The Mount Baker neighborhood of South Seattle was recently listed as the 29th most expensive neighborhood in the Puget Sound region by the Puget Sound Business Journal (PSBJ).

According to Zillow, the median home price in the tony neighborhood is $694,600, with a neighborhood median income of $91,373.

From the PSBJ:

The median home value in Seattle is more than $500,0000. But that’s still much lower than other tech-centric cities, such as Silicon Valley, where the median home value is approaching $1 million.

Still, families looking for great schools tend to flock to the neighborhoods on this list. Many have very low density, something that’s also appealing for families with young children.

The list is a nice mix of neighborhoods in Seattle, which tend to be more dense, and the Eastside, where there are often fewer people, but the prices are higher. That’s not true across the board, however. Seattle does have a few neighborhoods in the top 10. More.

All of Mount Baker’s 3,800-plus residents enjoy free membership in the Mount Baker Community Club (MBCC) — a 501(c) non-profit organization established in 1909. MBCC is dedicated to providing a gathering space for neighbors to come together, get to know each other and build community.

Strong sales continue to whittle down a dwindling supply of homes. The lack of supply to meet demand kept driving home prices upward in September. While the Puget Sound area saw steady appreciation over a year ago, there are signs that the frenzied level of growth may be starting to moderate – good news for a market that was starting to look unsustainable.

Seattle

The Seattle market continues to be very hot. Homes are snapped up as soon as they come on the market. As a result, the city has under a month of available inventory, the lowest in the region. Home prices climbed 10 percent over last year to a median of $571,000. That increase hasn’t seemed to decrease demand from buyers, who have become accustomed to facing multiple offers on newly listed homes. More.

Northwest Multiple Listing Service:

Scarce inventory, new rules for mortgage closings and affordability concerns will likely slow home sales around Western Washington during the remaining months of 2015 and into early 2016, according to spokespersons from Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

The latest statistics from the MLS show a double-digit drop in inventory, a double-digit jump in closed sales, and a near double-digit increase in prices from a year ago, prompting one industry leader to say the trends aren’t sustainable. “We simply can’t sustain double-digit increases in sales when inventory levels continue to drop every month,” remarked OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate. “We’re on the cusp of a housing market slowdown,” he predicts.

Northwest MLS director Darin Stenvers also expects a slowdown, pointing to new rules for mortgage closings and rising interest rates as culprits.

“With the introduction of the new TRID(1) banking and closing disclosure requirements we will see longer closing timeframes for the foreseeable future. This will lead to a slowdown in closings and thus may slow the market until early or mid-2016,” explained Stenvers, the office managing broker at John L. Scott in Bellingham. Layoffs and the possibility of higher interest rates result in unpredictability for both buyers and sellers, he suggested.

Despite an expected slowdown, closed sales through the first nine months of this year are running 16.6 percent ahead of the same period a year ago, with median prices up 9.2 percent.

The MLS report for September shows pending sales continue to outnumber new listings, resulting in inventory declines in most of the 23 counties in its service area. That imbalance leads to rising prices.

Northwest MLS members reported 9,574 pending sales (mutually accepted offers) in September for a 7.9 percent increase from the year-ago figure of 8,875. Compared to August, pending sales fell 9.7 percent.

Closed sales jumped 17.5 percent, with year-over-year sales rising from 7,020 finished transactions to 8,245. Twenty of the 23 counties reported double-digit gains from a year ago.

Prices showed more variation. Area-wide, the median price on last month’s closed sales of single family homes and condos was $312,000. That’s up nearly 9.5 percent from the year-ago figure of $285,000, but down slightly from August.

More.

King County Assessor Lloyd Hara has announced an average residential property increase of 10% for Area 81 – Seward Park/Mt. Baker (individual property values may vary).

The Assessor’s office also launched LocalScape, a new interactive online app, to track area and individual property value changes online, along with a rich landscape of neighborhood data including census, education, permits, and sales. Residents may track property value changes specifically for Area 21 – South Beacon Hill/Rainier Valley residents here. Individual property value history is available by selecting the “My Property” tab.

LocalScape recently earned a 2015 Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties (NACo) in the category of Civic Education and Public Information and was featured on KING 5 TV.

Last month, King County Assessor Lloyd Hara announced an average residential property increase of 9.4% for Area 21 – South Beacon/Rainier Valley (individual property values may vary).

The Assessor’s office also launched LocalScape, a new interactive online app, to track area and individual property value changes online, along with a rich landscape of neighborhood data including census, education, permits, and sales. Residents may track property value changes specifically for Area 21 – South Beacon Hill/Rainier Valley residents here. Individual property value history is available by selecting the “My Property” tab.

LocalScape recently earned a 2015 Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties (NACo) in the category of Civic Education and Public Information and was featured on KING 5 TV.

The first half of 2015 saw a significant reduction (26%) in rental inventory across the Puget Sound as reluctant landlords finally had the “Sellers’ Market” they’d anxiously been waiting for. Property Managers experienced the same super-heated conditions as the resale market, with skyrocketing rents driven by an influx of applicants competing for limited inventory. Long-term owners of investment homes are reaping the benefits, with double-digit rent percentage increases frequently occurring, specifically in West Seattle, SoDo, Beacon Hill, West Bellevue, Tacoma, and University Place. More.