Let’s face it, yards look awful in November, no matter where you live. When I list a home in the dark of November, I say a prayer to the landscape gods, hoping the home owners have taken photos of their spring and summer flowers. These photos can be used anytime to advertise a home, whether it’s the darkest day in November or the middle of summer. So plan ahead, get your camera rolling, and take some great photos. You never know when you may need them.
Announced on CNN, Fortune Magazine listed Bellevue, Washington as #1, tops to live in and launch a business. The photo is a shot of Bellevue looking west towards downtown. Only a few of the cranes that hover over all the new construction, commercial and residential, can be seen.
According to The Downtown Bellevue blog:
“ The (Fortune magazine) rankings were based on the following: affordable housing, plentiful leisure activities, plentiful cultural options, job growth, sunny weather, short commute time, and good health care access.” The Northwest is a great place to live with the abundance of lakes, mountains, and culture.
Are there issues? Yes, not everyone would agree there’s affordable housing, short commutes, and lots of sun. But the reality is, if we are a dynamic, growing region with the prospect of economic growth, nothing is perfect. However, the whole package is pretty terrific and hard to beat when compared to other parts of the country. Sure, you can find less expensive real estate. It’s all over this country. But the natural beauty, the culture, the job growth, the level of educated citizens fueled by this job growth, is not as strong in these other areas.
Bellevue is an exciting place. People are looking to move to the downtown core and the Eastside in general.
What are your thoughts about Bellevue as the #1 place for small business growth?
On the 12th of March, I wrote a post complimenting The King County Council and the county animal shelters for the lower euthanasia rate. The next week the wires were burning up with news about the deplorable conditions at these very same animal shelters. All last week the news was abuzz with allegations from Nathan Winograd and responses from King County Council, King County Executive Ron Sims and animal shelter workers. Bloggers and writers were venting their anger about the alleged mistreatment of animals. City Dog Blog had this to say about the situation at the shelters.
The following are all articles from The Seattle Times, which will bring you up to speed. The story broke around the 17th, St. Patrick’s Day. The Times reported the consultant hired to evaluate the county shelter system, Nathan Winograd, from No Kill Advocacy Center of San Clemente, CA, was appalled by the animals’ treatment. His report mention not all the pets available for adoption were being seen by the public, there was a lack of food and water, and a high incidence of illness.
The second Times story continued with the same news. The story mentioned a meeting in Burien on April 14th to evaluate the animal shelters.
The third story has Ron Sims defending the commitment of the county and the shelter workers to the dogs and cats. He states his commitment to improving procedures and replacing the 32 year old Kent animal shelter.
The story is ongoing. Issues regarding animal welfare need to be sorted out and dealt with as quickly as possible to save more of the dogs and cats and ensure they are adopted.
Concerned about what could be happening on the BNSF rail line that runs along Lake Washington through the eastside cities of Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and Woodinville? You should be.
I’ve written a lot of pieces about the trails and rails on my Kirkland blogand watched it evolve over the last few years. We’ve gone from a trail to who knows what at this point in time. The latest I’ve heard is the rail line will not work for light rail. The talk is more about DMUs, Diesel Motor Units. If you check out Brian and Emily’s blog, you can see and hear some examples of DMUs in action.
A group of concerned citizens is forming called Eastside Trail Advocates. The group is dedicated to creating a trail on the BNSF rail line. The group is not against better transportation, but wants to ensure transportation improvements make sense. There don’t seem to be any ridership studies completed for a commuter train, but there’s a lot of talk about developing a commuter line. A critical piece is missing here. Is the cart before the horse?
Here are some key points:
The trail advocates are concerned about:
No matter what your opinion, get educated about the rails/trails issues. If you are in support of the trail log onto Eastside Trail Advocates and lend your support.
Gorgeous, gorgeous, The Bravern is one of the premier condominium towers being built on Seattle’s Eastside. The Bravern is at the corner of NE 8th and 112th Ave NE, perhaps the new luxury corner of downtown Bellevue? Comprised of residential condominium towers, an office complex, and luxury shops anchored by Neiman Marcus and Jimmy Choo, The Bravern will be one of the premier destinations and addresses in Bellevue.
Here are some of the features of the complex:
24 hour concierge
7 floors of parking for homeowners with a private elevator
valet parking available
25,000 square foot private roof garden
Protected easterly views
Auto court, similar to the Fairmont Hotel in Seattle
Luxury shopping with the feel of a European Village
I attended an open house a couple of weeks ago and had a chance to see some of the floor plans and finish work of the model homes.
The office space has been leased to Microsoft. The retail space is filling up, although names of all the tenants are not yet public. Premier restauranteurs, such as John Howie of Seastar fame, will be opening restaurants. The first eastside outpost of the Seattle’s wildly popular Wild Ginger restaurant will also be in The Bravern. The Bravern should be a dynamic new addition to Seattle’s Eastside and downtown Bellevue.
In honor of wearing “the green” on St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I’d share these resources and sources for built green and sustainable living. I wrote a post a few weeks ago with some suggestions from a Built Green classI took over at Windermere Real Estate taught by Rachel Shindler and Thor Peterson.
The two had assembled a terrific list of books and other sources, some free, in the Seattle area to learn more about sustainable living and building and built green techniques.
FREE Seattle/King County area resources for green building:
Natural Choice Directory of Puget Sound
Sources for Built-Green Materials:
Ecohaus, formerly Environmental Home Center
This is a treasure trove of environmental information, products, and materials. You have hit the jackpot if you go here.
makes carpet tiles which can be put down in unique patterns and is easily replaceable.
salvages hardwood trees and turns the wood into “one of a kind” sustainable furniture.
Looking to recycle?
Offer it for free on Craig’s List, it will be gone.
Restore- will dismantle and reuse stuff. In turn you can get credits to buy some of their materials or a tax credit.
Great reading material:
It’s Easy Being Green by Crissy Trask Gibbs
The Green House by Alana Stang and Christopher Hawthorne
What’s Toxic, What’s Not By Dr. Gary Ginsburg
Naturally Clean Jeff Hollender and Geoff Davis
Low Carbon Diet David Gershon
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Sellers had a 14% chance of selling a condo on Seattle’s Eastside in February of 2008. ( click on 2008 year to date statistics in the link above for a chart showing the condo report)
February, 2008 1230 condos for sale, 140 condos sold, 11% chance of selling.
January, 2008 1059 condos for sale, 149 condos sold, 14% chance of selling.
February, 2007 515 condos for sale, 328 condos sold, 63% chance of selling.
Again, inventory is over twice as high as last year. However, our median price continues to defy expectations. Last year, the median price was $320,639 and this year it is $327,818, a 2.2& increase.
Last month I said:
This number (the median price) may be an anomaly as pricing for all 2007 condos increased by 8%. The median price for any month is a reflection of the sales for that particular month, so last January’s sales may have included more entry level condos, which resulted in a huge increase in median pricing this year when more expensive condos sold. When we see February’s statistics, which will come out in March, we will have a better feel for the actual increase in pricing.
Now in February, we see this 2.2% increase in median pricing. Pricing has gone up, despite the increase in inventory and competition. But the increase is not as dramatic as the 8% reported previously.
January, 2008 2963 homes available, 346 sold, 11.6% chance of selling.
February, 2007 1910 homes available, 699 sold, 36% chance of selling.
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(click on the each area name for a chart showing the latest stats in the area)
The plateau: Sammamish, Issaquah, North Bend, and Fall City
Sellers had a 16.4% chance of getting a home sold, UP from 13.3% last month and DOWN from 35.7% last year. Median home prices were down by 3.8%, from $623,495 to $599,900. Inventory was up by 65.4% and sales declined by almost 24% from last year.
Sellers had a 15.6% chance of getting a home sold, DOWN from 15.8% last month, and DOWN from 58% last year. Median sales price increased from $579,000 to $599,000. Inventory was up 168% and sales were down from 57 sales to 41 homes.
Sellers had a 13.4% chance of selling a home, UP from 7.2% last month and DOWN from 34.6% last year. Median price decreased by 2.4% to $659,000 from $675,000. Inventory was up 65% and sales were down almost 35.8%.
Woodinville/Bothell/Kenmore/Duvall
Sellers had a 12.3% chance of selling a home THE SAME as 12.3% last month and DOWN from 37.6% last year. Median price was up to $549,950 from $549,000, a .2% decrease. Inventory was up by 68% from last year and sales declined by 44.5%.
Sellers had a 12.5% chance of selling a home, UP from 9.8% last month and DOWN from 29.8% last year. Median price declined by 15%, from $839,925 to $711,250. Inventory was up by 51% and sales were down by 36%.
Sellers had a 9% chance of selling a home, UP from 7%, and DOWN from 29% last year. Median pricing dropped by 31% to $999,000 from $1,449,500. Inventory climbed by 101% and sales declined by 38%.
Redmond/Education Hill/ Carnation
Sellers had a 15.6% chance of selling a home, UP from 12.4% last month, and DOWN from 44% last December. Median pricing increased by 6.8% from $650,950 to $694,970. Inventory increased by 85% and sales dropped by 35%.
Inventory is up from the numbers we saw early last year. January and February had the lowest inventory in 2007. September 2007 saw the highest inventory. There’s a yearly cycle showing a similar trend in the inventory. Inventory is generally the lowest at the beginning of a year, peaking either in the summer or fall:
June and July in 2004
October in 2005
September in 2006
September in 2007
If you are an active buyer or seller, it’s important to break the data down regarding the inventory and the absorption rate even further than what is reported above. For example, the numbers listed above for Woodinville, Duvall, and Bothell encompass a huge area with a variety of homes. When looking at the pricing for a particular home, it’s wise to target the information relevant to that home and price range.
If you are looking in Woodinville, as an example, then look more specifically at the numbers just for Woodinville. Look at the inventory and how homes are selling in a particular area and price range. If you want to buy or sell homes on large lots priced in the 600′s, then determine the amount of inventory and the absorption rate for these homes.
This holds true for all of the areas. Here is another example of a more specific analysis of the data: In West Redmond/East Bellevue, the inventory is actually down in the Redmond area from last fall’s peak. Buyers near Microsoft may encounter more competition for that reason. Here is an article I wrote on my Redmond blog describing the market conditions in that area.
Bottom line is competition is tough. There are some great homes available and in order to be the seller who snags the buyer, a home will need to stand out from the crowd as a great value and in great condition. Anticipate realistic pricing and longer market time.
I report on real estate statistics on this blog all the time, but this post is about a different set of statistics.
The stats from the Seattle Times article today which is entitled, Euthanasia Cut Nearly in Half at King County Animal Shelters caught my interest. Adoptions have been going well and the euthanasia rate is down to 18% per month, half of what it was at this time last year. This number is at an all time low, according to the article. It’s up to people who are getting pets to help keep these numbers low.
My husband and I adopted a dog last summer from The Humane Society and he’s just fabulous. He has a great personality and is wonderful to have around. This is the second dog we’ve adopted and I highly recommend doing this rather than getting a puppy.
Interesting fact: The King County Council is keeping the euthanasia rate to 20% in 2008 for the shelters in Bellevue and Kent and at 15% in 2009. I’m glad to see the council taking the initiative with this one.
There’s been a lot of press this past week about the torching of The Street of Dreams homes. My previous post was about this story. People were horrified by this senseless act. When reading other posts about the event, particularly the one on The Seattle P-I Real Estate Professionals blog, I noticed another thread in the blog comments about the tragic event, many people were voicing an opinion against the mega-houses The Street of Dreams shows represent.
I thought this might be a good time to visit a different form of American architecture, log homes.
Log homes evoke the past, a sense of adventure, and the “Wild West.” We think thoughts of Abe Lincoln and Laura Ingalls Wilder. The rustic nature of logs brings people close to the wood in its natural state. For some, it can create the perfect ambiance of a rustic, warm getaway and still be a primary residence. A log home is a great antithesis to today’s hectic lifestyles.
There are a number of log homes all around Seattle’s eastside. Most are in areas such as Union Hill or in cities like Duvall, Carnation, Fall City, Woodinville, and Issaquah. However, there are log homes everywhere. There’s a great log home in my neighborhood in Kirkland, one on Market St., and one on Rose Hill.
One recent issue of Realtor Magazine had a interesting article about log homes. According to the article, log homes were first seen in this country in the 1700′s. Early settlers had to make do with what was available. Without “city” conveniences and lumber mills, the full logs did the trick. Homes were often built without nails since nails were scarce.
Remember Lincoln Logs? My brothers had those when we were kids. Lincoln Logs were toy sets for building log homes. The toy logs had the same notched style construction as the original log homes. When I read the above article, I discovered Frank Lloyd Wright’s son created Lincoln Logs. I wonder what his Dad would have thought!
The Log Council , a member of NAHB, The National Association of Home Builders, is an industry trade group and information resource. Numerous architects and builders specialize in log home design and building. The above linked article will give you a great introduction to the concept of log homes in the 21st century.
So here ELF (allegedly) goes again, accomplishing nothing good by what they do. This was the first Seattle Street of Dreams with an eco-friendly sensibility. Sustainable materials were the norm in the building process. It was great for the public to see homes beautifully done and “green” at the same time. It was a good learning experience and may also have encouraged people to go “green”. Yes, the homes were huge, you cannot dispute that fact. However, the message of sustainable materials went a lot farther with the public. How ironic for the group to have torched anything, let alone these homes.
There’s been talk the fire was set in retaliation for the trial of Briana Waters, who was the lookout for The Center for Urban Horticulture fire. The jury was beginning deliberations in her case at the start of this week, when the homes were torched at The Street of Dreams. So, if torching the homes was in retaliation for the trial of a group member, then it sounds like the message ELF was trying to send was to not “mess” with them. This certainly is not a statement for saving the earth.
The third irony for me as a blogger is the amount of hits I received on Monday, the 3rd of March and Tuesday, the 4th, for a post I wrote back in August about these Street of Dreams homes. As journalists will tell you, bad news travels fast and certainly grabs people’s attention. This is the post I wrote last year, if you’d like to see photos of the homes before the fire.
Let’s hope the perpetrators are caught and punished. Terrorism, for whatever reason, is unacceptable.
Several opportunities to learn about disaster preparedness are coming your way, courtesy of the cities of Sammamish, Bellevue, and Kirkland.
The City of Sammamish is sponsoring a class on March 10th and on March 17th to learn about disaster preparedness. The Eastside Business Journal reported on the upcoming class. Here’s the basics as reported in the Eastside Business Journal online:
Free seminar on disaster preparedness sponsored by the Sammamish Citizen Corp.
Enter to win a free disaster prep kit at disastersareweready@gmail.com
Dates: March 10th and 17th
Time: 7 PM – 9:30 PM
Location:Pine Lake Covenant Church, 1715 228th Ave SE, Sammamish, WA 98075
Seminar topics include:
Do you have to be a Sammamish resident? No. I also heard about these classes in a press release from the City of Kirkland. Most of the information being presented is invaluable, no matter where you live.
The City of Bellevue has a 10 minute DVD on disaster preparedness available which you can pick up at City Hall or see as a streaming video on the city website. The DVD is available in 7 languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, in addition to English. The Bellevue city website also has terrific information to help you get prepared for a disaster.
The City of Kirkland has two buttons on the front page of the city website dedicated to disaster preparedness and emergency bulletins.
As a Kirkland resident, you can sign up for the next Mapping Your Neighborhood class, which is on:
Saturday, March 15, 9:30 AM, Kirkland Stake Center, 7910 NE 132nd St (corner of Juanita Drive). This is a state designed program to help neighborhoods prepare for and deal with disasters.
Check these websites and classes out. You’ll need to be prepared in the event of a disaster. The police will take care of major emergencies first. It’s up to you to be prepared!
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