Half market, half menu. Every Friday I send you the Seattle and Eastside numbers in plain English, a listing worth a second look, and one food or coffee spot I'd vouch for. Four minutes, then back to your day.
Jammies, scones, and the city we call home
SEATTLE INSIDERFriday, October 23, 2026 I have a little Saturday tradition with my daughter that I absolutely love. We call it "Jammies and Scones." The premise is pretty simple. We head out on a Saturday morning, find a good coffee shop or bakery, get her a blueberry scone and me a coffee, and enjoy a little time together. Sometimes it's Macrina. Other times it's Zoka, Saint Bread, Oxbow, or Sea Wolf. For her, it's a blueberry scone and a morning with Dad. For me, it's something a little bigger. It's an opportunity to introduce her to the Seattle I know and love. To show her different neighborhoods, explore the places that make our city special, and hopefully build some memories she'll carry with her as she gets older. I think about this often, especially in my line of work. We spend so much time thinking about the homes we live in. The architecture, the views, the location, the investment. But what about the life outside our front door? The coffee shop where someone remembers your order. The bakery your kids can't wait to visit. The little neighborhood restaurant you return to again and again. I believe those places are just as important to the experience of calling somewhere home. Let's get into it. THE CITY IS THE AMENITYHelping you love where you liveOver the past few days, I've been spending a lot of time updating the neighborhood guides on my website. Not just real estate information, but the good stuff. Where to get a great cup of coffee. Where to take someone for breakfast. Restaurants I genuinely love. Places with patios worth seeking out. And ideas for getting out of town for the day. It's a project I'm increasingly passionate about. Because I don't just want to help people find a home in Seattle or on the Eastside. I want to help people love living here.I want someone to wake up on a Saturday morning, open one of these guides, and discover a neighborhood or a place they might otherwise have missed. Maybe that leads to a great pastry. Maybe it turns into a walk, a conversation, or an afternoon exploring. I think there is tremendous value in experiences like these. And in a city with so many wonderful little neighborhood pockets, there is always something more to discover. Here are a few places to start: My Seattle & Eastside Coffee Guide The cafes, coffee shops, and bakeries I think are worth getting to know. Some of my favorite ways to begin a morning, including the places that have become part of my own family rituals. For those Saturdays when you want to go a little farther. These are evolving guides, and I'll keep adding to them as I discover more places worth sharing. It's one of the reasons I started Seattle Insider in the first place. If you're someone who values experiences over things, I hope you'll find something here that makes you love this place just a little bit more. MARKET FROM THE STREETThis week the buyers did the workLast week I told you the condo shelf was quietly thinning while buying stayed flat. Fewer condos for sale, same number of sales. This week the other half moved. Seattle condos sit at 8.2 months of supply this morning, down from 8.9 last Friday. And this time the move didn't come from sellers pulling listings. It came from closings. More condos closed in the past 30 days than in any stretch since mid September, and they closed faster, while the shelf itself barely budged. That's a different kind of shrink, and a healthier one. One week is one week, and I'm not calling a turn. At 8.2 months of supply, condos are still firmly a buyer's market. If you're shopping, your leverage is intact. You just have a little more company than you did a month ago. If you own a condo and you've been waiting for any sign of life on the demand side before thinking about spring, this is the first week this fall I can point to one. Houses went the same direction, down to 3.6 months of supply. Two different markets, same city. This week the gap between them closed a little, and for once it closed from both directions. Source: NWMLS listing data via Tideline, pulled the morning of October 23, 2026. Seattle condominium and single family closings from September 23 through October 23, and active listings as of the pull. Months of supply is active listings divided by the trailing 30 day closing pace. HOMES WORTH WALKING THROUGHPicked as much for what's outside the front door as what's inside it Queen Anne High School #102, 201 Galer Street, Seattle $669,000 | 1 bed | 1.5 bath | 955 sq ft | Built 1908 Built in 1908 and later converted to condominiums, Queen Anne High School is one of my favorite examples of a Seattle building getting a second life. This corner home has 20-foot ceilings and something rare in the building: a private outdoor patio. Residents share a rooftop deck that looks out over the skyline, Mount Rainier, Puget Sound and the Cascades, and the shops and cafes at the top of the hill are an easy walk. Listing courtesy of Leigh Canlis, Windermere Real Estate Midtown. MLS #2589802. MEDINA | A PUTTING GREEN, QUIETLY $4,700,000 | 4 bed | 4.5 bath | 4,822 sq ft | Built 1980 Medina is about privacy, and this one leans into the outdoor side of it: a flat, private lot with a covered patio, a putting green and a sport court. Inside, the primary suite has two walk-in closets and a bath finished with Waterworks fixtures and Ann Sacks tile. Overlake Golf & Country Club is within walking distance. Listing courtesy of Tere Foster and Moya Skillman, Compass. MLS #2596976. CAPITOL HILL | TWO SECRET GARDENS BY VOLUNTEER PARK 915 11th Avenue E, Seattle Steps from Volunteer Park, on a fully enclosed lot that opens onto two private courtyards with patios and mature gardens. Landscape architect W. David Poot redesigned the house in 1977, with walls of bi-fold French doors at each end so the rooms run straight out into the gardens. The entire third floor is the primary suite, with a fireplace and a balcony looking west to Elliott Bay and the Olympics. And on a Saturday morning, Volunteer Park Cafe, one of my family's favorites, is a walk across the park. Listing courtesy of Deirdre G. Doyle, Windermere Real Estate Midtown. MLS #2597130.
ON MY RADARA little Argentina in Pioneer SquareSince we're on the subject of pastries. Argentum is a new Argentinian bakery and coffee shop at 221 First Avenue South in Pioneer Square. The menu centers on alfajores, facturas and medialunas, Argentina's answer to the croissant. I haven't made it in yet. It's on my list, and I'll report back once I've been. IF I WERE HOME THIS WEEKENDZombies, coffee, and a room full of mushrooms.SATURDAY WITH THE KIDS | ZOMBIES ON FRONT STREET Downtown Issaquah turns into a zombie movie Saturday afternoon. The Issaquah Zombie Walk starts at the Historic Shell Station on Front Street: zombie makeovers and a kids fun zone from 1:30, dance practice at 3, and at 4:30 the whole horde shuffles down Front Street to City Hall for a Thriller finale on the steps at 5. Free. Makeovers run $15 if you book ahead, $20 day of. SATURDAY OR SUNDAY WITH FRIENDS | A HANGAR FULL OF COFFEE The Seattle Coffee Festival takes over Hangar 30 at Magnuson Park this Saturday and Sunday: specialty roasters and coffee shops from around the region under one very big roof, with snacks and live entertainment to go with them. If you've been meaning to find a new favorite roaster, this is the efficient way to do it. Entry is by timed session, so grab tickets before you go. SUNDAY | THE WILD MUSHROOM SHOW This might be the most Pacific Northwest event on the calendar. The Puget Sound Mycological Society's annual Wild Mushroom Show fills Shoreline Community College with up to 400 wild mushroom varieties, sorted by experts into edible, poisonous, or not worth your pan. Bring one from your own yard and they'll identify it. There's a cooking and tasting demo, expert lectures, a kids treasure hunt, and a fluorescent haunted house, which I did not make up. Saturday noon to 6, Sunday 10 to 5. $10 for adults, kids under 12 free. HELP ME BUILD THE INSIDER LISTDo you have a Saturday morning ritual, or a coffee shop or bakery your family keeps coming back to? Hit reply and tell me about it. Talk soon, Jeff QUICK LINKSThinking about buying or selling in the next year? Curious what your home is actually worth? Want to browse the market the way I see it? Want to know a neighborhood the way locals do? Explore the Neighborhood Guides For the day-to-day Seattle stuff, follow along on Instagram: |
Jeff Reynolds
Half market, half menu. Every Friday I send you the Seattle and Eastside numbers in plain English, a listing worth a second look, and one food or coffee spot I'd vouch for. Four minutes, then back to your day.
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