honeybbq,
This official document shows the boundaries of the city of Seattle:
http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Research/gis/webplots/smallzonemap.pdfI originally did the Seattle metro area as that's what many people would mean by Seattle. You later said you wanted to limit your search to just 3 zip codes. Hey, if you want to buy your houses where they are most expensive in town, that's your business. But it doesn't make it true to say that one can't buy a home in Seattle city limits for less.
This link shows homes in Seattle using the same boundaries that the government of Seattle does:
https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Seattle-WA/house_type/16037_rid/2-_beds/1-_baths/0-400000_price/0-1468_mp/globalrelevanceex_sort/47.854638,-121.904984,47.370454,-122.78389_rect/9_zm/There are some MUCH nicer properties listed there that are move-in ready and below the $400,000 threshold. Plus there are homes in pre-foreclosure status where you might get a great deal.
This book covers some of the techniques real estate investors use to harvest an area for properties with really good deals:
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Real-Estate-Investor/dp/0071446370/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498083660&sr=8-1&keywords=millionaire+real+estate+investor
You might want to learn how the pros do it and potentially save yourself a bundle.
Here's another look at the exact same area, but instead of looking at properties that might be bought, this lists properties that were recently sold:
https://www.zillow.com/homes/recently_sold/Seattle-WA/house_type/16037_rid/2-_beds/1-_baths/0-399994_price/0-1468_mp/globalrelevanceex_sort/47.748557,-122.13604,47.506533,-122.575493_rect/10_zm/Note that there are over THREE THOUSAND dwellings that fairly recently sold for under $400,000. THREE THOUSAND.
This is data that's pulled from public and private commercial data. Some of those sales will actually be apartments instead of homes. Doesn't matter because quite a few of them are homes and those homes looked to be in nice shape.
I own six single family homes. I only bought one of them at retail prices. That was 16 years ago and I didn't know any better.
The next 4 were bought (and made move-in-able pretty quickly where needed) for the following percentages of retail value:
51.2%
52.5%
43.5%
68.9%
#6 is a badly damaged property bought for a slow flip, so not applicable for this discussion.
Now, you're in a hotter market than I am, so you'll have to hustle harder to find a deal.
But the deals are most likely there if you (a) know how to find them and (b) put in the effort to do so.
By the way, I'm not saying that I'm a real estate "expert". I'm not. I'm a pretty raw beginner. I've barely touched a small fraction of the techniques I've learned since I started investing in real estate.
So, those of you reading have a choice. You can give up on finding a deal and either never buy or pay full retail (or more). Or you can learn how to find and structure real estate deals.
And even if it turns out that you're right, there truly are no deals in your area, you'll know how to find deals in other areas. Maybe you'll be able to FIRE in less than 10 years with a host of rental properties in other cities like one of our moderators (ARebelSpy) did on two public school teacher salaries.