This January we attended Mathew Gardner’s presentation on Seattle’s real estate market. Mathew, of Gardner Johnson, did an excellent job evaluating all market conditions. He performed and explained an in-depth analysis including variables like job growth, population increase, mortgage rates, cost of living and traffic.
At a time when some markets (e.g. California’s) were trending downward and depreciating, the Seattle market seemed like it was also starting to slow. In November and December of 06′, it appeared as though buyers and sellers were wary of what would happen to the Seattle market.
Garner forcasted that the slow would be brief. In fact, he went on to explain how and why the Seattle real estate market would be the best market in the country with the highest appreciation over the next 10 years. He predicted, as other analysts have, that the Seattle market would see an average of 60% appreciation in a 10-year span. He proceeded to explain that urban condos and close-to-job-center homes would see the highest appreciation rates, mainly due to increasing traffic problems.
Seattle is now considered one of the wealthiest cities in the country. Companies like Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, Google and T-Mobile keep expanding and bringing more employees to the area. With the drastic job growth in the area, Seattle transportation is finding it difficult to keep up with the population. Thus, the demand for more urban housing with less time spent commuting.
The gist of the presentation, in terms of condos, is this… The condo boom is here to stay. Seattle’s economy is sufficiently diverse that it should be able to sustain its growth for years to come.
