My North Seattle Home

SEATTLE NEIGHBORHOODS: Phinney Ridge

Welcome to your guide to the Phinney Ridge neighborhood, Seattle and Phinney Ridge real estate where you can search for Phinney Ridge houses, Phinney Ridge condos and Phinney Ridge townhomes on an easy to use interactive map.

Spine-like Phinney Ridge runs along Phinney Avenue while  it steeply slopes away towards Ballard to the west and Green Lake to the east. Homes cling to both slopes but are rewarded with excellent views of the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains to the west or Lake Washington, Cascade Mountains and downtown to the east. Driving down these slopes, you’ll feel like you are in a car chase form the movie Bullet. Just once, I’d like to have westbound 65^th Street cleared so I could free-wheel all the way down.

Phinney Ridge was names after Guy Phinney, who was a lumber mill owner and real estate developer. His estate was bought by the city in 1899, which became Woodland Park. His collection of exotic animals was the precursor for what is now Woodland Park Zoo.

The glue that holds the neighborhood together is The Phinney Neighborhood Center who’s mission statement is “to build community by providing and promoting programs, services and activities aimed at connecting neighbors and fostering civic involvement in our diverse neighborhood”. The association is located in an old school house and if you move to this neighborhood, you will probably end up in this building sooner or later.The border between Phinney Ridge and its northern neighbor, Greenwood, is fairly fluid with both neighborhoods sharing a chamber of commerce and cooperating on joint planning of events. The junction between the two is right around where Red Mill burgers is located, where both sets of residents can meet over, what are generally considered, Seattle’s best burgers.

The neighborhood is pretty light on commerce with most business situated along Phinney Avenue. However, since Phinney Ridge is a smallish neighborhood, Greenwood’s attractions are just a few blocks away. The majority of the businesses along Phinney Ave are either bars and restaurants. Check out Sully’s Pub, which is nice ‘n’ cozy with loud drinkers, Zeeks Pizza and Santa Fe Café.

PHINNEY RIDGE REAL ESTATE

As mentioned previously, many properties in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood have great views east or west or for some, both directions, which may explain the higher median prices for all property types in this area (see data table below). This area is dominated by older homes built between 1900 and 1925 once the forested slopes were cleared and access to these steep slopes were added. Phinney Ridge properties are dominated single family homes with many beautiful craftsman and bungalows. The majority of the condos are located along Phinney Avenue mixed in with the commerce. Phinney Ridge has relatively few townhomes compared to other Seattle neighborhoods.

What’s the Phinney Ridge real estate market doing?

Phinney Ridge Real Estate Statistics for Phinney Ridge houses (single family homes ).

For an explanation of how these numbers are generated, please click here. Note that graphs and tables were generated by crunching data from the North West Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS). Data is updated every two months and was last updated at the start of October 2011. Note that there were insufficient sales of Phinney Ridge condos during this period to generate reliable data.

Please click on the slideshow to view sales statistics: