Recent Stories with tag market

"much can be said" courtesy of our Flickr pool's +Russ

How is the Seattle real estate market like an ice cream cone? It's frozen and it either is currently "clearly a double-dipper" or will be. (Once again, Portland gets there first.)

Hell may have frozen over as well as Seattle; the Seattle Bubble says this could be a good time to buy a home. Granted, they're talking about prepared buyers taking advantage of that below-market deal they've found. Anecdotally, this is echoed by Redfin's report on the Seattle area market, which notes that a few first-time home buyers are making their move. 

Otherwise, of the Seattle area homes pulled off the market in November, a full 60 percent were delisted by owners who plan to wait out the winter. Only 40 percent were sales. Of the city of Seattle 1,700-house November inventory (down 14 percent from October), 344 sold, while the time it took to close on a sale continued to lengthen thanks to difficulties finalizing financing.

Seattle condo sales remain way back in the deep freeze section, down a full 50 percent year over year. 137 sold, but 200 were delisted, to wait for spring. The Bubble warned that the home buying credit program was simply pulling demand from the future, and that once it ended, we'd see the frozen wasteland currently before us. But it is also true that many first-time buyers went the condo route, and now sit underwater, unable even to think of taking a short sale's loss; the average condo sale price per square foot is down just 1.2 percent from last November.

Meanwhile, bottom-callers have these home-price declines to stare at. (Here's the Bubble's latest Case-Schiller graphs.) It's not just Seattle, of course--Seattlepi.com reports that Seattle and ten other metro areas are seeing a "triple-dip," and analysts predict anywhere from another six to fifteen percent slide over 2011. (Nor is the problem limited to residential real estate--the Wall Street Journal reports that Beacon Capital Parters, owners of the Columbia Tower Center, are selling their best-performing asset to raise capital to meet debt obligations.)... (more)

Do-gooder burrito-makers Chipotle Mexican Grill have been holding Farmer Appreciation Days for three years now. On the day in question, Chipotle feeds farmers and market volunteers free, piping-hot burritos as a way of saying thanks for the effort.

But knowing you have to bring enough to share, they're also giving the first 100 market customers canvas shopping bags and "burrito bucks" (which will get you a free entrée at Chipotle).

This Saturday, October 16, they're celebrating Farmer Appreciation Day at the U-District Farmers Market. Starting at noon, the first 100 people to visit their green tent (SE entrance, across the street from Jack in the Box) get the bags and bucks.

But wait, there's more!... (more)

"Buyers know that now is the time to get the big home with a view at a price that is hundreds of thousands less than just a couple of years ago, and at an incredibly low interest rate," says West Seattle Redfin agent Dan Mullins. He wasn't talking about condo auctions specifically, but he captures the appeal succinctly.

For real estate market watchers, the auction is also a useful barometer. Over the weekend, 32 condos in the luxury condominium tower Olive 8 hit the auction block, and the results support those dismal few prognosticators who suspected, back in the boom days, that the market was overvalued by some 30 percent.

Keep in mind, while perusing the Olive 8 sales, that this is what a luxury downtown condo goes for. Wendy Leung at Seattle Condo Review gives you a great by-the-numbers breakdown (with more granularity than you'll find in the Seattle Times Olive 8 auction story):

The homes were sold for an average of 66% of the previous listing price, which is very close to the average of the last few auctions (Queen Anne High School, Lumen, Brix, Gallery, and 5th and Madison) since 2009 at 67%.

Leung goes on to separate out high and low bids by condo size, and to work out their price per square foot. While the average discount from list price was 34 percent, a larger two-bedroom went for only 54 percent of list. The units being sold ranged between the 18th and 26th floors in the 39-story tower--the more expensive units above, over 100 unsold, have "price tags from $500,000 to $6.9 million," says the Seattle Times, who also make room for a cheery broker's quote:... (more)

Peaches. 'Tis the season.

Earlier this week, I was thrilled to see that Metropolitan Market had brix (basically, a way to sneak inside the fruit to measure its sugar content and predict its sweetness) ratings for its Frog Hollow Farms and Pence Orchards peaches.

The Frog Hollow peaches, brought in from California, are beloved and generally fantastic, but the Pence peaches, from the Yakima Valley, were a little less expensive, and had higher brix ratings. (Staff at Metropolitan Market told me that the Frog Hollows had come in too early.) I went local!

My mission was sorbet-making, so I used a recipe from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, which has been reliable for me in the past. The finished product was good, but lacked the punch I expected from the ripe peaches. Speaking later with sweets superstar Autumn Martin, we lamented that sometimes peaches and other stone fruits are best eaten out of hand, as the flavor impact gets lost in many, if not most, cooking preparations.

I went back to Metropolitan Market yesterday and was surprised to see the brix signs gone. I then walked across the street to the Queen Anne Farmers Market, found some perfectly good "seconds" under a vendor's table, and took them home to eat over my sink. They dripped with sweet goodness, just the way fresh, juicy peaches are meant to be.

It's been a great week for fun in Seattle. Wednesday's Hercules and Love Affair is the best time I've had at Neumos in ages and Thursday night's Holy Ghost!/Chromeo bill at the Showbox kept the good times rolling, with a crowd so raucous there was worry that the headliners' gear would topple over from the all the bouncing. Sure, the jackass quotient was high, but not even being crushed in a mob of folks unable to handle their booze and pills well could put a damper on my spirit.

I was in the minority and most excited about seeing openers Holy Ghost!. They've been around for years as DJs and remixers for the likes of MGMT, Cut Copy, Moby, and LCD Soundsystem, but they've only this year put out their first EP, Static on the Wire, in anticipation of their debut full-length due later this year. It gives them a larger spotlight than they would have if they were arriving as a totally new act.

As it was, you could tell they're still new to this. As DJs, Holy Ghost! have a Brooklyn swagger, fully aware that their "nu disco" selections are, as the kids would say, "the shit." Joined by a keyboardist and guitarist in their live edition, they don't have anywhere near the same presence, seemingly unsure of how best to position themselves onstage.

Part of that might have been due to the technical issues they were dealing with (gear getting unplugged, a finicky mic), but overall it was immediately apparent that this is largely uncharted territory for the crew, having only made their live debut in May. They played Static on the Wire, a few older tunes, and that was that.

I don't mean to sound overly critical here, as I (and others) danced and enjoyed their set thoroughly ("I Will Come Back" just kills every time I hear it), but at this point I'd rather see Holy Ghost! DJ than live. However, I'll be right up front next time as well--these guys have too much talent (and too many more seasoned friends to guide them) to think their live sets won't improve at a quick clip.

In contrast, Chromeo closed things out with swagger to spare. The tour veterans had the crowd in their hands from the moment they hit the stage. Things were already a bit on the sweaty side, but things got wild with the opening strains of "Tenderoni," with the crowd's bouncing causing everything on the stage to sway precariously. Things stayed just as hectic for the rest of the set, forcing my old bones back to the still-dancing 21+ area.

Only a few trickled away before they finished with their cover of The Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why." Chromeo was in fine form, as was Seattle, with Chromeo tweeting "Livest show of the whole tour so far. You win, Seattle." Nice work, everybody.

Here's your video reminder: Swedish pop group The Sounds play Tuesday night at the Showbox. I really don't think there's anything that needs to be added. Swedish. Pop. Group. Period.