North Sound Property News

Recently, the Mukilteo real estate market was featured on King5 news.  Unfortunately, we weren’t featured in a positive light.  Crown Park, a new construction neighborhood in Harbour Pointe, has recently seen a slow-down in sales that led the developers to drop prices in order to move inventory, and building has also slowed considerably.

 The King5 story is here.

 But here’s the deal.  How indicative is it of a problem with the market when the price of a home that is too high to begin with, is brought down to what the market will bear?  I think the homes in Crown Park are beautiful, but they have some disadvantages that I always felt were not reflected by their pricing.  They are the classic large, cookie-cutter home on a tiny lot–lot sizes in that development are somewhere around 4,000 square feet, not much larger than the houses themselves.  Now I grant you, the homes are beautiful on the inside, with granite countertops, and beautiful finishes…but they are still located on postage stamp sized lots, with no view, in what used to be a commercial business zone.   When these homes came on the market they were priced $700,000 and up, which was a lot for what they are.  Because of that, they’ve never sold particularly quickly, which is kind of how the builder wound up in the position they are in of having to slash prices to clear inventory.

The reality is, pricing of $700,000 or more is comparable to the pricing we see in some of the golf club homes, or a home with some view, or a much larger lot.  These are features that would make a home unique and that would confer value, whereas, the Crown Park homes are nice but lacking these features.  Crown Park is nice, but for the same price you can buy a home in one of the established neighborhoods such as Waterford Park or One Club House Lane on a larger lot, maybe with a view.  It may not have granite or the very latest bells and whistles, but usually these are things an owner can install themselves at limitied cost if it’s important.  On the other hand, you can never change the lot size or location.

  So, the question is, were the homes in Crown Park priced right to begin with, and are the recent price drops truly meaningful as an indicator of what is going on in the market?

I would submit, no.  In some cases, prices are coming down the prices simply reflects the reality of what the homes actually are. 

About the Author: Sandy Kaduce is Associate Broker of Gallery Homes Real Estate. She serves buyers and sellers in North King and South Snohomish counties. She is 2009 Board President of the Mukilteo Chamber of Commerce, as well as Vice President of Site Selection for Habitat for Humanity of Snohomish County. For more information, visit Sandy on the web at www.sandykaduce.com! Read more from this author