South Seattle: We’re Not in Kansas Anymore (Were We Ever?)
Online real estate is neat-o but you know that since you’re reading the Redfin blog. How else would I be able to check the Bay Area’s market and contrast it to the Seattle scene, all in a few clicks o’ the mouse? My family resides in the East Bay and I’ve wiled away many hours trying to figure if I can ever afford to move there again if so inclined (don’t get too excited yet, mum!). The New York Times runs a regular feature on property values titled “What You Get For…$XXX,XXX” in which they compare and contrast houses in two or three different locales and it started me thinking about how my Emerald City neighborhood measures against my home town of Bezerkely.
Neither of the Times’ recent offerings fit my meager purse but that’s half the fun! A woman can dream, can’t she? Occasionally they feature properties priced more in my ballpark but from the dearth of such articles I guess their readership is not so interested in the relative value of a garden shed in three different states.
With a million and a half dollars you can score an elegant pad in Seattle or a shingled home on .24 of a Berkeley acre. Both are in terrific and desirable neighborhoods. One has a great view, the other is a classic example of 1970′s California architecture. The $448 per sq. ft. for the Leschi town home is pricier than the Florida, Colorado and Arizona homes the newspaper wrote about, and it’s an additional $123 for a total of $571 per sq. ft. in the Berkeley property. Egads.
For $575,000 our lovely Seward Park neighborhood offers up a great deal on a five-bedroom home ($138 per sq. ft.!). The same listing price garners you part of a Berkeley cottage nestled in the lower hills area close to the campus, and with a sq. ft. price of $6 more than the architect designed home. How do these two examples measure up to the NY Times’ picks? The Seattle place is cheaper than all three, although not much less pricey than the Maryland home, and Berkeley is out priced by a one-bedroom condo in Marina del Rey. I don’t think that would surprise this guy.
There’s no place like home, huh?
