A new twist on an old idea?

A local developer is building a brand new rooming house in Capitol Hill. The Seattle times writes, "The rooms are small — about the size of a parking space — but the project's developers say they fit the budget and lifestyle of young adults who might be working as baristas or $12-an-hour clerks in big-box stores."

Personally, I lived in some form of a rooming house for 6 years of college and graduate school...but I knew all of my roommates! Not sure if I could handle close quarters with strangers. Let's hope they all do their dishes...

While not my cup of tea, it is an interesting idea to provide affordable housing here in the city. Check out the Seattle Times article below to read more.

Read the full article here.

King County property taxes

Appealing King County property taxes has become a popular topic of discussion. In fact, the number of homeowners appealing property taxes in King as well as other counties have increased dramatically.

The reason for this is the sharp decline in market value for homes and the delay in how properties are assessed for taxable value. In short, comparable homes sold in 2008 are used to determine property values on January 1st, 2009 for taxes payable in 2010. So those who bought at the height in 2007 or early 2008 caused assessed values for many people to increase. Despite the actual market value decreasing 15% or more.

Below is a great article on the issue and some helpful hints on how to appeal your King or Snohomish County property taxes. If you would like up to date comparables for your house in order to appeal your assessed value...just shoot me an email and I can send them over.

Read the full article here.

Local condo projects slashing prices to attract buyers

Several large, luxury condominium projects in Seattle and Bellevue are finishing construction or are recently completed. The problem is, the down turn in the real estate market has caused sales to be non-existent or extremely slow. Of the 539 units in the Bellevue Towers, only 43 have closed. To stimulate sales, they have slashed prices by an average of 20% at the eastside project.

Vulcan's newest building, Enso, is nearing completion and they are finalizing their pre-sale commitments as well as doing their best to attract new buyers. While Enso won't release their price adjustments to the press, agents were invited to an open house where we were informed some units are now reduced as much as 25%. It's nice to see they are being realistic about the market and their pricing should help move much of their inventory.

On the other end of the spectrum, Olive 8 is refusing to reduce prices and claims they will wait out the market. The developer seems to think the Hyatt hotel that makes up the first 17 floors will carry the building through this down market. Perhaps they should rethink this as only 28 of 229 units are closed.

Read the full article here.

King County home sales in June highest since October 2007

Homes sales in June were up 4 percent from a year ago in June 2008. This is the first increase since the height of the market two years ago. The county hasn't recorded this many sales since October of 2007. Total sales in the southern portions of the county were actually down, while Seattle sales were up 11 percent!

First-time buyers were leading the charge on much of this market activity. But the article from the Seattle Times points out what I've said will happen all along. The people selling to the first-time buyers will eventually buy their next home and create a trickle-up effect.

Prices are still down, however. Median single-family home prices in King County were down 12% in June from a year ago.

Read the full article here.

Backyard Cottages in Seattle?

Here's an interesting article from the Seattle Times regarding a current proposal from the Seattle City Council. If the council approves the proposal, homeowners throughout Seattle will be allowed to build backyard cottages up to 800 square feet. While attached mother-in-law style units have been allowed since 1994, the city more recently explored the idea of allowing property owners to develop what they're calling 'backyard cottages'. The technical term for such a structure is called a 'detached accessory dwelling unit'.

In 2006, the city decided to experiment with the idea by allowing only residents in Southeast Seattle to build these cottages. To this point, only 17 have been built. While the idea is meeting significant Resistance, a city survey reveals that neighbors either like the units or don't notice them.

In general, the city views this as an affordable and creative means for residents to downsize or allow family to live nearby. It also adds density without major development. Opponents of the plan suggest that the proposal in-effect rezones the entire city to multi-family zoning.

Read the full article here.

Seattle sees growth in city

Census data recently released reveals that large cities are now growing faster than other parts of the nation. This reverses a decade-long trend of urban sprawl. The Associated Press article suggests the growth in large cities is due to the economic crisis and housing downturn. With people making less money and not being able to sell real estate as easily, they are starting to remain in big cities.

The article claims that Seattle is one of the large cities seeing faster growth in large part to foreign-born immigrants who moved and stayed here.

It goes without saying that growth in the city of Seattle will eventually help our real estate market. More people equals more demand for housing. More demand leads to appreciating values.

Read the full article here.