Seattle Ranked in Top Five Rebound Cities
Written for the Realogics Sotheby’s Int. Realty blog
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Earlier this week, real-estate guru Trulia released new data on the strength of the Seattle housing market. The news was overwhelmingly good for those with homes to sell as well as rent. Seattle earned a top spot in the booming category, along with San Francisco, Denver, San Jose, and Salt Lake City.
What made the Seattle market so strong? It had both price gains and healthy fundamentals, meaning strong job growth, low vacancy rates, and a low foreclosure inventory. The rising asking prices and low risk of future foreclosures didn’t hurt, either.
Seattle has a leg up on other housing markets experiencing dramatic price gains.
“In many local markets today, dramatic price gains can mask serious red flags,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s Chief Economist. “Strong job growth, low vacancy rate, and low foreclosure inventory–not huge price gains–are signs of a healthy housing market. Without strong underlying market fundamentals, price rebounds might be here today, but gone tomorrow.
Slowing Rent Gains:
Although Seattle has a very healthy housing market, the new data from Trulia showed that its rent gains have slowed, mirroring a national trend.
For Seattle specifically, in January 2013 the % change of rents (year-over-year) was 6.4%, while in July 2012 that number was 10.8%. This means a percentage point difference of -4.4%.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, said Kolko.
“Rent gains are slowing down because of more supply, not less demand,” Kolko explained. “Many of the multi-unit buildings that have been under construction over the past two years are now coming onto the market.”
With a plethora of new construction and a healthy housing market, Seattle homeowners are in a great spot to leverage the housing market growth in the coming year. With a little luck and some help from a recovering economy, 2013 can be a far better year than 2012 ever was.