I set out today to make a Pie chart of which buildings have condos listed on the MLS in Downtown Tacoma. It was interesting, but it is a bit deceptive. Both The Roberson and Esplanade have vacant units that are not currently listed on the MLS.
Which buildings have condos for sale downtown.
The Esplanade has 11 listed as pending and 10 sold- which leaves about another 140 units for sale that aren’t listed yet, which is more than every other listing on the market in Downtown Tacoma combined. Eek. So if we are being conservative, we could say that there are about 210 Condos and Townhouses for sale in 98402. In the past 12 months, 43 condos have sold. This means that at the current rate of sale it will take a little over 4 years for all the excess condos to be soaked up downtown.
It’s interesting to take a look at what is ACTUALLY selling downtown. If you look at the daunting number of condos for sale you might think people aren’t interested in moving downtown. You would be wrong. Here is a pie chart of what buildings have sold downtown:
What Buildings are selling in Downtown Tacoma.
This chart is amazing because you can really see which buildings are pricing to sell. Those who know and love me have heard me voice my frustrations about the gap between where the downtown condos are priced against what buyers are actually willing to pay for them. For example, the average price per square foot of a sold condo in Downtown Tacoma last year was $97. The currently listed average price per square foot? $317.26. The majority of buyers I know who would like to buy downtown are looking to spend less than $300,000.
I can understand individual sellers being overly optimistic about their home’s value, but in a condo market completely dominated by Bank Owned and New Construction Condos you’d think that the people behind these projects would be able to do the math and see they need to be adjusting down more aggressively. I applaud 505 Broadway for doing just this. Their competitive pricing is paying off- more than half the condos sold in Downtown Tacoma between 2/8/2009 and 2/8/2010 were 505 Broadway Condos.
There are bargains out there, including a number of Bank Owned condos. Key Bank is even offering a Community Redevelopment Loan that will allow you to purchase an owner occupied condo downtown with 100% financing and no Private Mortgage Insurance. If you want to know more about all this, or see where I got my numbers- feel free to contact me.
