Seattle Is the Nation's Hottest Housing Market… Still

Can you count to 15?

That's how many months the City of Seattle has worn the increasingly heavy crown of hottest U.S. housing market. The median home in Seattle now costs more than $718,000, a 16.2 percent rise over the last 12 months according to Zillow. The Seattle-based real estate company does predict the city's massive gains to simmer down to just 5.7 percent over the next 12 months.

Still, 15 months is an impressive streak. And that got us thinking—which streaks have we beat as the nation's fastest-growing residential market in the country, behind first- and second-place losers Las Vegas and San Francisco?

Lance Armstrong recorded seven straight Tour de France victories from 1999 to 2005. I forget what happened after that.

Retired NBA center Chris Dudley once missed 13 straight free throws in a row, one of which included an air ball.

Pro surfer and Baywatch alum Kelly Slater won 11 world surfing championships, including five in a row from 1994 to 1998.

Okay, maybe we're not quite at legendary status yet, but hey, give it time.

The Seattle-based epicenter of explosive home prices has for some time been distributing its affluent ash across the region, covering the greater Puget Sound landscape with extravagant home prices and happy homeowners—and despondent home buyers. But that's life in the Pacific Northwest right now.

Even while Amazon looks to expand its lush landscape and make traffic stand still elsewhere, plenty more workers will be testing our rich soil in the coming months and maybe years, though they'll be paying a hefty price for a spot in our Emerald garden.

Where might one find their dream home in the foggy future?

MBAKS member Quadrant Homes, for one, is looking to build 63 single-family residences near Laurelhurst on the 17.8 acres currently housing the Talaris Conference Center. If all goes according to Quadrant's plan, the homes would be hot property, with individual lots averaging 5,500 square feet upon which homeowners could enjoy high-end residential living and easy access to everything.

While we wait, we can keep counting months and finding new records to compare to…

The Building Industry Association of Washington has received a 2018 City Champion Award in the Partners for Progress category from the Association of Washington Cities (AWC).

The award was given to BIAW and other partners, including MBAKS and several of its members, for finding common ground to help pass Hirst and Foster “fix” legislation and for efforts to ensure city challenges were expressed throughout the process.

“This award recognizes the unique partnerships created to address the complex water resource issues that faced our state these past few years,” the AWC announced.

BIAW President Kevin Russell says of the award, “We are honored to be an AWC award recipient along with all of the other partners. BIAW is pleased that we were able to find common ground and a mutually agreed to fix for the Hirst and Foster decisions.” 

“The importance of the Hirst Fix cannot be overstated,” adds MBAKS Interim Director of Government Affairs Mike Pattison. “Without the hard work of so many dedicated partners, entire family savings and hopes would have been wiped out.”

Read the full press release

Spoiler: It's the top 10 green neighborhoods list. Georgetown is number eight.

Apologies for the clickbaity title. You should know that we would never make you click through twenty pages only to find a mediocre surprise at the end of the journey.

Back on topic, this is actually pretty cool for Georgetown, the area formerly known for satisfactorily dingy bars, burgers, and a weird smell probably produced by a mixture of said beer and burgers with a hint of airline fuel.

Redfin found that 56 percent of Georgetown homes were considered green, meaning they had one or more green features.

The study, conducted by Redfin data scientists, analyzed real estate listings for homes sold between January 2017 and April 2018 in more than 80 metro areas. The study also found that homes with the aforementioned one or more green features sold at significantly higher rates than those boring old techless homes—green had a median price of $569,000, compared to $522,000 for all other homes. That's…like a $47,000 difference. Right? Yes.

Numbers one and two on the list were, surprisingly, in Cleveland—the Malvern and Fenway neighborhoods in the upscale Shaker Heights neighborhood known for its sustainability efforts, among other things.

Neighborhoods in Philly, Orange County (CA), and the hipster haven Red Hook area of Brooklyn rounded out the list.

What does this mean for Georgetown? Nothing much more than a brag piece. It does, however, bring to light the fact that our builders and residents are trying. And that means something. Built Green, which certifies green homes in King and Snohomish counties and advocates for sustainability, can likely take some credit for Georgetown's number eight spot; last year, the partner program of MBAKS certified more than 800 new homes, which isn't easy to accomplish. Homes must adhere to vigorous checklists to be considered Built Green.

Says Built Green Program Manager Leah Missik, "Building green is about more than the gadgets that go into a home. (Programs like) Built Green work hard to promote healthy, sustainable communities in a variety of ways." Missik and Built Green are proud to lead by example both locally and at a national level. In fact, Missik says, "Each individual (Built Green) home is more water and energy efficient, healthier, and more comfortable, but our checklist also promotes walkability, access to transit, and community resources."

Missik drives home the importance of all-encompassing, sustainable communities like Georgetown and those others on the list, saying, "Homes are, after all, part of a community through the people who live in them!"

It's no secret that in progressive cities like Seattle and its surrounding areas that green is quickly becoming the new gold. People pay more for healthier, more sustainable homes and builders know this. Money has always talked, but when you attend a Built Green event, you quickly realize the people involved in green building also walk the walk. It's about more than higher home prices, which are already doing just fine in our area. It's about building a healthier future for our kids, and their kids, and so on.

Congratulations on being green, Georgetown. We'd buy you a beer, but you probably already have that covered.