By Joshua Resnek
By all accounts, Everett real estate today remains unusually, extraordinarily high priced despite the rise of interest rates and the cost for home mortgages.
Why?
“One of the reasons is because investors are coming in and boosting the prices by buying houses that are wort $750,000 and paying more than a million dollars for them. That is bumping up the price for real estate in this city,” said Sandy Juliano, local real estate owner of the noted JRS Properties.
Juliano said that right now part of the problem about higher prices is exacerbated because so few properties are being put up for sale. However, she said, the expectation is that with the spring will come a more robust marketplace.
“Within the next month we should see more properties come up for sale,” Juliano added.
She said that April is always a good month for listings and for sales.
Who is selling their properties these days in Everett?
“Family’s with parents who have passed on and left a property behind is one source of listings,” she said.
Who is buying in Everett? Who is the average Everett buyer in today’s home marketplace?
“Other than investors, we see an influx of minorities buying in Everett. The face of Everett is changing. We find that most first time buyers are FHA buyers, placing down 3% to 5% down but being able to acquire large mortgages based on their ability to pay them back,” Juliano added.
Is the buying frenzy over or has it simply morphed into a new permanent situation of higher prices, higher interest rates, higher cost mortgages and a smaller collection of for sale properties to choose from which turns into higher demand for fewer possible properties for sale.
“Yes. This is the case. I am seeing it all the time. Everything as you know is cyclical. There is going to come a time where many people are not going to afford a home in Everett anymore. It will be difficult to maintain the present marketplace,” she said.
She said she views the more than 5,000 new units coming on line in Everett as a huge mistake.
“We’re not building a community any longer. We’re choosing transients. None of these people will want to buy houses in Everett. They will just move on,” she said.
She said she is not an anti-development type.
“The rub is that all these new units are coming on line at once,” she said. “Everything being built at the same time during a short period produces more traffic, more transiency, and less interest in community building. People aren’t putting down roots here,” she added.
That being said, Juliano remains confident in Everett as a place to live and to work and form friendships although it is an entirely different scene today than when she grew up here.
“Everybody knew everybody else when I came of age in Everett during the 1950’s and the 1960’s. You went outside to play. We could play in t he streets. Everybody’s parents knew one another. It was a small city atmosphere. Now it’s really gone. Neighbors don’t want to know neighbors anymore. It’s a shame.”