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Record Breaking Real Estate Sales in West Bellevue

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  • pawz
    pawz Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 22,515 Founders Club
    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".
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  • Kaepsknee
    Kaepsknee Member Posts: 14,919
    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?
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  • UWhuskytskeet
    UWhuskytskeet Member Posts: 7,113
    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.
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  • pawz
    pawz Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 22,515 Founders Club
    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.
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  • dflea
    dflea Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 7,287 Swaye's Wigwam
    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.
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  • RedRocket
    RedRocket Member Posts: 1,527
    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.
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  • creepycoug
    creepycoug Member Posts: 24,402
    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.
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  • creepycoug
    creepycoug Member Posts: 24,402
    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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • TurdBomber
    TurdBomber Member Posts: 20,056 Standard Supporter
    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?
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