Medina, WA

Two Medina waterfront homes sold in June, both topping the $3 million mark.

The first sale was on the Western side of Evergreen Point Rd, with Seattle city views. I had a chance to tour the home with clients, and at 4500 square feet, it's a sprawling home with walls and walkways of glass, allowing in plenty of sunlight in the afternoon and evening. The home had been on the market for almost a year, with a final selling price of $3 million, about 86% of its final list price.

The second sale was on the protected harbor side of Evergreen Point, on 32nd St. This Fairweather Bay home has over 6000 square feet of living space and a steel bulkhead with plenty of moorage. After around 3 years on the market, this home sold for 90% of its final list price, closing out at $3.575 million.

3640 Evergreen Point Rd, Medina WA - 3 beds, 2.5 baths, 4500 Sq Ft - $3,000,000

7944 NE 32nd St, Medina WA - 5 beds, 4.5 baths, 6070 Sq Ft - $3,575,000

The greater Seattle waterfront real estate market has started seeing quite a few more listings as the Spring rush is on. Considering sales are up 15%, waterfront sellers and buyers are probably making the calculation that the market has finally improved enough to test the waters again.

There are currently about 200 waterfront homes for sale near Seattle. For King County as a whole, there are nearly 300 homes, and adding Pierce and Snohomish counties brings the total to 617 waterfront homes for sale. While those numbers sound large, waterfront homes usually only make up 2%-4% of the total inventory of real estate for sale.

Current inventory (includes lakefront, Puget Sound, canal, and Bay waterfront):

Seattle: 63 waterfront homes

Bellevue (including Medina, Yarrow Point, Hunts Point, and Beaux Arts): 39 waterfront homes

Kirkland: 22 waterfront homes

Mercer Island: 22 waterfront homes

Renton, Kennydale: 12 waterfront homes

Lake Forest Park: 1 waterfront home

Kenmore: 6 waterfront homes

Sammamish: 20 waterfront homes

Issaquah: 6 waterfront homes

Redmond: 8 waterfront homes

Following the trend of booming waterfront real estate sales in Seattle and Bellevue, overall sales of King County waterfront homes in 2010 were up significantly over the previous year.

Unofficial NWMLS statistics show 635 waterfront homes sold in King County for the year, in contrast to just 472 sales in 2009. This 35% increase in sales was badly needed after the struggles of the luxury and real estate markets in 2008 and 2009.

Breakdowns of waterfront houses and waterfront condos were similar. 453 waterfront houses were sold, a 36% increase over the 334 previous 2009 sales. Waterfront condos, usually a less-predictive measure of the waterfront real estate market, followed the same path with 182 sales in 2010, up 32% over the 138 waterfront condos sold the year before.

We're seeing the spread of waterfront and luxury home sales across the region, and I'd expect this to continue in 2011. There are certainly buyers in the market, and they're making purchases when properties are priced correctly. There's been an increase in attractively-priced inventory recently, as it seems that some of the "wait it out" sellers have come to realize that the new market is here to stay.

A significant percentage of value was lost in the past three years, and it's not coming back immediately. Realistic home owners are selling waterfront homes, and the market is benefitting from the larger number of sales with some price stabilization.

Waterfront real estate on the Eastside continued a strong summer season, with six million-dollar-plus sales of waterfront homes in August. Just three such homes were sold in 2009 in the same month.

Waterfront home sales on the Eastside have topped 2009 numbers for more than 6 months straight now, and it seems the trend is likely to continue. Although the overall market has slowed a bit from our strong spring, the sales of luxury and waterfront real estate are still more than double the sales numbers of one year ago.

The only segment missing from the waterfront market on the Eastside this month is the high-end luxury market. Recent sales of $5 million+ aren't outpacing last year as much as the $1MM-$5MM range.

Sales this month were located on Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington in Medina, Bellevue, and Sammamish. We also had a couple of "waterfront access" sales in the Kenmore area.

August 2010 Waterfront Real Estate Sales on the Eastside

Address City Price Beds Baths Sq Ft
1460 W Lake Sammamish Pkwy NE Bellevue $1,250,000 4 3.25 3,450
2103 E Beaver Lake Dr SE Sammamish $1,375,000 4 4.25 3,830
457 E Lake Sammamish Pkwy SE Sammamish $1,425,000 2 2.25 2,400
10315 SE 30th St Bellevue $1,575,000 3 3.25 3,940
2841 Evergreen Pt Rd Medina $2,100,000 3,620
49 Skagit Key Bellevue $2,675,000 3 3.00