King County property tax set to rise...

During the last election, voters in King County approved a variety of measures to increase property taxes. The increased revenue will go towards everything from improvements to Pike Place Market to school bonds in Bellevue and Renton and parks maintenance throughout the area. Property taxes will increase overall by 6.16% in 2009.

Read the full article here.

Incentives to buy at Veer Lofts...

One of the hardest hit groups of the current downturn in housing are developers. New construction pricing is at rock bottom and builders are doing anything they can to get property off their hands to stay afloat. This is especially true with new condos in downtown Seattle.

While Paul Allen's development company, Vulcan, is not in any immediate danger of going under...they too are doing their best to stimulate interest in some of their condo projects. Veer Lofts is offering the following for buyers who close on certain units by the end of February:

• Pay no homeowner's dues until September 1st 2010


• All closing costs paid up to $7450


• $1,000 IKEA gift card


• A 1 year membership to Rain Fitness, just 2 short blocks from Veer


• Two $500 gift certificates for Alaska Airlines

All the units offering this great deal are under $300k. If you're on the verge of buying, this is a stellar opportunity. It takes roughly 2 years from breaking ground to completion for a new condo project to be finished and despite all of the cranes you see downtown...no new buildings have started within the last year. Over the next couple years, the current inventory will dry up and banks will again offer lending for developers to start new projects. Considering the new construction condos in downtown Seattle will be at a premium in a few years when the inventory runs out...buyers at Veer and other buildings will likely see substantial appreciation in 3-4 years.

$7,500 tax credit may be yours forever!

Who couldn't use an extra $7,500? In an effort to spur potential home buyers into the market, Congress passed a bill for a first-time home buyer tax credit. In short, here's how it currently works: If you haven't owned a home in the last three years, meet certain income restrictions and buy a house between April 8th, 2008 and July 1st, 2009...you can apply for the tax credit of up to $7,500. This amount minus any taxes you owe Uncle Sam is yours on either your 2008 or 2009 refund (depending on when you buy). The catch is that you must pay it back with 0% interest over 15 years. Not bad...but nothing to get excited about.

The latest stimulus package that President Obama is attempting to push through Congress has a few minor tweaks to the tax credit that result in some major changes. Nothing is official but here is a simplified version of the changes: you don't have to pay the $7,500 back! Ever! Now that's a reason to jump of the fence if I've ever heard one. The National Association of Realtors is lobbying to push the July 1st deadline back to December 31st of 2009 which would give buyers more than a couple months to close after the bill passes next month (assuming it does!).

So with houses on sale in nearly every market; interest rates at historic lows and Uncle Sam giving you $7,500...what reason would you have not to buy your first house?

Seattle Times article discussing proposed changes to tax credit.

Numbers to Know...

Here are the Seattle real estate sales numbers for the month of December 2008. As you can see, the overall trend for closed sales continued down from the summer. However, sales increased from the previous month. It's always difficult to judge sales numbers for December as the holidays and short daylight hours can skew the stats. We also had the snow days this year as well. One great downward trend to notice is the number of active listings. The more that drops, the closer Seattle will come to a balanced market. Seattle Real Estate continues to be a quality, low-risk investment. Local and national media continue to report on the stability of Seattle compared to the rest of the country.

Read about Seattle being a low risk real estate investment here.

New neighborhood map search...

The city of Seattle has a new map search function on their city website that is pretty cool. It allows you to filter for certain features and attractions of your favorite in-city neighborhoods. Want to know where the nearest farmers' market is located? How about public fire pits, p-patches, libraries or locations to buy a pet license?

Check it out here and start searching a neighborhood near you!

Home buyers getting off the fence...

This is an article from the Seattle PI that talks about some recent activity for Seattle home buyers in January. The new year often brings out a few more home shoppers but add on lower prices and rock bottom interest rates and the circumstances can't be better. One person quoted in the article thinks Seattle home prices still will drop 15% before the bottom hits. While this is possible, it would be surprising. Since Seattle did not suffer from over-development like Las Vegas and Arizona, the amount of inventory is high but not staggering. The recovery for real estate in Seattle depends largely on when a majority of buyers decide to hop off the fence.

Read the full article here.

Seattle Home Prices Rise in December

Home prices in Seattle rose in the month of December by just over 2% from the previous month. Year over year the area is down 7%. While home values rising is welcome news, using statistics from December can be a bit misleading. The holidays and inclement weather usually mean sales are down, so a few homes in the higher price range can skew the numbers.

Read the full article here.

Will the recession redesign the American home?

With the Seattle PI up for sale and Boeing announcing substantial layoffs, the Pacific Northwest can no longer claim it's in a protected bubble from the national downturn. In fact, Seattle real estate has been pretty quiet since September.

Our nation's history might suggest that our current economic downturn will our tastes for certain homes. In the years following WWII, soldiers arrived home ready to settle down as home owners but still remembered lessons learned from the Great Depression. Americans as a whole did not want to over-extend themselves but large numbers of people wanted to buy real estate. Therefore, small and inexpensive tract housing of the 1940s and 50s was born.

Flash forward to the late 1990s and early 2000s when "McMansions" were all the rage. However, our current recession combined with many Americans environmental sensitivity and their appetite for sustainability...the future homes in America might see yet another transformation.

Already, homes in Seattle are trending towards smaller, environmentally friendly and attached. Seattle townhomes are woven into the old in-city neighborhoods as city leadership looks to add urban density to account for future growth. Green building in Seattle is already prevalent and our region will continue to support this type of construction. The city of Seattle has very little land available for development, so the city might not always mirror the rest of the country in regards to housing styles. But be certain that home buyers in Seattle will begin to gravitate towards small and sustainable.

Read the full article here.

To Rent or Buy in Seattle?

Real estate agents are known for always saying, "Now is a great time to buy!" Well, that's not always the case for every potential home buyer. A lot of factors go into whether it makes sense to buy a home or to continue renting. For instance, the 2009 outlook for Seattle real estate appears to show that prices will level out or perhaps dip just a bit more. That combined with historically low interest rates might point to 2009 being a great time to buy a house. However, if the current economy makes your employment situation look troublesome...or you don't want the potential headache of home maintenance, then perhaps renting for now is best.

While systematically paying down a mortgage is a proven wealth building technique...and homeownership has many emotional benefits...the decision to buy a home must be taken on a case by case basis. The Seattle Times has a great article highlighting two different families who took different paths.

Read the full article here.

Residential Architecture Snapshot: Federal

Federal-style architecture dates from the late 1700s and coincided with a reawakening of interest in classical Greek and Roman culture. Builders began to add swags, garlands, elliptical windows, and other decorative details to rectangular Georgian houses. The style that emerged resembles Georgian, but is more delicate and more formal. Many Federal-style homes have an arched Palladian window on the second story above the front door. The front door usually has sidelights and a semicircular fanlight. Federal-style homes are often called "Adam" after the English brothers who popularized the style.

The main floor windows are usually up off of the street level so the well-to-do homeowners weren't forced to look at and be on the same level as the common street-dwellers. This style of home can be found in parts of Capitol Hill and Queen Anne but also scattered through the city of Seattle.

Architecture $.05

Need some cost-effective advice on an upcoming home remodel? Visit the Ballard Sunday market to see John Morefield. This is a sober, yet slightly humorous, article from the Seattle PI about a young architect who finds himself as another victim of this struggling economy. Morefield has been laid off twice in the last year but chooses to have a more optimistic view of his situation. The last few weeks he could be found at the Ballard market offering advice and attempting to secure longer consultations for eventual design work. At the very least, we can all agree this is a creative idea. Just the sort of thing we want from an architect...

Visit John's website: Architecture5cents.com

Read the full article here.

First-time home buyer tax credit

Okay all you first-time Seattle home buyers! The federal government released this tax credit last summer, however it's an important one to remember now that the new year has arrived. While the tax credit is a huge bonus for would-be first-time home buyers, it's not going to last forever. As it stands now, a buyer must close on their new house by July in order to qualify for the $7500 tax credit.

The Seattle Times published a recent article outlining some of the highlights of the credit. Remember: If you haven't owned a house in the last 3 years, you are considered a first-time home buyer and can qualify for the money! This makes buying your first house in Seattle even more enticing when you can receive money from Uncle Sam instead of owing him. Currently, this credit acts as a no interest loan. However I've heard some rumblings that part of the rumored stimulus package from the incoming administration will specify all or a portion of the credit will not need to paid back. Even better!

Read the full article here.