SEATTLE — You could call it a sign of Seattle's burgeoning economy. That's how longtime Realtor Carmen Gayton sees the for sale signs in nearly every Seattle neighborhood.
"Amazon, eBay, you name it, they're all coming to Seattle," said Gayton, "Which we're happy about but it does cause a little bit of an issue with housing."
Indeed business was brisk at this Open House on a Tuesday afternoon on Seattle's Queen Anne Hill. A little too brisk for Chris Byszeski, a software engineer for Amazon.com.
“The trouble being that you see a list price and that's probably not what it's going for," said Byszeski.
And he's been looking for the last two months.
"I don't know when you see a price you say, 'Yeah, I think I can afford that,'" Byszeski said. "And you go and there's multiple offers and there's already two pre-inspections. And that's even by the first Open House."
And many properties are going for more than list price. In February, a house in North Beacon Hill listed for $475,000, sold for more than $527,000. That same month, a Columbia city home sold for $557,000, some $50,000 more than its list price.
The median price for a home in Seattle rose to a whopping $535,000, nearly 19 percent more than last year!
Still Realtor Mike Curry says there is room for the average homebuyer.
"It's definitely possible but more difficult for sure," Curry conceded.
So if you are the average homebuyer, Realtors advise you to be patient, research the neighborhood you want to live in and get your mortgage pre-approved.
So how much would you have to make to afford Seattle's median home? Find out with this calculator.
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