The monthly Ballard real estate recap

Long time Ballard resident and local Real Estate Broker Sharon Giampietro shares a post on My Ballard every month to keep readers informed about the local real estate market.

Giampietro comes from a long line of realtors and has lived in Ballard for 30 years. She is currently a Broker at Windermere Real Estate in Greenwood.

Check out Giampietro’s recap of how Greater Ballard fared this month below:

In September, many Seattleites returned from vacation and took the plunge into the Real Estate market – the number of newly added residential listings shot up from August’s 196, to 267 in September. Buyers are happy with this increase in offerings and are hoping that the trend continues through the fall, although once the holidays are in full swing, another drop in newly added listings is likely. Buyers who keep looking through the holiday season could be rewarded by finding home prices a bit more negotiable with sellers who want to move before the end of the year.

For buyers, some more news went your way, as prices took a drop in September from an average sale price of $587,000 for both July and August, down to $579,000 in September. Prices had risen about 18 percent in 2014 (up through August) and this this month saw prices fall about 1.5 percent. We saw such a steady price rise this year, that many sellers will nonetheless still be a in a good position to sell.

Despite the price drop, the inventory remains tight at about a month and a half – a normal market inventory is considered to be 4-6 months. Real Estate Brokers are reporting somewhat of a decline in multiple offers and pre-inspections, although they are still in play.

Have we seen the end of big sale price gains for 2014?  For now, yes, but the October and November numbers will round out the picture, and as we have seen, anything can happen. The Seattle Times reported on 9/18/14 that we are now in the top ten “most expensive rental markets’ in the US, with 3 out of 5 apartments costing over $1000. With rental prices rising, and a home price drop, perhaps more people will start to jump out of the rental market and into home ownership.

If you are noticing more new construction in our area- it is not your imagination! The number of new construction residential listings was up to 40 last month, a jump from August’s number of 25. The average sale price of new construction shot up to $733,000 up over August’s sale price of $675,000.  Condo listings were down and their average sale price remained close to last month’s at $302,000.

Greater Ballard is Greenwood, Green Lake, Wallingford and other close by neighborhoods identified as “705” in the NWMLS.  All residential and condo numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand and unless noted do not include new construction. Statistics not compiled or published by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.