At 1209 124th Avenue NE, north of the light rail tracks in the Spring District, Wright Runstad & Company has asked the City of Bellevue to rewrite part of its master plan. The city's notice of application, published September 16, 2026, describes a change to the "North Blocks" from office use to residential use and residential with retail, with below-grade parking, a new linear park and new pedestrian paths.
That land was zoned for office towers. It will now be used for housing. But the housing being proposed there is apartments, and so is most of what's being proposed around Bellevue's other stations. If you're a buyer comparing Bellevue condos now that the 2 Line runs to Seattle, that pattern shapes what you can buy near the train. It also helps explain why the October numbers favor buyers more than the headlines suggest.
The Office District That Became an Apartment District
Sound Transit opened the Crosslake Connection on March 28, 2026, which completed the 2 Line between the Eastside and Seattle. The Spring District was planned around that train with office buildings as a core use. Then office demand weakened. In late 2025, Downtown Bellevue Network reported that Meta had given up its rights to five Spring District expansion sites set aside for possible offices. The outlet also reported that Meta was using only about half of its 1.4 million leased square feet.
Housing is moving onto those sites, and the same thing is happening along the whole line:
| Project | Station area | Homes | Type and status |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Blocks, Wright Runstad | Spring District / BelRed | About 555 in two 8-story buildings | Apartments; construction anticipated November 2027 |
| The Briar, Bridge Housing | Spring District | 234 | Affordable apartments; first building began leasing in August |
| Koz on BelRed | BelRed | 188, of which 143 affordable | Apartments; approved |
| Gateway One office site | East Main | 279 | Apartments; proposed |
| 11040 Main Street | East Main | 350 | Apartments; planned |
| Broadstone 200 | East Main | 304 | Apartments; proposed |
The rest of the pipeline is just as large. The Bellevue Chamber reported in April 2026 that Wilburton had applications for more than 2,300 homes after its June 2025 rezone. In BelRed, a separate proposed master plan would redevelop nearly nine acres with about 1,193 homes. Every named project in the table is a rental building. Thousands of new homes are going up within walking distance of the stations, and a buyer can't purchase a unit in any of them.
A Warranty That Protects Buyers of Condos That Rarely Get Built
Washington law explains the pattern. For condominiums created after July 1, 2018, the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act gives buyers implied warranties of quality, and those warranties transfer to the next owner when a unit sells. As originally written, they covered defective materials, construction to the engineering and construction standards generally accepted in Washington at the time of construction, and workmanlike construction. For condominiums created on or after its effective date, HB 1403 replaced the standards language with construction according to the approved plans and specifications, manufacturer installation guidelines, and the building code in effect when the permit was approved. The 2025 House bill report on HB 1403 lays out both versions. It also records the debate. Supporters said unclear warranty rules and litigation risk discouraged developers or made projects slower and more expensive. Opponents said the proposed reforms reduced protections for buyers.
Insurance adds to the problem. A Senate bill report on HB 1516 cites a 2022 state Commerce study that pointed to limited availability of defect-liability insurance as a reason developers stayed cautious. Testimony put premiums for some nonprofit projects near or above $1 million. HB 1516 passed in 2025 and directs the Insurance Commissioner to study insurance options for permanently affordable homeownership, including the cost of condo defect liability. That report is due to the Legislature by December 31, 2026.
These implied warranties apply to condominium units sold to purchasers. A building held and leased as apartments sells no units, so this particular warranty exposure never comes into play for it, which makes rental the simpler path for a 500-unit project near a station.
The 2026 Fix Stops at Four Stories
Both recent reforms are limited to small buildings. HB 1403 in 2025 created an option for certain small condominium projects to replace the implied warranties with an express warranty backed by insurance. In 2026, HB 2304 passed the House 94 to 0 and the Senate 47 to 0, and took effect June 11, 2026. It expanded that option to one more building type:
"...located in a new building or a conversion building containing 12 or fewer units and four or fewer stories."
Under that route, the express warranty has to run at least one year for defective workmanship and materials, two years for plumbing, electrical and ductwork, and 10 years for structural defects in load-bearing members. The North Blocks proposal calls for two eight-story buildings with hundreds of units. The reform was written for small infill buildings, so it doesn't reach the large mid-rise projects being planned around Bellevue's stations.
Where New Ownership Supply Actually Sits
Bellevue's new for-sale condos are concentrated in a few downtown towers:
- Park Row by Bosa: 143 homes in a 22-story tower. The former strip mall on the site was demolished in April 2026, and presales began that spring.
- MARI: 138 units in 20 stories, completed in 2024. When sales relaunched in June 2026, roughly 50 homes were still available.
- Nobu Residences: the 365-unit building formerly marketed as Avenue Bellevue. As of May 2026, roughly 35% of units had sold since sales launched in March 2025. All three are towers in the downtown core, west of I-405. The newer station neighborhoods to the east, including BelRed, the Spring District, Wilburton and East Main, aren't getting new condos. A buyer who wants to own near those stops will be choosing from existing buildings.
October Shows Two Different Condo Markets
The NWMLS King County breakout for October 2026 reports condo sales by map area. Area 520 is labeled "Bellevue-West of 405" and includes downtown. Area 530 is "Bellevue-East of 405," which covers BelRed, the Spring District and Wilburton along with much more of east Bellevue. Area 500 is "East Side-South of I-90." These area labels come from the NWMLS map-area index, and the neighborhood placements follow Bellevue's own subarea map.
| Condos, October 2026 | Median sale price | Change vs. Oct 2025 | Active listings | Change in listings | Months of inventory | Closed sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area 520, West of 405 | $1,050,000 | +12.48% | 122 | +43.53% | 9.38 | 13 |
| Area 530, East of 405 | $505,000 | -28.87% | 111 | +38.75% | 5.84 | 19 |
| Area 500, South of I-90 | $447,500 | -2.72% | 69 | +30.19% | 5.75 | 12 |
| EastSide total | $572,472 | -23.33% | 735 | +30.09% | 6.23 | 118 |
With 13 and 19 closed sales, the Bellevue area medians can move a lot from month to month, so the price change in any single month is less informative than the listing counts. Both sides of I-405 had more condo listings in October 2026 than a year earlier. West of 405, the median rose while listings piled up to more than nine months of inventory, which points to higher-priced downtown units, likely including the new towers, competing for a limited number of buyers. East of 405, where the station neighborhoods sit, the median fell and listings rose nearly 39%.
The planned apartments around the stations compete for renters, not for buyers. That leaves the existing condos as the only ownership units being added near those stations, and this fall that inventory has more listings and softer prices than a year ago.
What Changes When You Buy an Existing Condo Near a Station
Since a buyer near the eastern stations is almost always buying resale, the main checks are about the building and the association, not about a developer's warranty. A June 2026 Urban Institute report describes why condo financing works differently. Each owner shares control of the collateral behind the mortgage, so the lender is exposed to the finances, governance and maintenance decisions of an association it never signed a contract with. The report also identifies tighter credit, weakened associations and a volatile property insurance market as the frictions slowing condo resales.
In practice, these are the things to review closely in the resale documents:
- The association's reserves and budget, since the building's long-term upkeep depends on them and so does the lender's view of the collateral.
- The master insurance policy, which affects both your costs and whether a lender will approve the building.
- Recent and planned maintenance decisions in the minutes, which show how the association handles repairs.
- The building's construction date, because the implied warranties described above apply to condominiums created after July 2018, and older buildings fall under earlier rules.
This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Please confirm how any statute, warranty or lending rule applies to a specific unit with a real estate attorney, your lender or an insurance professional.
FAQ
Does HB 2304 cover new buildings near the Bellevue stations? The express-warranty route it created applies to buildings with 12 or fewer units and four or fewer stories. The station-area projects currently proposed are much larger mid-rise apartment buildings.
Are any new condos selling in Bellevue right now? Yes. Park Row, MARI and Nobu Residences are all downtown towers that have had units for sale during 2026.
Is the area 530 median a station-area number? Partly. Area 530 covers all of Bellevue east of I-405, so the station neighborhoods are one part of a much larger area.
If you're weighing a resale condo near the Spring District or Wilburton against one of the new downtown towers, Carissa Saffel can help you compare association documents, insurance and recent area sales side by side before you make an offer. Schedule a Consultation, and we'll go through the buildings on your list one at a time.
