Seattle ninth-best U.S. market for home sellers: Report

Seattle is the ninth-best market in the country for homeowners selling their home, according to a new report.

This is great news if you are thinking if selling your home anytime soon, and another reason to jump in if you’re buying!

According to Zillow Inc. reports that only home sellers in eight other U.S. cities have more leverage than Seattle home sellers. Zillow describes a seller’s market as one where homes are on the market for a shorter time, price cuts occur less frequently and homes are sold at prices very close to (or greater than) their last listing price.

In markets like Seattle, “sellers … are squarely in the driver’s seat with their homes selling within days of listing, often after bidding wars that increase the sale price above the asking price,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow chief economist, in a statement.

If you’d like to know what’s going on in your neighborhood, on your block for similar homes just like yours, call me for a no-obligation consultation.

Unrealistically Low Appraisal Values in Up Markets Are a Problem

Real estate agents continue to report that unrealistically low appraisal values continue to jeopardize sales. Appraisal values are in some cases affected by REOs which in some cases are reported as being used as comparable properties.

In other cases, appraisals are reported as not keeping up with the market. Also, there continue to be reports of appraisers having poor knowledge of local conditions as they come from outside areas (in some cases as far as 100 miles according to one agent.

• “Appraisals and BPO values are likely low because of the sort of comps that are available on the market. REO properties and lower value sales comprise the bulk of market activity which in turn leads to low appraisal and BPO values.”
• “Appraisals are definitely a problem. We are in a Vacation, second home area and we are getting appraisers from 100′s of miles away to appraise Lake Property. They don’t understand the values.”
• “Buyers are coming in with cash to close the gap between low appraisals and sellers sticking to their house price.”