Forbes calls Seattle best housing bet!

I mentioned this in a previous post but feel it is worth highlighting again. Forbes.com has pegged Seattle as the #1 city to target for long-term real estate purchases going forward. Seattle is at the top of their list of cities that are least likely to overheat and bust in addition to having the most prospering economies going forward.

Here's what they had to say in regards to Seattle:

What lands it in the first position on this list is the combination of strong job growth with a building cycle that hasn't run in high excess of demand and, in part, its constrained geography. Especially compared to cities on the West Coast, Seattle has historically not overheated in boom times.

There's just less room to grow and few laws that make it easy to do so. In these markets, building activity doesn't rise as hastily during national booms, and, as a result, doesn't crash as dramatically during slowdowns (based on historical volatility and current market conditions).

While this doesn't necessarily ease the pain of current declines in home values, it should be one more piece of evidence that buying real estate in Seattle has been and will continue to be an extremely solid long-term investment. Now, more than ever, prices in Seattle have become extremely affordable compared to recent years. This is a correction from the minor inflation of value over the last ten years. First-time home buyers who now see their first in-city home as attainable will be the heroes of this current market. As they start to snap up their first home, this will release current sellers and allow them to move up as they have been wanting...thus creating a chain reaction. Hopefully positive media attention to Seattle, such as this Forbes article, will encourage home buyers to get into the game!


Read the full article here.

Residential Architecture Snapshot: The Tudor

With so many differing styles of residential architecture out there, I will periodically feature styles commonly seen in Seattle. Most styles are not native to this area. As people moved west, they brought their building knowledge and appetite for home styles from their hometowns.

The Tudor:

This architecture style was popular in the 1920s and 1930s and continues to be a mainstay in suburbs across the United States. The defining characteristics are half-timbering on bay windows and upper floors, and facades that are dominated by one or more steeply pitched cross gables. Patterned brick or stone walls are common, as are rounded doorways, multi-paned casement windows, small porches. Tudors are highly desired in the Seattle area, however their floor plans often prove to be impractical. The steep pitched rooves and relatively small footprint (in Seattle neighborhoods) don't allow for much room inside. But people fall in love with their curb appeal and usually fork out the money to live in them. Seattle tudors are often all brick and have a little bend near the bottom of the roofline.

Google releases Street View for Seattle!

This is a super cool feature new to Google Maps in the Seattle area. Google offered Street View for other cities and just added Seattle, D.C. and Baltimore to the list. As you look at a map, viewers have always been able to select from a street map, terrain map, satellite image or some combination of those. Now, when a map viewer clicks on "street view," an image box pops up that shows what it looks like to stand on the street in that particular location.

This is a very useful feature for home shoppers as they can see how certain properties look in a more realistic fashion than before. From what I've heard, Google sent vehicles around town with cameras attached and filming all the way. I haven't yet found a location that they didn't capture, which continues to amaze me. Have fun playing around with it.

Check it out!

New town home guidelines

Seattle mayor Greg Nickles called for mandatory design review for all new townhomes built in the city. This new process would provide more checks and balances in regards to the design of townhomes and other small multi-family developments. According to the Seattle Times,

The changes also would offer builders more flexibility in building
configuration, parking and open space. In some areas, structures could be
closer to the street. But some neighborhood groups believe the proposed changes could yield disastrous results: bigger, bulkier buildings, smaller yards and less open
space on the ground level.

It sounds like the proposal has good intentions as many townhomes built in Seattle are unattractive and do not fit in with their surrounding neighborhoods. Seattle is continuing to change their laws and zoning regulations as it attempts to accommodate the foreseen lack of housing in the city's future.

Read the full article here.