This week I was invited to be a guest columnist at The Puget Sound Business Journal – link to the article here:  RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE – Condo Supply Squeeze

Each year this publication studies residential real estate and determines the wealthiest zip codes in the Puget Sound region.  This round several luxury condominiums in downtown Seattle were included among the typical bevy of waterfront properties and single-family estates.  We took a look at the volume of luxury condominiums sales and noted that two thirds of the 391 condominiums that closed above $1 million since 2000 have been recorded in the past four years – a significant rise in demand for this once obscure product segment.  And a substantial majority of these sales fall within a three block neighborhood near the Pike Place Market (Zip Code 98101), which may be the fastest growing affluent zip code in the region. 

The following graphic illustrates the dramatic growth of this luxury product segment in downtown Seattle since the Millennium and plots those sales (organized by building) in a heat map format:

Some other interesting findings:

• The top new construction condominium sale in the past year (October 2010) was $7,198,000 ($1,370 per sq. ft.) for a penthouse “shell” unit at The Four Seasons Private Residences
• The top new construction condominium sale in the past decade was #1703 at The Four Seasons Private Residences at $11,386,525 in September 2008 (there was another condo sale in the same building also priced above $11,000,000)
• The top resale ever (and the highest price per sq. ft.) was the 4,288 sq. ft. penthouse at Market Place Tower, which sold for $9,750,000 in January 2009 and achieved a whopping $2,274 / sq. ft.
• The highest active listing today is the entire penthouse level of The Millennium Tower asking $8,000,000 for a 9,876 sq. ft. in a shell condition (requiring all interior finishes and systems) – that’s $810 / sq. ft.
• There are approximately 360 unsold, new construction condominiums left in the current inventory of which approximately a quarter are asking above $1 million