Keely's Broker Blog

New Property for Rent

Keely Jared | RE/MAX Metro Associates | 206-909-3600 418 22nd Ave, Seattle, WA Beautiful home in the heart of Seattle, total redesign in 2003. 3BR/2BA Single Family House $1,995/month Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms 2 full, 0 partial Sq Footage 1,278 Parking Unspecified Pet Policy No pets Deposit $0 DESCRIPTION Beautiful home in the heart of Seattle, total redesign in 2003. Master bedroom has a full bath and walk in closet. see additional photos below RENTAL FEATURES Central heat Walk-in closet Tile floor Dishwasher Refrigerator Stove/Oven Microwave Washer Dryer Laundry area - inside Cable-ready High-speed internet LEASE TERMS One year lease. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS Renter contact info: Keely Jared RE/MAX Metro Associates 206-909-3600 Equal Opportunity Housing Posted: Oct 31, 2008, 1:00pm PDT

Stalled Projects in the Seattle Area

Thank you to our agent, Tim Tilbury, for sending this to me. . .

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2008/10/25/2008312056.pdf

Save on Your Homeowner's Insurance

1. A property's flood plain status can change which can lower your rates assuming you know about it.  To check your flood plain status go to floodsmart.gov and insert your home address.

2. Get a CLUE report.  AKA a Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Report, it's essentially like a CarFax report for your home.  Past problems with water, mold, etc can mean your insurance is elevated.  Every property owner is allowed access to their CLUE report.  Check yours here choicetrust.com.  If you believe your CLUE report to contain errors, go HERE consumerdisclosure.com to report as much.

3. Don't be loyal. Some insurers give long-time customers up to a 10% discount, but that can pale in comparison with the savings from switching insurers.  You can get quotes from InsWeb.com or Insure.com.

4. A lot of the stuff that keeps your credit score high also helps your insurance score. Pay bills on time, limit the number of credit cards you hold, and don't finance several major purchases at once to keep your score attractive

Just Do It

Normally I would never get political in this venue but either way you sway. . .

Stunning Stock Market Timeline Comparisons

Not for the faint of heart. . .

 

Finally!

Someone's getting it right!

Existing Home Sales Jump 5.5%, Foreclosures Way Down

Nationwide sales of existing homes rose by the largest amount in more than five years in September, 5.5% - far better than analysts had expected.

Even better: Locally (King county) foreclosure filings fell substantially in September as well -- down 42 percent from August and down 13 percent from September 2007.

I wish I could say these things indicated a bottom to the mess at hand but everything has been so especially volatile (rates, stock market, et al) that I've steeled myself for a slow recovery and know better (now) than to jump to conclusions at ANYtime.  I probably won't admit the market is 'back' until it's been long back!

September '07 to September '08 NWMLS Sales Data

King - Price: -7.8% | Listings: +4.6% | Sales: +14.7% | MOS: 6.6
Snohomish - Price: -9.8% | Listings: -3.7% | Sales: -6.8% | MOS: 8.8
Pierce - Price: -11.6% | Listings: -9.9% | Sales: +26.7% | MOS: 7.6
Kitsap - Price: -13.9% | Listings: -3.9% | Sales: +32.7% | MOS: 7.1
Thurston - Price: -4.8% | Listings: -10.1% | Sales: +5.7% | MOS: 6.0
Island - Price: -3.4% | Listings: +1.5% | Sales: +1.1% | MOS: 12.0
Skagit - Price: -13.5% | Listings: -0.3% | Sales: -20.3% | MOS:10.4

These figures are year over year averages.

Smart Money Magazine Deems Seattle Market Most Likely to "Rebound"

Finally some positivity (that doesn't sound 'pie in the sky' a la Lawrence Yun):

The Emerald City is that rare major metro area near the coast that is not on a nausea-inducing roller-coaster ride. While home prices in Florida and Southern California are in a free fall, homeowners here are experiencing a gentler landing. Of course, that’s partly because the ride up was not as euphoric—home prices here peaked at 65 percent above January 2003 levels, compared with more than 95 percent in Los Angeles. Thanks to well-paying mega-employers like Microsoft, Amazon.com and Boeing, unemployment remains under 4 percent. That, in turn, has kept median sales prices from falling far. Just as encouraging: Only 11.5 percent of local homeowners who bought within the past five years have negative equity on their property, well below the national average of 29 percent, according to the real estate services firm Zillow. That indicates there won’t be a flood of foreclosures and short sales around the corner.

Among Seattle’s neighborhoods and suburbs, yesteryear’s star performers—affluent areas like the Victorian-studded Queen Anne district or Redmond, home of Microsoft—are beginning to slide back a bit. The most resilient part of the region lies across the Duwamish River from downtown, in West Seattle. The small community is directly accessible by only one bridge. That can lead to traffic snarls, but many residents simply bike 20 minutes to jobs downtown. On weekends the relative seclusion means the 2.5-mile Alki Beach promenade along Elliott Bay doesn’t get too crowded. As long as people like great views of water, mountains and city skylines, “those homes will always maintain their value,” says local broker Febe Cude. Dave and Alison Keith recently sold their two-bedroom townhome in West Seattle for $289,000, up more than 25 percent from their purchase price four years ago. They plowed that windfall into a home in the same neighborhood with twice the living space and a fenced-in yard, for $429,000. “You’re always nervous, but I feel like things are holding up well here,” Alison says.

Did anyone see this in the P-I?

And I quote. . .

The nation is on track to build fewer homes this year than at any time since the end of World War II, adding to the woes of an economy that analysts said Friday has almost certainly entered a recession.

But with builders focused on selling the homes they have, rather than developing new ones, Seattle is headed for a serious shortage that could bring a return to double-digit price appreciation starting in 2012, according to one local analyst.

“We will see one to two years of double-digit appreciation, bringing home prices back to the peak that they were in 2007 or 2006, if not higher,” said Todd Britsch, president and principal of New Home Trends, a Bothell consulting firm.

How anyone can predict what the years ahead will look like is beyond me but it is interesting to note that builders are no longer building, instead focusing on selling (sometimes fire-selling) all of their inventories.

Full Article Here