One of the Seattle-area’s most expensive homes gets a $15M price cut

One of the Seattle area’s most expensive homes is back on the market — this time with a $15 million price cut.

The five-bedroom mansion on more than 4 acres in the Eastside town of Hunts Point was listed in spring 2022 for $85 million, then removed from the market after it didn’t sell. The listing is back this summer for $70 million, a sign that even the most lavish homes in the Seattle area are not immune from the cooling housing market.

With space for a seaplane and a yacht on more than 300 feet of Lake Washington shore, the property’s price in 2022 was reportedly the highest in the history of the local real estate listing service. This year, it’s the second-most expensive listing on the market in Western Washington, behind a $75 million compound on San Juan Island. 

Telecom magnate Bruce McCaw owns the house, which saxophonist Kenny G (Kenneth Gorelick) sold to McCaw’s brother in 1999. 

The property hit the market last year just as rising mortgage rates sidelined some buyers and sellers and cooled Seattle’s housing market. Luxury real estate agents say their listings typically sell to all-cash buyers who aren’t trying to finance their properties, shielding them from some effects of higher rates. But the highest-end properties aren’t totally immune from a cooling market, either. 

“Even though this home is singular … a trophy property and very unique, it’s still part of the housing market,” said Windermere listing agent Anna Riley. “We had good interest before, but we expect we will have better interest at this price now.”

“Even cash buyers look at what other people are paying,” Riley said. “If the market in general has come down, that can also affect the upper-end properties.”

The Hunts Point mansion isn’t the only luxury listing where brokers have dropped prices in the last year. 

The Bellevue estate of former Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson hit the market in the spring of 2022 for $28 million. The price dropped to $26 million in August. 

Almost a year later, Windermere listing agent Carmen Gayton plans to hold steady at that price for now. The home is drawing about two showings a month, but the price drop didn’t make much of a difference, Gayton said. “I think we’re at the right price. It’s a matter of waiting for the right person.”

Although the economic outlook has improved for some, “there is still some concern that the economy is not as strong as people would like it to be,” Gayton said. 

High-end buyers are “just as cautious in this market,” she said. “Their money may be tied up in stocks, bonds and real estate, just like everyone else’s money is.”

In Seattle, a three-bedroom home in a secretive Madison Park enclave listed for $35 million in May 2022 was later removed and relisted in November, according to online listings. The home is now listed for $22.5 million.

It can be difficult to draw trends from the highest end of the local luxury market because there are few listings. But in the more typical range of the local housing market, higher-priced properties are cooling off.

Late last year, sales of luxury homes in the Seattle area dropped more than 50% from a year earlier, according to a Redfin report that defined luxury homes as those in the top 5% of a local market’s values, or $2.5 million in the Seattle area. 

Zillow estimates that values for the top 5% of homes in the Seattle area, averaging $2.5 million, were down 12% in June compared with a year earlier. That was a larger drop than among the most affordable homes, averaging $490,600, where values were down 2.5% and among midtier homes, averaging $704,600, where values were down 6.5%. 

That’s likely because buyers reduce their budgets to offset higher mortgage rates, driving more competition to more affordable homes, said Zillow Senior Economist Nicole Bachaud. 

The highest-priced properties costing tens of millions of dollars can take months or years to sell because of the relatively small pool of superwealthy buyers, many of whom are frequently traveling and already own multiple homes, luxury brokers say.

“Properties at this level can take a couple of years to sell,” Riley said, “because the buyer is already comfortable somewhere.”

“With properties at this level, you really don’t focus on market time. Buyers have very complex schedules. They’re traveling the world,” said Compass agent Moya Skillman, a listing agent for the $75 million compound on San Juan Island.

“There’s a very small demographic of buyers,” Riley said, “ and pricing a property like this is more complex.”