Vancouver's Waterfront Luxury Condo Market in 2013 Was Very Slow!
Vancouver Washington is in a unique position for Waterfront Luxury Condos, offering two (2) excellent locations right on the Columbia River's North Shore, with four (4) separate properties. The information we provide here will have been reported in the Vancouver MLS, and won't cover any private-party sales.
We will also include in the calculation any waterfront condo
priced over $300,000 and over 1,000 sqft in size.
With such a small
data-set of condo properties to report, any of the statistics reported must be
interpreted with care; as each property is unique, with each home's upgrades and
style, combined with view can greatly affect the sales price (or, failure to
sell).
Summary View for 2013 Luxury Waterfront Condo Sales
- Five (5) Luxury Condos Sold; Averaging 2,056 sqft in size; $380 per sqft, and the
Average Cumulative Days on Market (CDOM) was 370.
- Six (6) Condos are still Active and were on the market in 2013; Averaging
2,067 sqft in size; priced at an average of $351 per sqft.; with the average CDOM
at 195.
- Sixteen (16) Condos did Not Sell AND came off the market; Averaging 2,108
sqft in size; priced at an average of $372 per sqft.; and the average CDOM was
459.
- Sales by Condominium Property:
- Columbia Shores Condos: One (1) Fourth-floor Tower unit, facing the river;
- Meriwether Condos: One (1) Third-floor unit;
- The Sahalie Condos: Three (3) New units;
- Tidewater Cove Condos: Zero (0).
Compared to the overall Vancouver Condo scene, this sub-set of the market has been quite anemic, at best. It is our opinion there are three main reasons more of these condos have not sold:
- they have been Over-Priced relative to both General and Specific market
conditions;
- the Luxury Home Market in Vancouver has been a Buyer's Market, with
detached Luxury Homes providing a Better Offer and posting more sales;
- and finally, Condo financing, especially for the "Jumbo" category disappeared for quite a while, and is just now returning to help with financing purchase - making Condo homes in this price range available almost exclusively to Cash buyers.
With the rather recent improvement in Luxury Home Financing (aka Jumbo
Loans); combined with a rather strong Seller's market where the target buyers
will be coming from, we expect 2014 to post modestly better, if not far superior
results than in 2013
PS - Visit the
Luxury Waterfront Condo Real Estate Search for Vancouver WA page our website, where we have made it Easy to search by
Neighborhood, with condo listings from the entire
RMLS. Sign-up Not Required!
PPS - the buzz is that 2014 is starting out Very Strongly,
with several homes Pending or Sold already. Don't delay with your
Luxury Condo Selling or Buying Plans - Call Us Soon!
The information in this report (prepared by Realtor® John Slocum, our resident statistician) are based on
waterfront luxury condo sales recorded in the Vancouver MLS system (RMLS).
Disclaimer: as with any real estate statistics, we do our best to provide the best representation at the time the data was acquired. We deem the data and reports reliable but not guaranteed.
The Current
Housing Inventory available for sale is the level of homes listed at any one
time. The "Normal" level of inventory is about
6 months of supply (calculated by dividing the Active Listings by the Sold
listings for that month).
Early
in 2011 we saw home loan interest rates in the mid-4% range, and even
hitting 5% for a moment; until they turned and fell to new historic lows just
under 4%. Combining the low lending rate with the falling prices, the
Housing Affordability Index as reported by the Washington Center for Real Estate
Research shows Vancouver and Clark County's housing as one of the most
affordable areas in Washington's I-5 corridor!
