🏠 Happy New Year + a look back at 2024

2025 is off to a roaring start, at least for a few of our clients; in the last week, we helped three clients put homes under contract - a condo at Spire, a townhome in Eastlake, and a new home in Kirkland. We also listed a house in Eastlake yesterday, and it has been busy and will likely be pending tomorrow. We know it is still early, but 2025 feels like it will be busier than last year. One reason it might be busier is Amazon returning to work five days a week; on Reddit, someone complained that it took over an hour from Maple Leaf to SLU. Of course, we’re a little surprised it is busy, given mortgage rates are stuck in the 7s and hit a six-month high today. But at least the 30-year fixed is below its lifetime average of 7.75%. (Mortgage rates were 6.72% at the start of 2024 and 6. 2% at the start of 2023.)

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to our annual end-of-year Mary’s Place fundraiser! With your generous donations and our match, we raised $5,000. (It isn’t too late to donate; we’re still happy to match your donations!)

— Matt (and Land, Maggie & Alicia)
P.S. Our first home-buying class of the year is next week

NOTEWORTHY SALES LAST YEAR

This week, we’re sharing the most noteworthy sales of 2024.

• Highest % over asking: Loyal Heights home goes 66% over asking

• Most expensive: Medina waterfront acreage for $39M

• Least expensive: Capitol Hill condo for $150K

Check out the following blog posts for more of the most popular and expensive sales of 2024:

• The most expensive Seattle and Bellevue homes

• The most expensive Seattle and Bellevue condos

• The most popular Seattle condos

• The most popular Bellevue condos

LINKS

• Seattle-area housing market sluggish — and pricey — amid ‘deal season’ (Seattle Times)

• Seattle’s big-deal housing record, and the other stories that flew under the radar (Seattle Times)

• We haven’t had this many people with mortgages over 6% since 2016 (Mike Simonsen on X)

• There’s a small property tax boost for Sound Transit in 2025 (Seattle Times)

• WA’s most expensive home sales in 2024 all have one thing in common (Seattle Times)

• Downtown Seattle tops peer cities for residential construction — for now (PSBJ)

• Fault lines emerge as Seattle Council takes up housing plan (Seattle Times)

• Apple inks Seattle’s biggest lease since 2019, takes over Meta office (Seattle Times)

• Family behind popular kids’ YouTube channel buys $8.4 million mansion in Eastern WA (Seattle Times) - Here’s the house

NEW LISTINGS BY WEEK
Slow start to the year, but that’s no surprise

HOMES GOING PENDING BY WEEK
95 homes go pending last week

HOT NEW LISTINGS
Eye candy

On pause this week as there were barely any new listings last week. But last week’s eye candy winner was the Cle Elum modern chalet.

THAT’S A WRAP
Here are two ways we can help

1. Thinking of buying? We’ve helped hundreds of people find their dream home in the Seattle area. We’d be happy to help you too. Just hit reply.

2. Thinking of selling? Hit reply, we can handle everything from start to finish. And if you’re hoping to sell this year, the time to get going is now!