11-13-10

George Thurtle — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 01:51:41 +0000

The numbers keep riding but the rate has slowed. The Notice of Trustee (NTS) is where most of the activity is occuring. In West Bellevue there was 5 new NTS in this week alone. This area had seen the least activity over the last few weeks. The other areas had a much more modest increase in inventory and NTS activity. The major issue is though is a lot of the new activity is in lower end condominiums. The amount of listed inventory both short sale and bank owned seems to be declining. This should change in the next few weeks as these new NTS sales go through foreclosure. It can take these banks a long time to bring inventory to the market. In some cases over 90 days.

As we have discussed last week the quality of the inventory seems to be degrading with most of the inventory coming on being lowered priced homes needing repair or even worse old condo conversion units. However this week there is an exception. There is a home located at 2730 1o5th Ave SE in Beaux Arts. This home is a little over 5000 sq. ft. and is located in a prime area of West Bellevue. Beaux Arts is a private community which has retained a very natural character and is located close to downtown Bellevue and I-90 access. In addition this community has 1100 ft. of community beach on Lake Washington. This home was a builder’s own personal residence and was exquisitely done. This is one of tail ends of the nicer new comes coming to the market. This home was foreclosed on about six weeks agao and will be listed in the next couple of weeks. It was at $1,680,000 as a short sale. If you figure about $300 per sq. ft. that would put the value at about $1,500,000. Anyone interested in this home should get a hold of me and we can discuss the best way to approach an offer. The bank selling the home is Wells Fargo and they have a policy of not accepting offers from the public for almost two weeks. In the early stages of the listing they only accept offers from municipalities and non-profits. So if you make an offer initially they just sit on it and wait for other offers so your best timing is right after they begin accepting offers from the general public. The only good news about Wells Fargo is they tend to list high and their inventory will age and at some time they will capitulate. After 30 days then is the best time to make the offer. If this one gets listed over $1,500,00o I think that is what might happen here.

Here is the spreadsheet: Bellevue Foreclosure Report 11-13-10

Weekly Scorecard 10-18-10

George Thurtle — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 18:54:02 +0000

Finally getting caught up. The volumes are down this week and we will have to wait to see if this is seasonal or if the overall level of demand is declining. The pendings and the solds appear to be coming in line so the true market after the tax credit expiration is starting to resolve. Overall values have appeared to remain steady but volumes are down. The inventories have leveled off and are no longer increasing but this time of year we will usually start to see a decrease but that does not appear to be happening.

The individual sales were interesting with two waterfront homes on Lake Sammamish going pending. That is why average price and per sq. ft. numbers are higher. Also in West Bellevue it appears a couple more tear downs have sold. The tear dwon market appears to be making a solid come back in West Bellevue. Also there appeared to be no distressed inventory sold this week either bank owned or short sale.

The spreadsheet is here: Weekly scorecard 10-18-10