As the Super Bowl approaches, the sports world is abuzz with comparisons of the two teams facing off Sunday as analysts compare everything from the number of veteran players to yards gained during the season. At the same time, ZipRealty [1], a national online real estate brokerage based in Emeryville, California, looked at the stats [2]to compare the two teams’ home housing markets.
"Both Denver and Seattle have elite pro football teams that fought hard on the field all season to win championships in their respective divisions, which earned them a Super Bowl berth," said Van Davis, president of brokerage operations for ZipRealty.
"But we wanted to take a closer look at these two champions to see how they perform off the field, in the housing market," he said.
ZipRealty aligned housing metrics with football metrics to determine which market "gains more yards" or has larger properties; has "the most veteran players" or has fewer new homes; "whose players move the fastest" or which market's homes are selling fastest; has the "most expensive players" or most expensive homes; and which "coaching staff is best" or which market's real estate agents perform best.
Denver’s market pulls ahead of Seattle at least marginally in four out of the five categories.
Denver’s homes are larger—averaging 74,636 square feet compared to Seattle's 60,754 square feet.
Denver has a slightly higher percentage of new construction than Seattle—5.4 percent compared to Seattle's 5.3 percent.
When it comes to speed, Denver takes a notable lead, with homes selling in almost half the time as in Seattle.
Homes in Denver spend a median 18 days on the market, and homes in Seattle spend a median 32 days on the market.
ZipRealty also compared agent ratings in the two cities, finding a very close race. Denver slipped ahead just a bit with a 4.91 out of five, while Seattle earned a 4.84 out of five.
The one category where Seattle won was "most expensive players." The median sales price in Seattle is $285,849, while the median price in Denver is $259,000, according to ZipRealty.