With so much happening in the Bellevue condo and housing market, we caught up with real estate expert, Jason Foss of Real Residential, to learn more. Specializing in the acquisition, management and representation of distinctive urban properties, Foss has over 16 years of experience. We take a deeper look into how sales are faring at the three new condo projects, Mari, GIS Plaza, and Avenue Bellevue, as well as how these construction projects are affecting resale inventory, and top strategies for sellers to consider when putting their home on the market.
With several condo projects for sale and in close proximity for move-in for GIS, Avenue Bellevue, Mari, how are sales faring?
We are seeing continued sales across all projects but certainly at a slower pace than expected or hoped for earlier in the year, largely due to the impact of higher interest rates. Based on past experience, I do expect increased sales activity once projects like Avenue and Mari are complete and move-in ready.
However, based on past experience, I would also expect that there is likely to be some buyer fallout at closing from people who bought early when interest rates were lower, and either can’t or won’t close now that rates are substantially higher. So, we will have to see where those two trends net out through next spring.
With the various new construction projects coming to market, how has this impacted the resale inventory in the market?
It is very difficult to estimate the impact of new construction sales on resales. First of all, many new construction sales occur off market and information about them won’t be publicly available until they close (and even then we won’t know specifically when those sales occurred over the course of the projects’ presale period which can last years in some cases).
Second, new construction condo projects not only rob some demand from resales, but also create new demand from buyers who would never have bought an existing resale due to size, design, views or any number of other aspects of those properties.
So, while new construction projects take a slice of the pie away from resales, they also increase the overall size of the pie. I will say that given the very high prices and uber luxury nature of the newer projects in Bellevue, such as Avenue (and to a lesser degree Mari), I actually think that there is less overlap between the buyers in those projects and existing resales in projects like Washington Square and Bellevue Towers, than you might expect.
As a potential seller in this market, what are the top strategies that a seller should take? (Ex: Renovations, timing, incentives, etc.)
This advice probably holds true in any market, but especially right now the two most important strategies are thorough preparation of the home for market and realistic pricing. With interest rates at recent historical highs, buyers are counting every dollar.
As a result, move-in ready homes with no deferred maintenance or major renovations needed, plus home pricing that doesn’t reach beyond current market trends, are crucial to success. Also, it is critical to keep in mind that we have a relatively short window for sales during the fall, so any pricing or preparation missteps will be hard to recover from during the slower holiday sales season of November and December.
