Buy up those Spot Lots (Infilling the Northwest)

[Aaron Cunningham]

A big trend right now in the geographically tight Seattle housing market is Spot Lot Building. Many builders and developers can't seem to finance larger acreage developments and multi home tracts using traditional bank financing, and most of the developed land that was developed prior to the real estate crash of 2008 was absorbed in the last 5 years by larger nationwide builders. The smaller developers have taken to purchasing smaller city lots that can be short platted or lot line adjusted and building 1 and 2 homes or townhomes on the lots, we call this infilling. It will be interesting to see how this trend takes shape in the next few years and if we see large scale development hit the ground anytime soon. This is a great trend to see as it creates renewed interest in more difficult neighborhoods and revives communities.

Is this happening in other areas across the country?

[Luis Giraldo-Rojas]

As Matt Said here in Austin this is a very common trend especially in East Side neighborhoods that are getting revamped after being more or so "ghetto" for the past few years. Investors have added value to these neighborhoods and brought in smaller builds raising the property value on areas close to downtown. The trend seems to continue and become a great strategy for local small builders and investors.