Waterfront bank-owned homes in Seattle

There have been a good number of new waterfront foreclosures in the Seattle area. From creeks to Lake Washington waterfront, these properties are usually well-priced.
Surprisingly, there are still three bank-owned floating homes for sale. These properties have been on the market for a while, and are not your average houseboats. They're newly-built, high-end, floating homes with quality appliances and building materials. It takes a unique buyer to live in a floating home, but these seem to be very inexpensive compared to the prices we've seen over the past few years:Seattle floating homes
The highest-end home is a waterfront home in Holmes Point. This Lake Washington waterfront home in in the North end of Kirkland and is listed around $3.5 million. Clearly, if it was still owned by a traditional home owner it would be priced higher than this. There are some real deals for waterfront home buyers available, if they're willing to tread in the waters of bank-owned homes.

Bank-Owned Million Dollar Homes in Seattle

We've seen a slight increase in the number of foreclosures and bank-owned homes showing up for sale on the MLS in Seattle. While most of these foreclosures were low-end homes at the beginning, we're starting to see more luxury homes reverting back to the banks and coming on the market.

Kirkland is a perfect example. While there were only a couple dozen average-priced bank-owned homes on the MLS a couple of months ago, there are multiple million-dollar plus foreclosures for sale today (including a beautiful place on Lake Washington waterfront) -- take a look:Kirkland bank-owned homes

In Seattle proper, there are two homes listed around the $2 million mark. We don't expect to see foreclosures in Leschi, but it's a shock to see one in Broadmoor. These are still high-end, quality homes, they just happen to be owned by a bank now.Seattle bank-owned homes

Bellevue and Medina - Waterfront Real Estate Sales for August

Three high-end waterfront homes sold in the month of August on the Eastside of the Greater Seattle metro. Two of these sales were in Medina, and the third was on Lake Sammamish in East Bellevue.

Bellevue Waterfront Homes: The Lake Sammamish home was the least expensive, with a 2/3 acre lot and a small beach house, selling for $1.14 million. The house is under 800 sq ft, so it's likely to be someone's weekend getaway or to be razed and rebuilt. This was an estate sale, and the property sat on the market almost a full year, starting out at a $1.8 million listing price.

Medina Waterfront Homes: On the Northeast side of Evergreen Point in Medina, a 4000 sq ft home sold for $2 million, which is a fairly rock-bottom price for Medina waterfront. The lot was nearly half an acre, and the home was built in 1987. The water is very calm in this area (Fairweather Bay), and there are close-in views of Hunts Point and Kirkland. Prices on the East-facing waterfront of Medina are many times less expensive than the West-facing homes, although the moorage facing East can be better.

On Medina's Gold Coast, a West-facing home sold for $6.1 million mid-month. This is North of Highway 520, facing the University of Washington and Laurelhurst, across Lake Washington. With 5 bedrooms, 8 baths, and 8000 sq ft of living space, this home built in 2003 is an exquisite piece of design and construction. The home was on the market for about 16 months, dropping all the way down from $7.9 million.

Sam DeBord and Brian Wiegand

http://seattlehome.com/

Waterfront Sales in Seattle Surge in August '09

There was a flurry of Seattle waterfront real estate activity in August - seems like the nice weather finally brought the buyers out of the shadows. After a slow July, there were quite a few closings last month, from small houseboats to grand waterfront estates. The highlights:
Seattle Houseboats and Floating Homes
There were three houseboats sold in August, with one being a small "house barge", and the other two being true "floating homes". The house barge in Westlake (Lake Union) is a small craft, newly-built, and cozy. With 1 bed and 1 bath, it went for just $65,000 (yes, there are a lot of other costs involved in living here). The two floating homes were on Roanoke Reef and Mallard Cove, higher-end floating home communities in the Eastlake area. These are 2000 sq ft quality homes, with sale prices of $1.1 and $1.2 million. The views from both of these homes are beautiful.

Waterfront Land:A property on Alki Ave SW in West Seattle sold for just $440,000 with Puget Sound waterfront. It's zoned for low-rise multi-family, so there will probably be townhomes/condos on this lot soon. There's a small house on the lot for now, but not for long.

West Seattle Homes:
Two waterfront homes on Beach Dr SW sold for $1.35 and $1.55 million. At 60-70 feet of Puget Sound waterfront, they're very comparable properties and are just a couple of blocks apart. The first home was a 1970s-built remodel with about 2600 sq ft of space. The second is a newly-built home, but a bit smaller at around 2200 sq ft. Both lots are around 5600 sq ft.

North Seattle Waterfront Homes:
Northeast Seattle has some of the most expensive and least expensive waterfront in Seattle. Case in point, our two sales in Cedar Park and Windermere. The Cedar Park home has 75 feet of waterfront on Lake Washington, 2700 sq ft in the 4 bedroom 2.75 bath home, a 50 foot dock, and a covered boat slip with lift. It sold for just $1.3 million after almost a year on the market, a relative bargain on Lake Washington.

Just a couple of miles South, a home in the Windermere neighborhood with very similar stats sold for almost $2.1 million. The Windermere neighborhood is well-known, sought-after, and exclusive. Buyers pay for these factors. This home sold in just one month, which seems to happen a lot in Windermere. When something comes on the market, if it's priced well, it's gone quickly.

Sam DeBord and Brian Wiegand
http://SeattleHome.com

Waterfront Real Estate sales on Seattle's Eastside, 07/09

There were two sales in July of Seattle area waterfront homes on Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish. Between $1 and $1 million, these Bellevue waterfront and Kirkland waterfront homes are in the low-to-mid range of sale prices on the Seattle-area lakes.

Bellevue Waterfront Homes - The Bellevue home sold was on Lake Sammamish, on Bellevue's East end. A smaller home (1500 sq ft), it was suggested in the listing and very likely that it will be rebuilt as a larger home. With 50 feet of waterfront it's big enough to expand, and the vast majority of homes on the waterfront are much larger. The property sold for $925,000 after 6 months on the market.

Kirkland Waterfront Homes - The Kirkland sale was in Woodland Cove, a high-end enclave on the shores of Juanita Bay. On the North end of Lake Washington, this home has 100 feet of South-facing waterfront and about 4000 sq ft of living space. It sat on the market for about 9 months before selling for $2.2 million.

Sam DeBord and Brian Wiegandhttp://SeattleHome.com

Waterfront Seattle Homes Sold in July 2009

There were two significant Seattle waterfront real estate sales in the month of July. Both sales were on the Puget Sound waterfront, but coming from opposite ends of the city.

A 2 bed, 2 bath, 1500 sq ft West Seattle home on Beach Dr sold for $930,000 after 4 months on the market. This was clearly a sale based on the land value, the home will very likely be torn down and rebuilt. They didn't even bother putting pictures of the home in the MLS listing. There are very few folks in the Seattle area who will spend nearly $1 million and live in a 1500 sq ft home. The west-facing views should make this a great lot for a new house.

On the North end of Seattle, a Blue Ridge home sold for just under $1 million. This was a 2500 sq ft, mid-century home built specifically for the views. It had been on the market for about 5 months. This is a high-bank waterfront property, so most likely the access to the beach would be through the community Blue Ridge beach/park access. The Puget Sound waterfront in the Blue Ridge/North Beach area is some of the calmest, with great walking beaches and low surf.

Sam DeBord and Brian WiegandSeattleHome.com

Bank-Owned Home Listings Staying Flat in Seattle

Bank-owned homes for sale on the NWMLS in the Seattle area haven't shown a significant change during the summer of 2009. Since June, there have been just about 200 bank-owned homes listed for sale in Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and Shoreline. The numbers for August and the beginning of September have remained very similar.

This doesn't mean that there aren't an increased number of Seattle foreclosures. Most numbers point to more foreclosures this year than last. We're probably just seeing a delay in these properties coming to market. Banks are not well equipped to list and sell homes, and they take much longer than the average home owner to get a property marketed and ready for sale.