The 10 Best Neighborhoods in Seattle?

Seattle Met has recently published what they think are the 10 best neighborhoods in Seattle with regards to the city's crazy housing market.
What surprised me is how few neighborhoods north of downtown were listed. No Wallingford, or Green Lake, View Ridge or Wedgwood. Yay for my hood of Greenwood though! I'd have to agree that it is one of the hottest up and comers right now. A half dozen or more new restaurants popping up in a 2 block radius in just a couple of months. I even have clients that have Greenwood as their first choice to live now! It used to be all of those that couldn't quite afford Ballard or Phinney, but now I've had multiple clients tell me Greenwood is where they want to be with the right mix of convenience, diversity and community feel.

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Multiple Offers, Bidding Wars, Pre-Inspections - It's NUTS out there!

Seemingly overnight we are back in a very competitive market for Buyers in certain popular neighborhoods throughout the Seattle area.  I saw glimpses of this starting back in very early February, but just within the last 6-8 weeks it has gotten absolutely nuts!  I've been involved in 4 different multiple offer situations within the last 2 weeks, and more than 6 within the last month.  I'm seeing certain homes sell for potentially up to 15-20% over the asking price with 8-16 or more offers and the majority of Buyers are completing pre-inspections to make their offers stronger.  Our listing prices on move-in ready homes in desirable areas are obviously going to start rising as a result of this madness.

It is GREAT for Sellers but exhausting and heartbreaking for Buyers that are struggling to get into a home in our popular close-in neighborhoods.

Hopefully our inventory levels will start to pick up as more and more Sellers realize it IS a good time to sell.  We could use a little more balance right now in our Seattle real estate market that's for sure!

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Seattle Fire Stations for Sale

photo by KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

I've always thought it would be super cool to convert an old fire station into a unique home.

Well, now's your chance!  Seattle has two decommissioned fire stations for sale and a third Art Deco that may be available soon.

Fire Station 37 in West Seattle and Fire Station 38 in Ravenna-Bryant are both currently for sale.  The deadline to submit an offer is April 20th. 

Anyone interested?

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