Turnkey Morgan Junction townhome with a rare fenced yard off the main level of the home! This charming, updated home is just blocks from Morgan Junction amenities, Solstice Park, and Lincoln Park.
Lakeside dream come true on a quiet, dead-end street along Mercer Island’s Gold Coast. This home boasts 67 feet of prime low-bank waterfront & was fully remodeled in 1999 by Fred Dowdy (builder) & Norm Sandler (architect).
Discover this charming Cape Cod home in West Seattle's beloved Fairmount Park neighborhood! Ideally located near Alaska & Morgan Junctions & just minutes from the W Seattle bridge, this 2+ bed, 1.75 bath home offers 1,380 SF of finished living space on a sunny, 6,300 SF lot.
Enjoy Sound and Mountain views from your perch on Gatewood Hill. Large windows frame views from both levels of this turnkey home. The main floor features remodeled kitchen, refinished hardwoods & an open floor plan.
Mortgage interest rates fell in November and have hovered around 6.5% for several weeks now. The rate volatility we experienced during the fall has subsided for now, and recent housing data suggests we may be close to finding a bottom for the floundering housing market, which went into shock this spring when rates rose from all-time lows.
This is the first in a series of posts I’m writing to shed light on the often mysterious (and seldom exposed) process of remodeling a home. My wife and I recently bought a place in my hometown, Mercer Island, and we’re in the middle of our project now! I hope these posts will prove useful to anyone considering a remodel of similar scale and will lend insight into the challenges and decisions we’ve faced during our project.
7282 W Mercer Way | Fred Bassetti MCM
Live out your Mad Men dreams in this sunny mid-century home on the South End of Mercer Island. This 19,800 square foot lot is home to a piece of architectural history designed by Fred Bassetti and built by Theo Caldwell. At the end of a quiet, four-home lane, this property offers privacy and room for outdoor entertaining and play. Walls of windows bring the outside in and take advantage of a private setting in the midst of old growth trees, sprawling lawns and mature landscaping.
The renovated kitchen features period details, large island, newer appliances and a custom tile backsplash from Heath Ceramics. This home includes a large master bedroom with en suite bath plus three additional bedrooms, full bath, laundry room, two-car garage and open spaces that live larger than most homes this size. All of this just a half a mile to award winning elementary and middle schools and twenty minutes to downtown Seattle and Bellevue.
Offered at $1,095,000. View more details here!
This home sold for $1,193,000.
I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about what homes are worth. This involves studying similar home sales, digging through listing photos and calling other agents to help form an opinion of value. It's the single most important part of my job when a homeowner enlists my help to sell her property
But when I work with someone looking to buy a home I'm sometimes at a loss trying to provide insights on value. This is because a home's value is extremely personal. Homes have intrinsic value that can't be captured with price-per-square-foot analysis. You'd probably agree that some homes are just good homes–others just don't feel right. It might be a result of the construction quality or remodeling through the years, but sometimes it's something you can't change like the neighborhood, the outlook, the way the home is positioned on the lot or the architectural style.
It's crazy that we put so much stock in comparable sales data when you think about the big picture. This data is pulled from the last six months and, in most cases, the nearby sales tell an incomplete story, in part because our region has such unique, storied old homes. It's also a small-minded way of looking at value because these past six months only tell you about this market…right now.
So I always try to back away and look at the big picture to gain perspective. A good home has much more value than what can be gleaned through an analysis because it brings enjoyment to its occupants and it may provide a place to come home to for a decade or more. I sometimes see buyers trying to fit a square peg into a round hole because they just haven't found the right house yet and they start making the wrong compromises. But I can't think of too many decisions more important than where we live (aside from who lives there with us!).
You should, of course, dig into the data and understand what you're buying. You have to consider things like:
But more importantly, ask yourself:
Four years ago, when our market was in the toilet, a local blogger (and former co-worker of mine) named Tim Ellis wrote great a post on his blog, Seattle Bubble, about "the right time to buy." In it he wrote:
“There is never “a great time to buy.” There is only “your time to buy.”
This sentiment is true for values as well. While we can take a big picture look at neighborhood data and nearby sales, what matters more is whether a home is right for you.
