Get Real Tacoma

Well priced Stadium / North Slope condos are moving...

Ah Stadium. Ah North Slope. So lovely. So fancy, and so far this year…. so busy with closed condos.  The 98403 has seen 22 closed condos sold so far this year, (5 of those in the past 3 weeks) ranging in price from $105,000 for a 471 square foot studio to $946,000 for a 2 bedroom 2.5 bath at 302 N Stadium Way.

The average number of days on market were brutal, at 391 days, selling for an average of 95% of their listed price at the time of sale.  There are currently 5 pending condo sales.

Here’s what’s selling…

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Everyone's gossiping about Downtown Tacoma Condos These Days

Everywhere I go these days, people are asking about the Downtown Tacoma real estate market. “It seems like it’s picking up! Is it picking up?”  The answer is, it depends on the price range and it depends on where we’re talking about.  Over the next couple days I’m going to talk Tacoma (as usual) starting with Downtown Tacoma Condos in 98402.

Right now there are 11 pending condos, half of those are at 505 Broadway, which has been rewarded for its aggressive price reductions with lots of closed sales. It would be great to see The Roberson and The Esplanade (once it’s done being forclosed on and relists as bank owned foreclosures or whatever they decide to do) follow 505 Broadway’s lead and start pricing to sell.

So far this year there are 21 closed condo sales. The median sale price of a condo in downtown Tacoma is $308,415 for 1,214 square feet with a low price of $131,000 for a studio at Cliff Street Lofts and a high of $742,650 for 1,919 square foot palace at 505 Broadway.  Here’s the breakdown:

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$169,950 Townhouse 3 Beds 3 Baths

These days, it seems the majority of my time looking at homes with buyers is focussed on homes that are priced under 200k.  

There are a lot of reasons for this, most of them having to do with how much buyers want to be paying for their mortgage each month.  

A lot of my clients are buying their first or second house and would prefer that their monthly payment not exceed $1,500.

The great silver lining of the whole housing kurfuffle is that there are finally some really great homes under $200,000 in Tacoma.  There are even some great homes under $150,000.  Not suprisingly, this has become the most popular price range, and the good houses in this group tend to sell more quickly than homes in other price ranges.  Below you’ll find the stats on the under 200k price range in Tacoma, as well as some examples of what you get for the money!

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The News Tribune did an excellent article today about the 2009 Property Tax Assessments that came out on Friday in Pierce County.

I thought this article was very well researched and (however you feel about property taxes) gives good insight into what they’re thinking over at the Assessor Treasurers Office.

Here is a link to the cities (including Tacoma!) that actually saw DECREASES in property taxes this year.

On average, property tax bills went down for Tacomans by -.87%. We were joined by UP (-1.3%), Fife (11.43%), Puyallup (3.66%), Fircrest (1.44%), and Lakewood (1.34%). Certainly the pecentage of property tax we’re paying does not reflect the loss of value in these same areas, which is the focus of much of the News Tribune’s Article.

For more Tacoma Real Estate Information visit Get Real Tacoma.

I was thinking about the story the News Tribune did on the pending sales increasing in Pierce County.  After reading the story, I felt like there was still more information needed to fill in the cracks.  So I got off my lazy bum and ran the numbers.  These are the two main questions I had:

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The News Tribune is reporting that Pending Sales in Pierce County have increased by 26%.  This is great news for sellers- pending sales take competing properties off the market.  If I was a buyer, I wouldn’t be too freaked out, there are still 6,183 properties to choose from- but that number is declining as well. People who don’t have to sell are removing their houses from the market.   

The bottom line is fewer houses on the market + more pending sales = Stabilizing Home Prices.

I’m running out of clever preambles, so let’s kick off part 3 of Tacoma Sales Stastics 2008.  For this round, we’re looking at 98403, for the purposes of this post, we’re going to call this Stadium, even though it covers North Slope and some Old Town, because calling it StadiOldSlope is a compromise no one is interested in making. 

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For the second installment in the neighborhood sales statistics, we will visit 98405.  Loosely translated here as “Hilltop” this includes areas that many consider downtown, as well as the McCarver Neighborhood.   I can say hands down that this is the neighborhood that the majority of my first time home buyers are asking about these days. It’s affordable, convenient, and cool.

Downtown gets all the attention, but 98405 has been a real workout this year, churning out lots of affordable sales.

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