Hello neighbor - I bought my first house in Ballard this February myself.
For SF / SV readers: Ballard is a hip Seattle neighborhood, somewhat like Hayes Valley but also near a beach and bike paths. My house is new construction and walking distance to everything. I paid list price.
When I was doing my undergrad, I used to run up to Ballard via the trail (well, it stopped just short of Ballard back then). It was mostly industrial and blue collar, Amazon didn't exist yet in SLU (which was pretty seedy anyways), how times have changed.
For SF / SV readers: Ballard is a hip Seattle neighborhood, somewhat like Hayes Valley but also near a beach and bike paths. My house is new construction and walking distance to everything. I paid list price.