Mercer Island Real Estate and NAR Consumer Preference Survey

12/08/2013 -

Today, I thought I would take some of the research at the National Association of Realtors and apply it to the local Mercer Island real estate market.

The latest survey results were posed on the NAR site last week (see it here: http://economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org/2013/12/03/latest-consumer-preference-survey-from-nar%E2%80%99s-smart-growth-program/)

The following points seemed particularly interesting to anyone following the Mercer Island market:

◾A majority of respondents prefer houses with small yards and easy walks to schools, stores and restaurants over houses with large yards where you have to drive to get to schools, stores and restaurants (55 percent to 40 percent).
◾An even larger majority prefers houses with smaller yards but a shorter commute to work over houses with larger yards but a longer commute to work (57 percent to 36 percent).
◾However, when given a choice between a detached, single-family house that requires driving to shops and a longer commute to work and an apartment or condominium with an easy walk to shops and a shorter commute to work, a strong majority prefer the single-family home even with the longer commute (57 percent to 39 percent).

Walkability ranks high on buyers’ wish lists. High walk scores are not something that Mercer Island boasts in most of its inventory. However, a shorter commute to work is even more desirable. In addition, given a choice, most people would rather live in a single family detached home.

Now this is where Mercer Island shines.

Commutes are 8 miles from the south end (the longest commute) to either downtown Seattle OR downtown Bellevue (arguably a bigger employment center than Seattle these days). There is an express bus on the north end of Mercer Island, to take commuters to Seattle or Bellevue. It is a 15 minute ride from the Mercer Island Park and Ride to the furthest stop in Seattle, at Convention Place.

According to the US Census Bureau, there are about 9,850 housing units on Mercer Island. of those, 7,068 or 71.8%, are single family detached homes.

Folks, for flexibility, lots of variety in single family houses and speed of commute, it doesn’t get much better than Mercer Island.