No cheap ticket to Madison Park

Affordable houses are a thing of the past

A current snapshot of Madison Park’s real estate market reveals an extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented situation:  there is only a single house available for sale at under $1 million—and that one is priced at $900,000  Moreover, there is virtually no other inventory of housing available close to the million-dollar mark. The median price of a listed house in Madison Park is over $2.7 million. That’s the highest median value for listings we have seen in the more than five years we’ve been covering the neighborhood’s real estate scene.

Of the 19 single-family residences currently for sale here, there are only two that would pass as “affordable” (using the Madison Park definition of that term).  Those two are priced at $1,082,000 and $1,328,000 respectively.  You’ll have to pay almost $2 million for any one of the next four higher-priced houses on the active list, with the remaining 13 for-sale houses ranging in price from $2.4 million to $4.5 million.  And as might be expected, all of these houses are big.  There is only one residence on the market boasting less than 3,000 sq. ft., and the median size of the 19 homes is a whopping 4,200 sq. ft.

As is obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention, Madison Park has increasingly become “rarified” in recent years, bungalows making way for mega-houses. Based on current listings, it’s clear that the audience for single-family homes in Madison Park today is principally divided between the pretty wealthy and the very wealthy.  Of course Madison Park wannabes can still rent an apartment here or even purchase a condo at a relatively low price point.  Of the five condos currently available for sale, four range in price from $300,000 and $400,000, with the remaining condo listed at just under $1 million.  The median size of the five condos, however, is just 970 sq. ft.

This house at 825 Hillside Dr. is priced at the median for listed homes: $2,745,000.  

Here’s the state of the market as we head toward winter:

Houses

Listings:  19

Median List Price:  $2,745,000

Median Sq. Ft.:  4,200

Median Price per Sq. Ft.:  $653

Average Days on Market:  64

Percentage with Price Reductions:  26%

New Listings:  9

            Pending Sales:  4

Condos/Townhouses

Listings:  5

Median List Price:  $400,000

Median Sq. Ft.:  970

Median Price per Sq. Ft.:  $412

Average Days on Market:  172

Percentage with Price Reductions:  60%

New Listings:  1

Pending Sales:  1

House sales in the third quarter exhausted the available inventory of lower-priced abodes.  The median sales price of properties sold during the quarter was $1,475,000.  That is $1,300,000 (or 48%) less than the median price of houses currently available in the neighborhood: $2,745,000.  Seven of the 28 houses sold were under $1 million and only one house sold last quarter for more than the current median list price for houses in this market.

This is the breakdown of sales during the last quarter:

Houses

            Sales:  21

            Median Sale Price:  $1,475,000

            Average Sq. Ft.:  3,430

            Average Price per Sq. Ft.:  $431

            Average Days on Market:  48

            Average Discount from List Price:  1.7% 

Condos

            Sales: 7

            Median Sale Price:  $365,000

            Average Sq. Ft.:  949

            Average Price per Sq. Ft.:  $385

            Average Days on Market:  56         

            Average Discount from List Price: 4.0%

One of eight under-$1 million sales last quarter: 1031 32nd Ave. E.

Here’s a critical data point about third-quarter sales in Madison Park: houses sold in just 48 days on average, with condos taking only slightly longer to change hands (56 days).  Of the houses sold there were only two outliers in terms of time on the market.  No houses other than these took more than 60 days to sell, and the back story on one of the two is pretty good: the seller held out for the original list price and won the bet after 455 days.  That house sold for $2,250,000.  This was clearly not what’s referred to as a “motivated seller”.

And speaking of successful, we should include the sellers (eight of the 21) who sold their houses at their original list price or at a premium to list.  The biggest winners in that regard were two sellers who achieved more than an 8% premium on their houses, selling them in 6 and 8 days respectively.  Most houses that were sold were very well priced to market, with only two homes taking a double-digit hit: 12% in one case and 13% in the other.  These houses both sold in less than 30 days, proving either that there are some motivated sellers still left in the market or perhaps just some who are not keeping up on what’s possible in this inventory-challenged environment for sellers who are willing to wait.

Condo sales were also brisk (only one outlier among seven sales taking longer than 75 days), and the sold properties for the most part changed hands at or above their original asking prices.  The sales ranged from a 680 sq. ft. unit going for $335,000 to a 1,113 sq. ft. unit unloaded at $705,000.  The sold prices of condos, on average, achieved 99.88% of the final list prices of those properties, which is a pretty good statistic for any market.

[Photo at top: 1535 Parkside Drive E., a 7,020 sq. ft. mansion on a Broadmoor golf course fairway, is the most expensive house currently on the market, listed at $4,500,000. All photos via Redfin.]  

[Thanks to Laura Halliday of Windermere Real Estate for her help in compiling the sales data. Listing data courtesy of Redfin, using information from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.]