Quarterly Northwest Land Team Newsletter: Q1 2021

Builder’s Confidence

National Home Builder Index – 83

*The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) (Scale 0-100)

NWLT Seattle Home Builder Index – 67

*Survey data sourced inhouse from 21 developers building in the city of Seattle. (Scale 0-100)

Seattle’s Real Estate Market

Despite a bump in new listings, Seattle still has only two weeks of available inventory. Strong demand and lack of supply has resulted in multiple offers, escalation clauses, and record-breaking prices. Reach out to us if you’d like more details about your specific neighborhood.

The Gardner Report Q1 2021- Click here to view

Interested in selling? Contact us for insights on your property!
Team@nwlandteam.com
206.639.9283

Seattle’s Development Real Estate

Development News in Seattle

Over the last quarter, Seattle has seen an increase in builder confidence. Optimism regarding Covid-19 and the continuously strong demand for housing, as well as the low inventory is driving this trend. The city is still in a desperate need to keep up with the strong housing demand.

In 2019, Seattle went through a large city-wide rezone where they up-zoned several neighborhoods in Seattle. Even though Seattle is moving towards the right direction to help stimulate more new construction housing, it is still one of the top major U.S. cities with the most single-family zoning.

Another change in single-family zoned neighborhoods are new construction homes with an Attached Accessory Dwelling Unit (AADU) and a Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit (DADU). The highest and best use for single-family new construction is trending toward this outcome due to Seattle’s recent zoning changes that entices more AADU’s and DADU’s to be built alongside newly constructed single-family homes. In almost every case in these times, builders are converting these three building structures and selling them individually, like condos.

Seattle’s housing supply likely will not be keeping up with demand; however, we are moving in the right direction as a city. In the short future this will most likely keep confidence rising in the builder community unless building material costs continue to rise, however that’s a story for another day!