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Note: This article was published on October 11th. We updated it today with a list of six more condo blogs (see the bottom of the article).
First, Seattle area apartments converted to condominiums. In 2006 alone, almost 6,000 apartment units in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties converted to condominiums. That's close to three times the apartment construction activity that year.
Then many of those conversions converted back to apartments. The graph shows the net result each year, adding up the apartments that converted to condominiums, then deducting the conversions that converted back to apartments. More than 2,500 units converted back to apartments since the beginning of 2007.
Next, condominium developments changed course during construction and converted to apartments. And now, even completed condominium projects convert to apartments. But not all of them.
Confusing? Well, here's one way to keep on top of the daily changes in the condominium market.
Follow some of the condominium blogs. That's easier said than done, unless you don't mind spending a lot of time getting a tan in front of your computer screen. There are millions of blogs out there. If you ask Google to find "Seattle Bellevue condominium blog" it comes back with about 618,000 links. Good luck sifting through that.
Well, we've done some of the sifting for you. Here are three local blogs that stay up to date are are definitely worth checking out on a regular basis. There are others, but this is a start.
When we looked Wendy's site today. She had updated it nine times since the beginning of September. Her Seattle Condo Review include information, but also her views on trends. Her most recent post was on October 8th with comments about eleven eleven East Pike's "bulk pricing" offering. She's not in favor of that strategy, commenting:
"Personally, I'm not sure the bulk marketing tactic is worth the complexity. In my opinion, they should just price it well to begin with or sell them all in an auction -- especially since the auction prices have been creeping up. They're not gonna make oodles of profit but even recent auctions have been pushing up price per square foot as more people realize the economic recovery is underway and the rambling talk of another Great Depression is now limited to militias and other other fringe groups."
"Also, the bulk pricing seems to steal the show from more tangible Eleven Eleven selling points like the pretty good location, great architecture, and nice pricing. Cool design elements include movable puzzle walls and multi-purpose storage units."
"Maybe it's just me but I think the whole bulk pricing bands concept is more trouble than it's worth and might even cause some buyers to focus on other places which keep it simple."
There are at least two blogs called "Seattle Condo blog." This one's with is seattlecondosandlofts.com. more about the other one shortly.
As of this morning, this blog has posted seven updates since the beginning of September, with the most recent post made on October 8th.
The focus of The Seattle Condo Blog is information. It includes a monthly condo market update. They should be coming out with a September update any day now. Their August update was posted September 7th, and they commented, in part:
"The Seattle median condo price rose modestly to $280,274 last month, up 3.8% over July. Compared to last August, it reflected a 9.6% dip."
"Throughout most of 2009, the year-over-year median price has been under 2008 levels, however, the gap has been steadily narrowing. Fortunately, median prices have essentially plateaued this year and we haven’t seen the wide swings as we did last year."
This is the other blog that goes by the name of Seattle Condo Blog. It's website address is seattlecondoblog.com. It has posted five updates since the beginning of September, with the most recent post today.
The Seattle Condo Blog also mixes market information and opinion. About a week ago the blog covered the Seattle Gallery condo auction results, posting detailed information the same night. Now that's dedication. Some of that blog's comments included:
"The Gallery Auction was held tonight at the Hyatt hotel in Seattle. I attended with a buyer who was interested in a unit at this condominium. There was a full room of people, it looked as though there was close to 350 seats and they were all filled. Some of the bidding seemed to be emotional and the following table shows the results of the auction. All the units sold and there were multiple bidders on all of the units. Four units were added just prior to the auction."
There are other condo blogs covering the local market that are worth following. Tell us what blogs you like, or don't like, and why. Just fill in our comment form.
Here are some more condominium blogs suggested by our readers:
