August Insider Report: Seattle-Area Real Estate Market Still Chilled
Greetings, Redfinnians!
We’re working on some new changes to our monthly Insider Reports that will bring together the expertise of our local agents with the unique market insights that we dig out of our vast array of real estate data every month.
In the mean time, rather than skipping out on August’s data entirely, here’s a “lite” version of our monthly report, including our Redfin Heat Index, the heat map, and the hottest / coldest neighborhoods.
First up is our national Redfin Heat Index* ranking table at right. As you can see, not much change for Seattle. With prices down eight percent balanced out by a slightly tight 4.2 months of supply, we’re still on the cool end of the scale, but not dramatically lower than most of the other cities Redfin serves.
Washington DC continues to be the hottest market in the nation, while Long Island is still pulling up the rear with falling prices and a dramatic 11.1 months of supply. Yikes!
Next up, let’s have a look at an update to our interactive Redfin Heat Index map broken down by zip code, based on August data. Note that we only calculate the Redfin Heat Index for zip codes with at least 20 sales in August 2011 and August 2010.
Next, let’s have a look at the hottest and coldest Seattle-area neighborhoods in August.
King County’s 5 Hottest Neighborhoods in August
| Rank | Neighborhood | Price | Months of Supply | Heat |
| 1 | Capitol Hill | +14.0% | 2.0 | 120.7 |
| 2 | Wallingford | +12.6% | 1.7 | 120.5 |
| 3 | Somerset | +4.2% | 1.7 | 103.3 |
| 4 | Delridge | +12.6% | 5.5 | 93.7 |
| 5 | Queen Anne | +1.4% | 2.9 | 89.8 |
The only real surprise in that hottest list is Delridge. Perhaps homes in Delridge have gotten cheap enough to drive some heat back into that area?
King County’s 5 Coldest Neighborhoods in August
| Rank | Neighborhood | Price | Months of Supply | Heat |
| 1 | Rainier Valley | -14.8% | 4.9 | 42.9 |
| 2 | Beacon Hill | -15.0% | 4.2 | 47.8 |
| 3 | Admiral | -9.1% | 4.3 | 59.0 |
| 4 | Magnolia | -13.9% | 2.8 | 59.6 |
| 5 | Snoqualmie Ridge | -8.7% | 4.0 | 61.7 |
All righty, that’s it for this month. Stay tuned next month for our new and improved Insider Report!
As usual, you can download our comprehensive spreadsheet and dig into the data for yourself. Inside you’ll find county, city, and neighborhood information galore. You can also liven up the place by posting a comment below.
- MOS = Months of Supply: End of Month Inventory / Closed Sales in the Month
- $YOY = Year-over-year change in the median price per square foot.
- Heat Index = ((MOS – 6.0) * -7) + (($YOY – 5%) * 2) + 75
