Financing

Financing Buyers, Interest Rates Are Hot! After I wrote my last post on the state of the Seattle eastside real estate market, I felt it important to remind buyers that even though it's a seller's market, Interest rates are hot!  Interest rates are on your side.  Prices are starting to increase, while interest rates are still on the incredibly low side.  […]
Eastside Real Estate Did Condo Prices Drop on Seattle’s Eastside in August, 2012? First, a word about condo prices on Seattle's eastside:  Even though the news media said condo prices were down in King County, they appear to be holding steady in the Seattle's eastside cities of Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, etc, when compared to August 2011 pricing.  This is good news for condo sellers who have gotten beaten […]
Bellevue, WA Which Eastside City had the Fastest Selling Homes In October, 2011?   Homes in East Bellevue and Redmond near Microsoft sold the fastest on Seattle’s eastside in October. Homes sold in under 2 months, at 59 days. Market time for the other eastside cities, ranged from 99-117 days or just shy of 4 months.  This is a reasonable market time as it shows a more of a balanced […]
Financing Is It Time to Buy or Refinance? It’s hard to believe that rates are as low as they are these days.   If you’re not buying, think about refinancing your home.   I just refinanced my home with a 7 year arm for 3.1%!  It lowered our monthly payments by $300. An adjustable mortgage may not work for everyone, but with fixed rates […]
Financing Should Buyers Be Required to Put 20% Down to Get The Best Rates for a Home? How does the government fix the mortgage meltdown mess to ensure nothing like this happens again? Should buyers be required to have a 20% minimum down payment in order to purchase a home?  Is this the answer?   Lawmakers in the other Washington, not here in Seattle, are looking into this issue.   Congress is currently looking […]
Financing Is there a 3.8% Real Estate Sales Tax Coming? Yes, But Mostly No A 3.8% Sales Tax when selling a home? My client had heard about this from a friend last week.  He emailed me the other to day ask if the health care bill included a 3.8% sales tax when selling a home.  I was pretty sure this was not exactly right, but thought I should check […]
Financing Want to Save Money on Your Mortgage? Twenty percent of the country is having financial difficulties with job and home losses, according to Greg Heberlein, the financial commentator at KPLU.  The news has been so focused on the difficult economic situation and in real estate on short sales, foreclosures, declining home values. What about the other 80%? We often forget about what’s […]
Financing Should You Consider The FHA ARM Loan? An FHA ARM loan?  With such great 30 year fixed rates?  In this day and age of great interest rates, few home buyers think of purchasing a home with an ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) loan. Steve Tedrow of Windermere Mortgage Services talks about why he thinks the FHA ARM loan works for some buyers. There […]
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Bellevue Real Estate What Were The Odds of Selling Your Seattle-Eastside Home in July, 2010? The odds of selling a home on the Eastside in July, 2010 ranged from a low of 11.5% to a high of 17%, with an average 14% absorption rate.(The absorption rate is the number of homes for sale in a month divided by the actual number of homes sold that month.) July, 2010               3468  homes for sale     501 homes […]
Bellevue Real Estate There's No "Red" on The June, 2010 Seattle-Eastside Real Estate Map There’s no “red” on the Seattle-eastside real estate map, which means there were no seller’s markets in June, 2010.  The Seattle-eastside real estate market has turned “yellow” for a market balanced between buyers and sellers,  and “green.”  “Green” on the map indicates a buyer’s market.  It’s not surprising to me that certain areas stay as […]
Financing Interest Rates Are The Lowest in the Last 30 Years I remember when I bought my first home in the mid 1980’s.  I was so excited, the interest rate was at the bottom of the double digits, considering what the early 80’s had to offer with rates in the high teens.  I had friends who purchased in Brooklyn, NY in the early 80’s and were […]
2010 Home buyer Tax Credit Should You Buy a Home on Seattle's Eastside Now or Wait? Should you buy a home now on Seattle’s eastside now or wait until after the tax credit expires at the end of April? People were talking on the Wall Street Journal site and on Zillow about this very issue.  Today people don’t just ask, “How’s the real estate market?”  They ask, “What do you think […]
2010 Home buyer Tax Credit The Clock is Ticking on the Real Estate Trifecta Who knows where the time goes? (“Who Knows Where the Time Goes”- written by Sandy Denny, but made famous by Judy Collins) Sometimes it seems like the past has gone in the blink of an eye.  Ironically, it feels exactly the opposite when we think of the future.  It’s human nature to think there’s all […]