The Hottest of the Hottest Areas to Sell Remodeled Homes in WA state

I love stats. So much that I spend a lot of time finding and analyzing them. Like tonight…

Out of sheer curiosity I thought I’d do some homework to determine which areas were the best to sell a remodeled home. It took a lot of work but the results are fascinating.  

Here’s what I did:

1. I looked at sales of remodeled homes in Snohomish, Pierce and King County only over the past 12 months;

2. then I refined the search to only include homes that sold well above asking price (10% and higher) and in under 10 days;

3. finally, I looked at the map to find clusters of these sales and excluded homes outside these clusters (remember, I am trying to find hottest areas)

Well, there were 144 homes left. The median of 144 homes looks like this: 3 bed, 2 bath, 1855 square feet on a 5,800 s/f lot, asking $550,000 but sells for $635,000 in 7 days and originally built in 1942. It also has 1 story and a finished basement (accounted for over 35% of all hottest homes and homes with a basement made up over 50% of hottest homes).

What are the hottest zip codes? In no particular order, here they are along with the number of hottest homes they contain (out of 144):

• 98103 - 11
• 98115 - 12
• 98117 - 9
• 98118 – 18 (that’s over 12% of the total)
• 98122 - 7
• 98126 - 11
• 98155 - 13
• 98178 - 7
• 98405 - 5

Notable neighborhoods were Ballard, Columbia City, Lakeridge, Phinney Ridge, Ravenna, and Shoreline. Excluding the cluster in Tacoma, the average home here sold 17 – 18% above asking price.

How does this help? Well, most of us look for fixers and then the area.  This analysis should help you narrow your focus to only the very best of the best areas. It should also help you understand that a deal in these areas might be worth overpaying...After all, your initial ARV might be 17% - 18% below what it could be.  So a property in those areas with an ARV of $485,000 might not work...but it will at $565,000.  Clear as mud?