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Purely anecdotal evidence that the Capitol Hill real estate market dances on.
We mark the return of our CHS Recruitment Program with this little charmer in the heart of the action on 19th Ave.
 On one hand, paying nearly $600 grand for a bungalow is insane. On the other, this is the one way to infiltrate this area of Capitol Hill for under $1 million. As a plus, we walk by it nearly every day on our way to Fuel so you can wave and say "Hi neighbor." As a reminder, we select CHS recruitment homes at our own whim -- basically, whatever we see that is interesting and/or relatively affordable (which is also interesting, no?). We usually use Estately.com to link to because they're a Seattle start-up and we like them. We'd rather not get pitches from agents.  Yeah, that Millionaires' Row is nice, I guess. But, really, there are pockets of amazing old homes throughout our neighborhood. VintageSeattle takes you inside one of the more amazing examples with its tour of the "Royal Residence" at 957 22nd Ave E. The Friele family hosted many extravagant parties in the home, including a dinner party in 1939 attended by the King Of Norway, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (the president’s daughter), and the Governor. In fact, the chandelier and sconces in the dining room were gifts from the King of Norway.Your house, the King of Norway gifted nothing to. Not even a sconce. Oh, btw, the 7k sqft house is also for sale -- 3.4 million dollars or 18.9 kroner.
First, we're posting about the weather (again). Now taxes. This query from the CHS Forums message board sits, unanswered:
Just wondering if anyone in the neighborhood (S. Capitol Hill) protested their new 2008 tax assessments and how successful you were. Mine almost doubled. I went online and checked to find that nearly every address in my neighborhood did as well.With this going on in Olympia, the question is, um, timely but we'll be the first to admit... We have no freaking idea. We do know how you can check the numbers, though:
Here is what we know -- tomorrow will be very much like today. Everything else is a guess. These, our predictions for the year ahead, are based on nothing more.
For the first time in a long time, the median size of a new home fell, from 2,302 square feet in the first quarter of the year to 2,2,41 square feet in the second quarter. Maybe we've all started to sign on to the Not So Big House philosophy. Still, your new house is probably plenty big. In 1976, the average house in the West was 1,685 square feet, according to the Census Bureau. We've basically added on an entire NY city apartment to our houses in the last 30 years. This is what 1640 square feet looks like in CHS land. Cute! On the other end of the spectrum, this house is nearly 7000 square feet. That's quite a few trips to IKEA.
KUOW recently replayed this Sound Focus episode about 14th Ave's Millionaire's Row history as part of their "best of" pledge drive programming. Fast forward to around the 23-minute mark. You'll miss the pledge drive pleas, which is a bonus in itself, and get straight to the Millionaire's Row part. You can then decide whether or not to cut KUOW a check.
The audio tour with Museum of History & Industry director Leonard Garfield describes 14th Ave. E's history and delves into themes of Seattle's "new money" legacy and "democratic spirit." Not sure we can entirely agree with Garfield's assessment that 14th Ave. E is the embodiment of the ideal that anybody can make it in Seattle and buy an amazing home, though that is how he tries to position it. More on the mark, we think, is his assertion that the people who can and do buy homes in the area are stepping up to support and maintain the city's history. Sure, they're also watching Zillow and hoping to have a good investment but there are probably easier ways to...
What do they all have in common? CHS, that's what.
From a neighbor who went on Saturday's walking tour of Millionaire's Row:
The best part was getting to go inside a couple of those gigantic homes. did you know that the home that is a bed & breakfast on the corner of 14th & aloha has 13 bathrooms! yikes. and the new owners (bought the place 2 years ago) redid them all. and all the wiring in the house. and all the plumbing. and all the windows. and much, much more. quite a feat, really.BTW, we have two bathrooms. Only 11 to go. 
 We've featured a few neighborhood "bargains" as part of our neighbor recruiting project -- now something for the other 1/2.Luxist is a site that seems to be devoted to all things luxurious. It's the kind of site that has regular features like "Estate of the Day." Apparently, parts of our neighborhood fit directly within Luxist's theme -- this 22nd Ave home is their latest EoD: Lovely, that seems the perfect word to describe this 1906 home in Seattle's North Capitol Hill neighborhood. The home is full of beautiful vintage details such as coffered ceilings, stained glass windows, French doors and in the living room, a giant fireplace surrounded by prized Batchelder tiles.Interested? Here's the brokerage listing with more pics. When you move in, drop us a line -- we'd like to eat from your table scraps if that is cool with you.
What better source than real estate dot commer Redfin to remind us all about the next walking tour of Capitol Hill's Millionaire's Row? Not sure you'll be able to buy one of the old mansions but you will get to stick your nosy noses into a few of them. The tour is Sept. 8th and seems to regularly sell-out so get your name on the list soon.
We know the Volunteer Park Cafe sells some tasty chow. Now, apparently, VPC can help sell houses too. This from the listing for 1506 17th Ave E:
The house has good bones and is a fixer. Two stories with a stairway to finished attic with window and small deck. Basement has normal ceilings. Parking area in back. Potential for garage.Across from the Voluteer (sic) Park Cafe.$699,950 is all it takes to prove your VPC love. Pony up. 
Hopefully these items aren't connected.
 We started listing houses as part of the CHS Recruitment Program in an effort to get more people we like -- people like you -- to move into the neighborhood. So this entry is a little different than previous posts (the last house we featured is already snapped up, by the way).We don't want anybody to buy this 1901 classic in the heart of our part of the Hill. We don't want anybody to move in and enjoy its 2,000 sqft of history and benefit from its L2 zoning. We don't want anybody to enjoy its extreme walkability in that golden zone between 15th and 19th Ave -- we're talking big time Walk Score! No, we don't want any of that. Because if somebody buys this house, good friends of ours are moving to San Fran-fricking-cisco. So don't do it. Unless you're really cool. Then we can talk.
VintageSeattle visits our neck of the woods with this "reframe" of 20th Ave at Roy. Not sure which is more striking -- the crowd of vegetation you find on most corners in our area now or the absolute lack of trees and bushes back in the day when Capitol Hill's landscaping looked like a present-day housing development.
 VintageSeattle also has some shots of examples of the classic homes in the area. Whomever lives in those homes must be a lucky, lucky neighbor (hi George!).
Now that Millionaires' Row has expanded to most of the neighborhoods around Volunteer Park, you can't find a lot of opportunities to buy a home in the area for under a million. Here's one -- ladies and gentlemen, presenting 930 19th Ave E.
Here's the scoop from ShackPrices.com:  A few disclosures. 1) We aren't real estate agents and don't get anything out of posting this. We pick properties we want to write about. 2) We link to ShackPrices because somebody involved with the site has popped up in our comments from time to time and seems like a friendly neighbor. And, most importantly, 3) Our best pals live nearby this house so if you move in, we're hoping you are cool. --j/k  The Slog's recent post about design and density inspired one commenter to pose a question about northern Capitol Hill. While we're sure that Sean @ 4 had the most honorable of intentions, you wouldn't be without cause if you read an eat-the-rich subtext to the query:
I like to image Sean's next (unwritten) statement as, "Because if they're not, we should rip them down and build communal gardens!" As somebody who has upon occasion suggested that the rich should, indeed, be eaten, I am concerned about the answer. Is my neighborhood part of the density solution or really just a form of urban sprawl? Here is where my soul searching has left me:
 Reader Geoff sent us mail to share this little bit of neighborhood marketing gone horribly wrong.I've noticed that XXX Xth Ave E has been available for rent for quite a few weeks now, and I can't help but wonder if the reason has anything to do with the sign out front that looks like it was murdered in an especially bloody way. It's looked like this for weeks. Now, Geoff, nobody likes a tattletale but maybe you're doing this neighbor a favor. We agree that the sign is extra creepy but we'll go ahead and feature it anyway in hopes that somebody will finally rent the place so the sign can be taken down. --j/k
The Trulia real estate service has an interesting new feature called Hindsight that shows neighborhood development trends over time. Here's the Hindsight map for our part of Capitol Hill. Each dot represents a property entering the public record -- the colors correspond to the year in which the property first existed with green representing the earliest properties, purple, the latest. The maps "play" across time so you can watch the dots emerge for each year in the timeline.
 You can see that most homes in our neighborhood came into existence prior to 1930 with a big spike in 1906 -- that's the same year as the legendary San Francisco earthquake, of course, so it seems like Seattle may have benefited from the destruction to the south. It's also interesting to note where most of the area development has occurred post-1950 -- you only find the more-recent blue and purple dots down the hill off Madison for the most part with a few scattered here and there between this part of the hill and Broadway. The old houses in...  We got lazy with our CHS recruitment program and haven't posted a home since mid-April. And we never really ventured into "reviewing" the neighborhood homes we featured -- but the NWMLS's old-timey hand slap of Redfin (Redfin's side of things, here) makes us want to do more real-estate related posts. Wish we had more time to visit the homes so we could review them (take that NWMLS!) but maybe some of you can provide eyewitness accounts.Anybody been inside 506 17th Ave E? For under $1M, you get 4,800 sqft of Capitol Hill charm and quality. Here's the agent description:
 Rainbow's space ain't the only commercial property available in the 'hood. Here's the fresh off the Internet listing for a lease opportunity at 19th and Mercer -- home of the notorious Holiday Craft Shop.
Up righted, lighted sign facing the street? Them's fighting words. The craigslister is clearly mocking CHS. Guess what? We don't care! We'd welcome something new on 19th Ave. Can't tell if this means the Holiday Shop is a goner or if the yoga studio next door that we've neglected...
Rainbow's windows are now butcher-papered over and there are a few giant FOR LEASE signs in the window. No buzz on what's going to happen in the space but we'll keep being nosy. Heard anything?
Here's the listing for the commercial space. $20/sqft on more than 4k feet of rental space. Described as "Newer Construction. High ceilings. Gret demographics." I'll drop the broker a line to see what I can learn. --j 
 Our CHS Recruitment Program continues with this little house just south of Miller Field. This one is probably more appropriate for the Miller Park Recruitment Program but it could be a good opportunity to find a home in the CHS zone for the right person.You don't see a lot of sub $300k homes in the area. This week's CHS Recruitment home clocks in at $298k -- pretty darn "cheap." But it's teeny tiny. So your $/sqft is close to the Belltown condo end of the spectrum. Of the homes we've previously featured over the past few weeks, 2 of 3 are still for sale and have dropped their prices. Don't read too much into this as a barometer for the neighborhood -- we've focused on the most interesting listings not necessarily the "typical" Capitol Hill homes. From what we can tell, many of homes we see going up for sale in the neighborhood are selling as quickly -- and for as much money, of course -- as ever. --j
Pointing out both the lofty heights of the Capitol Hill real estate market and (in our opinion) the complete undervaluation of Wahkiakum County, The Seattle Weekly asks this logical question:
Which would you rather buy, a large home with a view of downtown Bellevue near Holy Names Academy on Capitol Hill, or a picturesque Southwest Washington town's entire historic riverfront business district? For $2.2 million, you can have your choice. Tiny Skamokawa is up for sale. Town even has is its own local blogger! Or you can buy one of these -- your call. --j 
 The CHS Recruitment Program continues with this E. Republican condo in a very cool 1913 building. This Nerdseyeview-endorsed unit is listing for around $419k -- about $500/sqft. What's that round porch thing on the front of the building called? A rotunda? Whatever it is, it will be like you are living in the White House which is also funny because you will be living on E. Republican. You could also run for president of the condo board and really get some laughs. That's a lot of chuckles for only $500/sqft!Got a property you wanna push? Add a tip (don't forget to add contact info or necessary details like, well, address or MLS). BTW, last week's condo is still available according to the Internet. --j |
