In real estate as in many other things, location is everything. Whether you are buying your first home, vacation home, 5th home or want to get into real estate investing, location is still #1 when it comes to getting the best appreciation. The real estate market has been booming since the start of 2021, with a surge in demand from millennials who are reshuffling for new families. "Millions" of older millennial buyers have decided to move into their houses earlier than expected as opposed to waiting until 2022-2025 when they were originally planning on buying homes.

Hot Housing Market

Bellevue, WA is considered to be the epicenter of the hottest housing market in Washington state. Why does Bellevue have such a hot housing market? Here are my two reasons:

1) Washington has become the #2 Silicon Valley. The migration of many .com companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Google and Amazon to name a few, play a big factor with the influx of technology workers coming into the state. With the average tech worker salary of over 100k per year, you will see fierce competition in real estate for homes with the price ranges of $700k-$1.5 Million.

2) Washington is a BEAUTIFUL state. I may be biased as a 37 year resident, but look around you. Where will you find a state with diversity, beautiful nature and 4 seasons?

Condo vs Single Family Home

The first step towards your real estate property is whether or not you want a condo or a single family home? But what is the difference between condo and house?

First we will take a look at condo and house ownership. The biggest factor houses and condos have in common is that they are owned by individuals. However, nearly everything else about them is different.

• Houses (often called single-family homes) come in many shapes and sizes, from multi-story homes to single-story ranch houses. You own the land the home sits on.

• Condos are single units within a larger building and you would own just the unit you live in, not the larger building or the land it sits on. You can have also have neighbors above, below and next to you. Condos were originally intended for smaller living quarters, and this is still reflected in many condo associations today. There are few condo buildings that will allow property owners to have pets. If you want a condo with the space and amenities of a house, you will need to pay extra for an end unit condo or a condo in a condo building that is geared towards buyers looking for less restriction and more functionality.

• If you’re looking to buy a condo, you’ll want to check condo regulations before buying a condo that doesn’t allow pets or smoking inside of the condo. You can find condo boards are more inflexible on those issues than house owners associations are when it comes to their pet and smoking rules

Which Area of Bellevue?

Once you know which type of property you want to purchase, which area should you buy in? Bellevue is a large city so which areas would you start searching for your dream home? There are many factors that play a role in the location (city vs cul de sac? waterfront view? etc...) but I would like to focus on School District and appreciation value. Many buyers ask which are the best areas that have the best appreciation rate. As the market stands today, if a home sits in a top rated school district there is a correlation of higher appreciation rate.

Bellevue School District No. 405 is a public school district in King County, Washington, that serves the communities of Bellevue, Clyde Hill, Medina, Hunts Point, Yarrow Point, Beaux Arts, and portions of Newcastle, Kirkland, Issaquah, Redmond and unincorporated King County.

See the graph below courtesy of NWMLS.

Single family homes in Bellevue appreciated over 25% in the last 12 months where condos appreciated 5.7% in the last 12 months. Other cities such as Everett or Lynnwood had an appreciation rate of about 19-21% in the past 12 months respectively.

Bellevue real estate is extremely competitive and if you're interested in purchasing a home in this area, contact us today so we can provide you invaluable information, tips and tricks to make your offer stand out.