Sex and Real Estate is not about "sexy houses" or sexy people in the advertisements to sell houses.
Sex and Real Estate is about people, with children, having sex IN the houses.
One of the biggest problems in real estate is that agents are reluctant to talk about things that matter to the buyers of homes. Sellers too. But for the most part sex and real estate is about home buyers vs. sellers. I have yet to hear a seller say "We LOVE our home because we can have loud, noisy sex without the kids being able to hear us! YAY!"
Think about it. Everyone needs a kitchen because they will likely cook everyday. There are likely thousands of conversations going on right now all over the Country between agents and home buyers about gas stoves vs. electric stoves. About granite kitchen counters or laminate kitchen counters. About stainless refrigerators or white ones.
Lots and lots of talk about cooking in the kitchen...but no one's talking about what's "cooking" in the Master Bedroom.
Agents and home buyers don't need to discuss this too much because most builders design homes that create a "buffer" for sex noise between the master bedroom and the children's bedrooms. The floor plan above is a great example. It's not an expensive home. It's a smaller, three bedroom home. But it does have excellent positioning for noisy sex whether that is happening in the Master Bedroom or the big 5 piece master bathroom.
Not only does no child's bedroom touch the master suite in any way shape or form, but you have the Master Bedroom Walk-in-Closet AND the child's Walk-in-Closet back to back for a HUGE "noise buffer" zone for the child's bedroom on the right.
The bedroom on the left has the "toilet room" buffer and the full expanse of the master bath with the jacuzzi at the furthest point from the child's bedroom. Even if the kids were sitting in their walk in closet [unlikely] there is still a buffer from the place the parent's are likely to be having sex.
I know this is a difficult topic for many, BUT it is also an everyday reality, and agents MUST sometimes raise the issue though often they do not know how to broach the subject.
First floor Master Suite is a newer floor plan that often leaves home buyers scratching their heads. Then they ask the agent "Why would the builder put the Master Bedroom on the main floor, and the children's bedrooms so far away?" I'm not sure what most agents answer, but my answer is often "a Master on the Main can improve the quality and longevity of your marriage." The expression on my face says it better than the words coming out of my mouth. :)
On rare occassions I run into houses where the design neglected to place appropriate "buffers" between the Master Bedroom and a child's bedroom. I have seen this in both inexpensive and expensive homes. Even for me, someone who is pretty much not afraid to tell my clients anything and everything they may need to know before buying a house, it is difficult for me at times to point this out. Never, does the client notice it during the showing. Sometimes I don't know the people very well at this point in our client/agent relationship. But I must point out the home's "weakness" even if they have no children.
Frankly, it is when people are going to be having children, or have a little baby, that they do not notice this flaw in the floor plan. The ONLY buyers I have seen notice this "weakness" in a home, are the ones who plan to have a room mate vs a child in that bedroom. Young single people with a room mate notice this immediately, and moreso than couples with children who are buying homes. Not sure why that is :)
The floor plan below would not work as well as it does, if the bathtub were in that closet area butting up directly against the bedroom 3 wall. For most children, even hearing the parent taking a "naked bath" while doing their homework in their bedroom, is a bit "disturbing". Again, most home builders' architects absolutely consider these issues when designing homes, so that we only have to notice and raise these embarrassing home weaknesses on very few occasions.
Below is a very common floorplan that works very well when bedrooms 3 and 4 are used for the children, and bedroom 2 is used as an "office" for the parents.
BUT, once in a while my clients start talking about using the smallest room, bedroom 3, as the office...
...and that is when, even though it is difficult for me, I must with a red face explain that in this case...size is not likely as important as position.
Many agents will not notice, or they will leave that for the parents to "figure out" after they buy the house, because they are reluctant to talk about Sex and Real Estate. But the reality is that those parents may not have bought that house, if they knew that one of the children would end up in the 10' X 10' bedroom.
Sex and Real Estate...don't overlook this important factor when choosing a home to buy. Agents, if you have NEVER in your real estate career had to raise this uncomfortable topic with your Buyer Clients...it's time to ask yourself why not.
Jan. 30, 2010 - King County 2009 Median Home Prices
Median Home Prices in King County vary. Also there is a huge variance between a newer or remodeled home, and an original condition 1960's home.
Below I am showing the median for all homes, and then the median for those that have "granite" in the marketing remarks. A majority or newer and remodeled homes have granite, and most times the agent notes granite as a feature of the home in the remarks section. So I'm hoping this sorts values for you a bit and gives you a range of value.
Median price means half sold for less and half for more than the numbers shown (approx) to calculate the "median" price. The final number is the number of homes sold and the "ALL" homes includes those with granite counters. This will also give you a rough idea of what % of the total homes sold were newer or remodeled.
Redmond Home Prices - Median Home Price - Sold 2009 -:
With granite counters - $580,000 - 294 sold
All Redmond Home Prices $505,000 - 779 sold
Bellevue Home Prices - Median Home Price - Sold 2009 -:
With granite counters - $667.500 - 236 sold
All Bellevue Home Prices $550,000 - 843 sold
Kirkland Home Prices - Median Home Price - Sold 2009 -:
With granite counters - $580,000 - 191 sold
All Kirkland Home Prices $479,000 - 633 sold
Queen Anne Home Prices - Median Home Price - Sold 2009 -:
With granite counters - $610,000 - 58 sold
All Queen Anne Home Prices $615,000 - 255 sold
Green Lake Home Prices - Median Home Price - Sold 2009 -:
With granite counters - $360,000 - 131 sold
All Green Lake Home Prices $395,000 - 322 sold
I will revisit this as we are obviously picking up the difference between townhomes on the Eastside vs. Townhomes in Seattle. The price with granite is higher on the Eastside, as I would expect. In Seattle the reverse is happening because many of the newer "single family homes" are newer townhomes vs Eastside where townhomes are condos and not single family homes, for the most part.
Adding this entry to my "Blogroll" category so that I can visit them more regularly and easily.
The blue ones are sites I already know and many are ones I use frequently. The red ones are ones I already know and would like to visit more often. The others I am not as familiar with and would like to check out and color code at a later date if I have interest in them.
Unlike the Time Magazine Article which describes the sites, the below links are links directly TO the sites, so if you want to know ABOUT them, click the link above. If you want to go TO them, click the links below.
Redfin.com Home Search for Seattle is still the #1 choice for most of my clients when looking at property in the mls for both Seattle and The Eastside cities of Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond.
I would like to remind people who are searching for homes on the internet in King County that Redfin.com has an mls direct feed and all of the homes listed in the mls. Some of the other Top 20 sites that rank higer than Redfin, do not have an mls feed in the Seattle Area. Realtor.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com, all useful sites for various purposes. But if you are looking for all property currently on market, Redfin.com is the best search tool, IMO, and my clients agree.
Jan. 14, 2010 - What you need to now about the Real Estate Market
The Real Estate Market in King County is running at 2005 levels. Whether you are thinking about buying a home or selling a home, this is important for you to know.
If you want to sell your house for more than you paid for it, you likely had to have purchased it before 2005.
If you are a home buyer and want to know if someone's asking price is realistic, knowing when they bought the house, vs what they owe on it, is also important. Someone may have refinanced after they purchased their home. What is owed on it is not as relevant as what they paid for it and when they bought it.
If you are a seller, you likely want to get on market before the home buyer credit expires at the end of April. If you are a buyer who is eligible for that credit, you likely want to do the same.
If you are not eligible for the credit, you may want to wait until a few months after the credit expires, to see if home prices recede as a result.
Looking at the graph below, it is unlikely that prices will go up into LATE 2006 levels or down into EARLY 2004 levels. So that graph is likely the big picture for the foreseeable future.
Below is a graph of where I do NOT think they are going, which is into 2004 price ranges. Earlier today I wrote a post describing my hopes and fears for King County Home Prices. For the most part I expect them to go up and down 5% from where they were in June 2009. I am restating that as a month vs a dollar amount, so that we can apply the valuations to various neighboring cities like Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland to name a few.
While I posted the graph below on Rain City Guide, I wanted to keep a copy for myself for future reference. Expect the market to stay in this high (2007) to low (2004) range for years to come.
(Required Disclosure - Stats are not compiled, verified or posted by The Northwest Multiple Listing Service)
Jan. 4, 2010 - Seattle Home Prices 2009 - Townhomes
Townhome Prices in Seattle - 2009:
98103 - 168 sold - Medians: Price $340,000 - sf 1,460
34 currently for sale in 98103 with a median asking price of $349,450 - sf 1,505
98115 - 33 sold - Medians: Price $399,000 - sf 1,450
7 currently for sale in 98115 with a median asking price of $429,900- sf 1,410
98117 - 40 sold - Medians: Price $332,500 - sf 1,400
12 currently for sale in 98117 with a median asking price of $341,975 - sf 1,310
98105 - 53 sold - Medians: Price $350,000 - sf 1,245
9 currently for sale in 98105 with a median asking price of $455,000 - 1,520 sf
98107 - 92 sold - Medians: Price $371,550 - sf 1,484
12 currently for sale in 98107 with median asking price of $394,500 - 1,447 sf
Townhome considerations:
Busy Road? Walk to shops? Is the 3rd bedroom really a bedroom? Do you access your front door from an alley? Are the closets big enough? Do all three bedrooms have easy access to a bathroom with a tub or shower? Do you feel like you are taking your driver's license test when trying to get in and out of your garage?
I'm not going to do a 10 year graph of townhome prices because they are a relatively new thing in Seattle and as you can see from the info above, supply and demand is a factor. High inventory creates lower prices. Low inventory creates higher prices.
(Required Disclosure - Stats are not compiled, verified or posted by The Northwest Multiple Listing Service)
Jan. 4, 2010 - Ravenna Bryant - Seattle Home Prices
Home Prices in Seattle 98115 for the past decade are largely different from the pattern of 98103 and 98117. If you go back to the zip code map that I posted first in this series of home price and volume tracxking posts, it may offer some rationale for the huge variance.
The neighborhoods in 98115 start at Green Lake with Ravenna Roosevelt and Maple Leaf neighborhoods and extends to Lake Washington and pricier neighborhoods like Sand Point and View Ridge. In between you have Bryant, Wedgwood...we'll throw in Hawthorne Hills for good measure. Consequently the variance in prices in this zip code is beyond "normal".
To understand the stats for 98115, you need to apply the changes in mortgage financing over the decade from 2000 through 2009. More on that after we look at the actual numbers.
Volume dropped off significantly and continuously from the 1st half of 2006 through the first half of 2009. Largely different from any other market I have researched.
Median Prices did not follow the same pattern.
What you are seeing here more than shift in prices is the market shifting from high end homes to lower priced housing in the same zip code.
If you are planning to buy or sell in 98115 you will need to crunch the numbers very carefully beyond what you are seeing here. There are still many sellers in the high end who will hope to come back on market at peak prices.
While median prices in many areas have stablilized, looking at 98115 as "a market" suggests that this area may continue to fall another 5% to 10% depending on the properties in the mix. The higher priced side of this zip code likely has more downward adjustment through 2010 and even 2011. My best guess is there is a lot of "Shadow Inventory" in this particular mix. People who did not have to sell and are waiting for a better time to sell.
Back to what you need to know about financing. When it comes to homes priced at $425,000 and under, the financing of today is largely the same as it was in 2000 through the first half of 2003. The huge boost in prices in this zip code from 2003 through the first half of 2007 was fueled by loose lending standards. That is pretty much true in all of the Seattle Area, but moreso in areas that have high end properties than those with low median prices.
The volume boost in the 2nd half of 2009 was largely fueled by the $8,000 first time home buyer credit which did not help high end neighborhoods at all. The shift away for jumbo loan financing has not yet played out in this zip code, so if you are buying on the East side of this Zip Code, be sure to run your stats on homes from $200,000 under the price at which you are buying (or selling) and do not rely on the stats as a whole as your guide. Do not look at your neighborhood only, expand your stats to other areas and competition neighborhoods in that price range. Being myopic is not the way to go in 98115. You need to apply common sense vs. "traditional" methods when evaluating Ravenna vs. View Ridge.
(Required Disclosure - Stats are not compiled, verified or posted by The Northwest Multiple Listing Service)
Green Lake Home Prices - for these stats I am using zip code 98103 which includes Green Lake, Fremont, Wallingford, Lake Union, Greenwood and parts of Phinney Ridge.
For accurate reference compare the zip code map from my first post in this series to the official City map of the Green Lake neighborhood below. Often, agents will tag homes as "Green Lake" that border the lake by x number of streets, but that mls reference of "community" does not always fit the street borders of the actual neighborhood. The stats in this post include all of Green Lake and the other neighborhoods noted in the first paragraph, in whole or in part.
Results are slightly different than 98117 in that the square footage of the homes did not remain a constant through the decade from 2000 to 2009. I will note that again when we get to prices, but let's look at volume of homes sold first.
The trend as to volume in 98103 was considerably different than 98117. It will be harder to sustain volume of sales in this zip code, given the second half of 2009 was not only up, it was up to 2000 - 2001 levels, unlike 98117 which was short 40 or more units sold than 2000-2001 levels. The reason is the same as the home price variance, so let's pull that graph in first.
Prices are running in the very early 2005 range and even late 2004 levels. However the difference is in the median square footage of homes sold. Unlike Ballard with less than 10% of recent sales being newer townhomes, 33% of all sales of single family homes in 98103 were townhomes.
There was virtually no difference in square footage of a home sold in 98117 in 2009 vs. 2000. But in Green Lake and the rest of 98103, the median square footage dropped from 1,810 to 1,600 as a result of the number of townhomes built and sold during that time.
That would put the final price of $411,000 showing in the price graph up at $464,000, adjusting back to median square footage of a home in 2000. But then you would have to adjust going back to 2003 when the number of townhomes in the mix started growing at a fast pace.
More importantly we have to watch the mix of townhomes sold as we move forward. 29 of the current 89 properties for sale in 98103 are townhomes.
(Required Disclosure -Stats are not compiled, verified or posted by The Northwest Multiple Listing Service
ARDELL
DellaLoggia
On Seattle Real Estate including Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond, Green Lake and most areas around Lake Washington North of Downtown Seattle.
Phone: 206-910-1000 - Mailto:Ardell@RainCityGuide.com
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