Record Breaking Real Estate Sales in West Bellevue

pawz

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/26-75-million-medina-mansion-is-priciest-local-home-sale-ever-and-it-could-be-a-teardown/



https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2018/02/14/steel-gear-budongchan-bellevue-towers-sale-medina.html

Seattle's latest real estate mystery is the identity of the buyer who paid a record $26.75 million last week for a waterfront estate in Medina.

An $11.95 million sale of a Bellevue Towers penthouse that recorded Tuesday offers a clue.









A bit of advice, if you hire a discount broker (Hi Redfin!) to represent the buy-side, you might end up overpaying by SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS.

RaceBannon

Online brokers like Redfin and Zillow say they calculate the value of a home for sale yet for some reason always end up where the seller sets the price.

There are two homes for sale near us that are 50 grand over any comp and Redfin notes that the sale price is legit

The more you know

RedRocket

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

RaceBannon

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Be careful what you ask for

Using high end real estate as a bank by foreign buyers has kept us afloat since the crash. China is concerned enough to try to put a halt on money leaving which only makes the rich in China more nervous leading to more capital flight.

The good old US of A is still the most stable place to park cash.

The Chinese lease out the properties they buy. You are going to trigger @CirrhosisDawg with this kind of talk. We need to be able to compete with China for 26 million dollar homes, not give in to protectionism

CirrhosisDawg

RaceBannon said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Be careful what you ask for

Using high end real estate as a bank by foreign buyers has kept us afloat since the crash. China is concerned enough to try to put a halt on money leaving which only makes the rich in China more nervous leading to more capital flight.

The good old US of A is still the most stable place to park cash.

The Chinese lease out the properties they buy. You are going to trigger @CirrhosisDawg with this kind of talk. We need to be able to compete with China for 26 million dollar homes, not give in to protectionism

Agree 100%

I was just on the road listening to StephenA on the radio. Made me really want yell at someone. A protectionist doesn’t want any part of me today!

RedRocket

RaceBannon said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Be careful what you ask for

Using high end real estate as a bank by foreign buyers has kept us afloat since the crash. China is concerned enough to try to put a halt on money leaving which only makes the rich in China more nervous leading to more capital flight.

The good old US of A is still the most stable place to park cash.

The Chinese lease out the properties they buy. You are going to trigger @CirrhosisDawg with this kind of talk. We need to be able to compete with China for 26 million dollar homes, not give in to protectionism

I'm less concerned about the Chinese competition in multimillion dollar mansions and more concerned with their scooping up of single family homes in the <$1M range.

Had 2 neighbor homes that were owned by foreign Chinese. Both were sitting mostly unoccupied. One has a care taker that stops by a few times a month. The other recently sold and is now occupied. In Vancouver somewhere between 15-20% percent of the foreign owned homes are unoccupied. Creates a big displacement problem for local residents because the Chinese prefer not to lease which is why Vancouver implemented the unoccupied housing tax. Having Chinese prop up housing markets is not a good thing see Australia and New Zealand if Vancouver isn't enough evidence of where this is going. Cirrhosis be damned.

pawz

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

In this market, all the residential buyers over $10M have been local (funds originating in the US). These deals were no different.

UWhuskytskeet

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Foreign buyers are a small percentage of the market (4% state-wide), especially compared to Vancouver. Seattle's boom is driven by an influx of well paying jobs and a shit load of people moving in.

It's a supply issue, so build more houses/condos/apartments.

The Vancouver tax has said to have "zero impact" on affordibility btw.

pawz

RedRocket said:

RaceBannon said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Be careful what you ask for

Using high end real estate as a bank by foreign buyers has kept us afloat since the crash. China is concerned enough to try to put a halt on money leaving which only makes the rich in China more nervous leading to more capital flight.

The good old US of A is still the most stable place to park cash.

The Chinese lease out the properties they buy. You are going to trigger @CirrhosisDawg with this kind of talk. We need to be able to compete with China for 26 million dollar homes, not give in to protectionism

I'm less concerned about the Chinese competition in multimillion dollar mansions and more concerned with their scooping up of single family homes in the <$1M range.

Had 2 neighbor homes that were owned by foreign Chinese. Both were sitting mostly unoccupied. One has a care taker that stops by a few times a month. The other recently sold and is now occupied. In Vancouver somewhere between 15-20% percent of the foreign owned homes are unoccupied. Creates a big displacement problem for local residents because the Chinese prefer not to lease which is why Vancouver implemented the unoccupied housing tax. Having Chinese prop up housing markets is not a good thing see Australia and New Zealand if Vancouver isn't enough evidence of where this is going. Cirrhosis be damned.</p>

How do you plan to implement that tax without being chided as "racist Donald Trump"?

Serious question. I'm not certain our current political climate would allow that.

RedRocket

pawz said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

In this market, all the residential buyers over $10M have been local (funds originating in the US). These deals were no different.

From the second article that you linked.

The buyers could have a connection to China as Budongchan appears to translate to real estate in Mandarin

pawz

UWhuskytskeet said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Foreign buyers are a small percentage of the market (4% state-wide), especially compared to Vancouver. Seattle's boom is driven by an influx of well paying jobs and a shit load of people moving in.

It's a supply issue, so build more houses/condos/apartments.

The Vancouver tax has said to have "zero impact" on affordibility btw.

From your article:






While it continues to trend up, it certainly looks like there was a slow-down.

pawz

RedRocket said:

pawz said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

In this market, all the residential buyers over $10M have been local (funds originating in the US). These deals were no different.

From the second article that you linked.

The buyers could have a connection to China as Budongchan appears to translate to real estate in Mandarin

The article also used the qualifier "could".

Kaepsknee

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

So like Tariffs then?

UWhuskytskeet

pawz said:

UWhuskytskeet said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Foreign buyers are a small percentage of the market (4% state-wide), especially compared to Vancouver. Seattle's boom is driven by an influx of well paying jobs and a shit load of people moving in.

It's a supply issue, so build more houses/condos/apartments.

The Vancouver tax has said to have "zero impact" on affordibility btw.

From your article:






While it continues to trend up, it certainly looks like there was a slow-down.

The tax was implemented to wane unaffordability. It slowed down the market for a few months then continued right where it left off.

I don't really care about the tax, but since it had only a temporary slowdown in Vancouver and there are fewer foreign buyers in Seattle, I don't think it would be a long term solution.

pawz

UWhuskytskeet said:

pawz said:

UWhuskytskeet said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Foreign buyers are a small percentage of the market (4% state-wide), especially compared to Vancouver. Seattle's boom is driven by an influx of well paying jobs and a shit load of people moving in.

It's a supply issue, so build more houses/condos/apartments.

The Vancouver tax has said to have "zero impact" on affordibility btw.

From your article:






While it continues to trend up, it certainly looks like there was a slow-down.

The tax was implemented to wane unaffordability. It slowed down the market for a few months then continued right where it left off.

I don't really care about the tax, but since it had only a temporary slowdown in Vancouver and there are fewer foreign buyers in Seattle, I don't think it would be a long term solution.

Not sure what this is based on. A full 35-40% of our deals last year were to international buyers.

dflea

salemcoog said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

So like Tariffs then?

Yes.

Foreign ownership of domestic real estate is exactly like tariffs applied to foreign made goods.

Nice work.

RedRocket

UWhuskytskeet said:

pawz said:

UWhuskytskeet said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Foreign buyers are a small percentage of the market (4% state-wide), especially compared to Vancouver. Seattle's boom is driven by an influx of well paying jobs and a shit load of people moving in.

It's a supply issue, so build more houses/condos/apartments.

The Vancouver tax has said to have "zero impact" on affordibility btw.

From your article:






While it continues to trend up, it certainly looks like there was a slow-down.

The tax was implemented to wane unaffordability. It slowed down the market for a few months then continued right where it left off.

I don't really care about the tax, but since it had only a temporary slowdown in Vancouver and there are fewer foreign buyers in Seattle, I don't think it would be a long term solution.

I agree that the foreign buyers aren't as much of a problem in the Seattle Metro. Seattle has a huge condo shortage. There has been tons of multifamilt built but it's mostly apartments. You could make a stronger case for the Eastside and Bellevue which seem to be more desirable to the Chinese based on my anecdotal evidence.

I also don't think that the tax solves the problem but it is better than doing nothing. Not sure if a full scale ban on foreign ownership like New Zealand is doing is a good idea but it shows the scale of the problem in some of these places that the Chinese have really zeroed in on. Seattle should be proactive about handling this issue. Foreign buyers might be a small(ish) percentage right now but I'm reading the tea leaves and it's not crazy to think that Seattle could follow Vancouver. Better to try to stay ahead of it.

PurpleThrobber

WTF cares about the prices?!? The outrage should be over all the fucking Asians about to descend on the roadways.

creepycoug

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Talk to OBK. He's your guy on this one.

creepycoug

RaceBannon said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Be careful what you ask for

Using high end real estate as a bank by foreign buyers has kept us afloat since the crash. China is concerned enough to try to put a halt on money leaving which only makes the rich in China more nervous leading to more capital flight.

The good old US of A is still the most stable place to park cash.

The Chinese lease out the properties they buy. You are going to trigger @CirrhosisDawg with this kind of talk. We need to be able to compete with China for 26 million dollar homes, not give in to protectionism

But, but, but foreigners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TurdBomber

CirrhosisDawg said:

RaceBannon said:

RedRocket said:

Sounds like a Chinese shell company. At least these places are out of my price range but I've had about enough of the Chinese scooping up and not living in property that would otherwise go to upper middle class Seattle metro residents. Seattle needs to tax foreign buyers and unoccupied houses sooner rather than later or it's going to end up like Vancouver.

Be careful what you ask for

Using high end real estate as a bank by foreign buyers has kept us afloat since the crash. China is concerned enough to try to put a halt on money leaving which only makes the rich in China more nervous leading to more capital flight.

The good old US of A is still the most stable place to park cash.

The Chinese lease out the properties they buy. You are going to trigger @CirrhosisDawg with this kind of talk. We need to be able to compete with China for 26 million dollar homes, not give in to protectionism

Agree 100%

I was just on the road listening to StephenA on the radio. Made me really want yell at someone. A protectionist doesn’t want any part of me today!

"Protectionist." Christ. Have you ever not been a treasonous whore, Cirrho?