Below is a summary of sales for March 2011, from the Commercial Broker’s Association (CBA). I note the source because it is likely that not all sales that occurred are included. CBA data is a mixture of sales reported by their member agents and researching of sales that happened outside the system.

I have compared these numbers to similar data available from LoopNet, the national
commercial real estate  listing service. After reviewing the data, I believe the CBA data to be the most accurate and useful for our local market and for tracking prices and trends in the local market.  Occasionally, LoopNet has data that does not appear on CBA, which is the reason that I subscribe to their service. If you would like to have a complete analysis done of comparable sales for your property, please let me know. When performing analysis for a client, I compare and combine data from both sources.

March 2011 Sales

King County-There was a slight increase in the number of sales from February in King County, with 34 total sales. Only 2 property sales were foreclosure trustee sales. Sales were about evenly mixed between the 4 main property types: Industrial, Retail, Office, and Land.

The average price per square foot for each property type was: Industrial-$44/SF, Retail-$171/SF, and Office-$148/SF.  Commercial land sales averaged $121/SF, after removing 2 residential land sales from the mix.  Those two residential land deals would have lowered the average $/SF to just $5.84/SF

You may notice that the price per square foot for Office and Retail properties jumped significantly from February. This partially due to the lower number of foreclosure sales in each category.

Pierce County-Pierce County had a healthy increase in the number of sales. In March, 22 sales closed, more than in January/February combined. Sales were evenly mixed between property types.  One thing to note, though, is that five of the office sales were of Frontier Bank locations throughout the county, by Union bank to the FDIC.  I believe the result of this is an inflation of the average price per square foot for Office space.  Typical sellers should not expect this kind of pricing in Pierce county.

The average price per square foot for each property type was: Industrial-$51/SF, Retail-$65/SF, and Office-$148/SF (again, this number is inflated by the Frontier Bank sales). Commercial land sales averaged $6.45/SF. The sale price for Commercial land is likely lower than typical due to sales transaction between government entities for several properties.

Snohomish County-There were only 4 sales reported by CBA for Snohomish County in March. Snohomish County commercial buyers seem intent on focusing on specific property types each month.  In January, it was Industrial. In February, it was Office.  In March, all the sales were Retail Properties. Also, all the properties were located in the southwest corner of the county, along the I-5 corridor.  Another item to note is that half the deals were with cash buyers.

The average price per square foot for these Retail properties was $143/SF.

 

Below is a summary of sales for February 2011, from the Commercial Broker’s Association (CBA). I note the source because it is likely that not all sales that occurred are included. CBA data is a mixture of sales reported by their member agents and researching of sales that happened outside the system.

February 2011 Sales

King County-King County continued its strong sales trend from January, with another 29 commercial property sales closed. 4 property sales were foreclosure trustee sales. Sales were primarily of Industrial and Retail properties. There were 4 office property sales (2 of which were foreclosures).

The average price per square foot for each property type was: Industrial-$53/SF, Retail-$106/SF, and Office-$106/SF.  Commercial land sales averaged $111/SF

Pierce County-Pierce County had a major drop in sales from January’s 13, with only 5 sales closed in February. There was one Office building and one Commercial Land sale.

3 of the sales were of Retail properties, averaging $91/SF, and there were no Industrial property sales.

Snohomish County-There were 8 sales were reported by CBA in February, up slightly from January. In a major switch from January, when most all the sales were of Industrial properties, February sales were almost all Office properties. There was only one sale each of Industrial, Retail, or Commercial Land properties. The Office sales were scattered throughout the southern half the county. Two were foreclosure sales.

The average price per square foot for these Office properties was $107/SF.

 

In the February newsletter, I sent out the January Sales summary for all three counties.  I didn’t go into a lot of details, so let me know if you need more information.

Snohomish County

6 sales were reported by CBA in January.  All but one were industrial properties, located in Everett/Mukilteo, Lynnwood, and Monroe. The average price was just over $100/SF

An impressive 29 sales were reported for King County in January. In King County, the majority of sales were Office properties, followed closely by Industrial properties. There was a few land and Retail sales also.  Prices for office properties averaged $146/SF and industrial properties averaged $83/SF.

Pierce County

13 sales were reported for Pierce County in January. These were almost evenly divided between Industrial and Retail properties. Industrial properties averaged just under $70/SF and retail properties averaged almost $127/SF.

 

 

It is the end of 2010 and time to review sales in the local area and the outlook for the future. Large commercial firms with in-house analytics teams, such as Cushman & Wakefield and Grubb-Ellis, do not generally report on real estate activity outside of the Seattle/Bellevue markets.  However, data from those markets can be used to make inferences about the health of more suburban markets, including East King County and Snohomish County.  Third quarter reports indicate that market will remain soft in the short term, but is about to turn around.  Absorbtion rates for office and industrial properties are negative, but the rate at which space is coming on the market has slowed and general interest in leasing new spaces has increased.  With the overall lack of new development, absorbtion rates are likely to turn around in the next year… though the market is unlikely to improve quickly.

The sales market is slowly improving, or rather the negative trend has slowed down.  Lower prices have brought out investors looking to pick up solid investments.  One area to be cautious about is lending. 2010 and 2011 are the years when a large number of commercial loans will come due. Activity in the BPO market, price opinions often ordered by lenders to verify the value of properties when they are distressed or in danger of becoming distressed, has picked up in recent weeks. This suggests that a greater number of distressed properties will be on the market soon.

In the mean time, here are the statistics for last year. Numbers are based on sales reported to, or researched by, the Commercial Brokers Association.

Snohomish County Sales Summary

From January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010, sales statistics by category are:

Property Type	Number of Sales	Low Sale Price	High Sale Price	Average Price per Square Foot
Industrial/Flex	12	$625,000	$7,300,000	$97.88
Office/Mix Use	30	$255,000	$3,296,000	$212.79
Retail	43	$310,000	$16,150,000	$196.59
Land	21	$310,000	$6,596,691	$189,864.68 (per acre)

The following chart illustrates the number of sales in Snohomish County by month. As you can see, closings peeked in June, with close to double the sales of any other month. In fact, in 6 months of the year, there were only 5 sales closed.

King County Sales Summary

From January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010, sales statistics by category are:

Property Type	Number of Sales	Low Sale Price	High Sale Price	Average Price per Square Foot
Industrial/Flex	82	$350,000	$46,000,000	$99.26
Office/Mix Use	112	$250,000	$15,520,000	$265.53
Retail	101	$255,000	$15,520,000	$156.07
Land	47	$100,000	$93,000,000	$970,082 (per acre)

 The following chart illustrates the number of sales in King County by month. As with Snohomish County, closings peeked in June. However, in general, sales were more evenly spread throughout the rest of the year.

 

Here is a summary of the commercial sales in Snohomish County and King County’s Eastside for the last few months. Specifically, the sales from August 1 to October 31, a 3-month period.

During this period, the average number of transactions is largely unchanged from previous months.  But, the transactions are far larger, with some high-profile transactions in East King County. The data comes from the Commercial Brokers Association database, so is limited to transactions reported there.

East King County Sales

In East King County there were 17 sales during the period.  In October, there were only 2 transactions closed.  But, they were large transactions.  The largest was the sale of a 164,000 square foot office building in Overlake for $46,000,000 ($279/SF). The building was sold to investors and was fully leased to Microsoft. The other large transaction was the sale of a 110,000 square foot Yarrow Bay office building for just over $21 million (about $195/SF).

In September, there were 9 transactions closed, the most transactions of any month this year. The largest was the sale of the The Bravern towers in Bellevue for $410,000,000.  That amounts to $598 per square foot. This Seattle Times article provides most of the details. Other transactions ranged from $275,000 for 20 acres in North Bend to $15.6 million for a business park in Issaquah ($162/SF).

In August, there were 6 transactions on the Eastside. The smallest was for developable land on Bothell-Everett highway, which sold for $67,000. The largest was for a Bellevue nursing home for $7.1 million ($115/SF)

Here are links to the details:

http://www3.commercialmls.com/epropertydata/9528748399557

Snohomish County Sales

In Snohomish County, there were 30 sales during this three month period. This is a large jump compared to the previous months. Most of the sales occurred in August and September, with only 3 in October.

11 of the sales were in August.  In fact, the 4 largest transactions were in August. Those 4 were:

• 53,508 SF Office building in Everett for $7,300,000 ($136/SF)
• 8 acres of land off Highway 2 for $3.5 million
• 13,162 SF Car dealership in Lynnwood for $3,100,000 ($235/SF)
• The fourth sale was a foreclosure sale, purchased by the bank, at auction. It was a  21,564 SF Retail building in Monroe which sold for $4,377,600 ($203/SF)

There were several much smaller transactions also, including a $310,000 retail property in Arlington and a Marysville office building purchased at the Trustee’s sale for $350,000.

In September, there were 15 transactions.  The largest was the sale of a large lot and retail building in Monroe to St. Vincent DePaul (who moved out of their previously leased space also in Monroe). The sale price was $2.4 million ($71.64/SF). Other transactions included land, office, retail, and industrial sales in Everett, Lynnwood, Mukilteo, Edmonds, and Snohomish. Sales include sales of 2 Office condos in Everett for $533,475 and $390,600 ($391 and $330 per square foot, respectively).

As in King County, sales slowed down in October, with only 3 transactions closing:

• 10,472 SF Office/etail building in Lynnwood for $1.1 million ($105/SF)
• 1.83 Acre development site in Edmonds for $725,000 ($9/Land SF)
• The only other October transaction was the purchase of a coffee stand (yes, a coffee stand!) at the Trustee’s sale by the lender, for $600,000 (that would be $2272/SF for the building, or $32/SF for the land).

Here are the details of the Snohomish County Sales:

http://www3.commercialmls.com/epropertydata/3744748418150

 

 

Here is a summary of the commercial sales in Snohomish County and King County’s Eastside .  The number transactions is similar to previous months.  However, the transactions are generally larger than in previous months.

The data comes from the Commercial Brokers Association database.

Snohomish County Sales

In Snohomish County, there were 4 sales.  Two of the sales were of large developable properties (close to 60 acres) in Monroe.  One of the other properties was an 11-unit apartment complex in Lynnwood.  It sold for 965,000, which was just over a 7.5% CAP rate.

The other property that sold was a large retail shopping center, which sold for just under $2 million.

All the properties sold at significant discounts to list prices.

East King County Sales

In East King County there were 5 sales.  Like in Snohomish County, there were 2 land sales; an office development site in Woodinville and a mixed use site in North Bend.  Two of the properties were components of the same office park in Kirkland.  They sold for $2,885,000 and $2,435,000, which equates to $137/SF.   The last property sold for the least: a small medical office condo in Bellevue. It sold for $455,000.

Here are links to the details:

Snohomish County… http://www3.commercialmls.com/epropertydata/8842689583239

East King County… http://www3.commercialmls.com/epropertydata/5062689577804

In Snohomish County, its not uncommon to run into small patches of properties zoned “Rural Industrial” as you get out of the urban areas.

I’m a bit behind on providing a summary of the commercial sales in Snohomish County and East King County.  This summary is for sales from the beginning of March until today (6/24/2010).

The data comes from the Commercial Brokers Association database.

Snohomish County Sales

In Snohomish county, there were 26 sales during the period. The average sale price was $2.6 million. The highest price paid was $16,150,000 for a 79,000+sf shopping center in Everett.  The lowest price was only $255,000 for a small (<1900SF) office building in Edmonds.

The average $/SF paid was just over $245/SF.  Of special note is that 5 properties were sold at auction.

East King County Sales

In East King county there were 25 sales.  The average sale price was $4.1 million.  The highest price paid was $27,000,000 for a fully leased office ‘campus’ in the Eastgate area of Bellevue.  There was over 86,000 sf of office space on 6 acres.

The lowest price paid was $250,000 for a relatively small (2140 sf) church building, also located in the eastgate area.

The average $/SF paid was just over $232/SF.  There were only 3 properties auctioned, though there was one property noted as a foreclosure.

Here are links to the details:

Snohomish County… http://www3.commercialmls.com/epropertydata/7855670015300

East King County… http://www3.commercialmls.com/epropertydata/5670670024636