Residential Real Estate in SW Washington State

Residential Real Estate Services with Passion, Integrity, Knowledge

Homeowners: Do You Know Your Home’s Value?

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Homeowners: Do You Know Your Home’s Value? | Simplifying The Market

The latest edition of CoreLogic’s Home Price Index shows that nationally, home prices have appreciated 6.7% over the last year and 0.9% month-over-month. The release of the report included this headline, 

“National Home Prices Now 50% Above March 2011 Bottom”

The real estate market has come a long way since 2011, which is great news for homeowners!

Nearly 79% of homeowners with a mortgage in the US now have significant equity in their homes (defined as over 20%), according to the latest Equity Report. The challenge is that not every homeowner knows how much their home’s value has appreciated.

Homeowners in Denver, CO lead the way with 8.7% appreciation over the last year, while owners in Washington and Utah have experienced a 3% increase in values since the start of this year!

Nationally, CoreLogic forecasts that home values will increase another 5.0% by this time next year.

Bill Banfield, VP of Capital Markets at Quicken Loans, recently explained the importance of knowing the conditions in your area,

“With home values constantly changing, and the rates of change varying across the country, this is one more way to show how important it is for homeowners to stay aware of their local housing market.”

Bottom Line

Do you know what your house is worth? Have you stayed put because you are nervous you won’t have enough equity to buy your dream home? Let’s get together to perform an equity analysis and give you the freedom to achieve your dreams.

Get Out of the Rental Rat Race and Into Your Own Home!

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Rents are truly skyrocketing right now and they just keep rising. And it’s tough to get out of the rental market sometimes. I get it.

While house prices are rising as well, once you’ve purchased, you’ll probably be locked into your payment rate for 30 years. Of course taxes and insurance seem to rise most years, and there are costs of ownership. I get that too.

The point here is that no matter whether you’re renting or buying, you’re paying a mortgage. It might as well be your own.

If you are even thinking of buying a home, give me a call so that I can route you through to my preferred lender. There ARE ways to buy with only a 1% downpayment (or even zero sometimes).

As an aside, the Infographic included shows just how much less expensive it is for you to own your own home rather than renting.

Get Out of the Rental Rat Race and Into Your Own Home!

It’s a Seller’s Market! Should I Downsize Now?

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A study by Edelman Berland reveals that 33% of homeowners who are contemplating selling their houses in the near future are planning to scale down. Let’s look at a few reasons why this might make sense for many homeowners, as the majority of the country is currently experiencing a seller’s market.

In a blog, Dave Ramsey, the financial guru, highlighted the advantages of selling your current house and downsizing into a smaller home that better serves your current needs. Ramsey explains three potential financial advantages to downsizing:

  1. A smaller home means less space, but it also means less time, stress and money spent on upkeep.
  2. Let’s assume you save $500 a month on your mortgage payment. In 30 years, you could have an additional $1–1.6 million in the bank to get you through your golden years.
  3. Use the proceeds from selling your current home to pay cash for a smaller one. Just imagine what you could do with no mortgage holding you down! If you can’t pay cash, aim for a 15-year fixed rate mortgage and put at least 10–20% down on your new home. Apply the $500 you saved from downsizing to your new monthly payment. At 3% interest, you could pay off a $200,000 mortgage in less than 10.5 years, saving almost $16,000 in the process.

Realtor.com also addressed downsizing in an article. They suggest that you ask yourself some questions before deciding if downsizing is right for you and your family. Here are two of their questions followed by their answers (in italics) and some additional information that could help.

Q: What kind of lifestyle do I want after I downsize?

A: “For some folks, it’s a matter of living a simpler life focused on family. Some might want to cross off travel destinations on their bucket lists. Some might want a low-maintenance community with high-end upgrades and social events. Decide what you want to achieve from your move first, and you’ll be able to better narrow down your housing options.”

Comments: Many homeowners are taking the profits from the sales of their current homes and splitting it in order to put down payments on smaller homes in their current locations, as well as on vacation/retirement homes where they plan to live when they retire.

This allows them to lock in the home price and mortgage interest rate at today’s values which makes sense financially as both home prices and interest rates are projected to rise.

Q: Have I built up enough equity in my current home to make a profit?

A: “For most homeowners, the answer is yes. This is if they’ve held on to their properties long enough to have positive equity that will be sizable enough to put a large down payment on their next home.”

Comments: A study by Fannie Mae revealed that only 37% of Americans believe that they have significant equity (> 20%) in their current home. In actuality, CoreLogic’s latest Equity Report revealed that 78.9% have greater than 20% equity. That equity could enable you to build the life you’ve always dreamt about.

Bottom Line

If you are debating downsizing your home and want to evaluate the options you currently have, let’s meet up to help guide you through the process.

Tiny Houses

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I certainly don’t have to tell you how intriguing and just downright cute so many tiny houses are. Every now and then one catches my eye and I think … wow, maybe we should add this to our backyard! I mean, after all, that would’ve solved the “how do we share our space with a grown child?” and the “my aging best friend is running out of money and needs a place to live!” quandries.

Every locale has rules about what you can build where and this post doesn’t begin to address that issue. Be sure to check out what zoning, permitting, rights and restrictions you have in your area before attempting to install one of these on your property. In the meantime, here are links to couple of tiny houses that I think are absolutely amazing!

The first two are Ana White videos. If you’ve not seen her work and videos before, be sure to subscribe to her feed on YouTube, or visit her website at Ana-White.com. There are plans for furniture, how to build a Tiny House, and so on!

Country Living also has quite a number of Tiny House posts. This is one of my favorites:

One more, then I’ll let you do your own Google search for Tiny Houses. There are pages and pages of plans, ideas, considerations, etc.

Here’s a cutie posted by TreeHugger:

Enjoy!

Where Did Americans Move in 2016?

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This is a fascinating chart and oh so very true! Last year I assisted three out-of-state buyers in their move to our area. Although, come to think of it, there were two more that moved cross-country to the east coast as well. We’re a mobile sort of society, that’s for sure!

 

Some Highlights:

  • For the 5th year in a row, the Northeast saw a concentration of “High Outbound” activity.
  • For the first time ever, South Dakota held the top spot for “High Inbound” states.
  • Much of America’s outbound activity can be attributed to Boomers relocating to warmer climates after retiring.

You Can Test Drive a Car … But Not a House!

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The last couple of weekends have included a few hours helping our son decide what car to buy. We’ve been to this dealer and that, had him prequalified … and have driven a number of cars, usually with the all-chatty salesman in the backseat telling us exactly why this car is THE one to buy. We’ve driven some brand new cars and are now taking a look at a few that a just a couple of years old (Mom insisting that maybe the payment will be a bit easier on his monthly budget.)

Now that we’ve graduated to the used car market, I’ve been busy reading CarFax reports, looking over my son’s shoulder and hanging onto the passenger “Lord Help Me!” strap conveniently located just above most of the passenger windows. (Word to the wise … don’t ever go on a test drive with a 21-year old male …. )

Now that I’m safely home, I’ve been able to reflect on the disparity between buying a car and buying a house. We’re out driving around in a $18,000 car, testing the brakes, going around corners, up steep hills, accelerating on the freeway–all with a eye on making sure that the vehicle seems safe, feels good, and is worth going to the step of taking it to our trusted mechanic before going down the buying path.

However, buying a house … many times more expensive, doesn’t include that same test drive. There’s no chance to sit in the house long enough to decide if it’s drafty, cook a meal in the kitchen and see if the layout really truly works or pack the closets to see if the clothes all fit. All of those things are a bit subjective. We think it’ll work. We walk through the house–maybe a few times–then begin the purchase process. With careful thought and due diligence, we hire a trusted inspector to test and prod the house to reveal its strengths and weaknesses. We measure the rooms, sometimes draw them out on paper and hope everything fits.

But test drive? Nope. That’s reserved for much smaller purchases … like cars, trucks, and RVs.

As Agents/Brokers, it’s important to provide as many opportunities for our Buyer clients to look at a house at their own pace. To figuratively kick the tires, lay on the floor of the empty bedroom to see if the bed fits and stand in the pantry to evaluate the food storage. Because buying a home is truly the largest purchase they’ll ever make. It’s the best we can do .. their test drive begins the day they move in.

*photo courtesy of egg on stilts via Flickr

Think Housing Prices Are Too High?

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I have a client that loves to send me little jokes and ditties every now and then. He’s just slightly older than I am and loves to pontificate about how prices are outrageous and how he can’t imagine how people can afford to live any more.

In some respects, of course, he’s absolutely right. But in others, it’s amazing how little prices have gone up.

Today he sent me a list of a few things and their prices in 1955. Of note, of course, are prices like gasoline – 23 cents a gallon; milk – 85 cents a gallon; eggs – 61 cents a dozen.

A bit of checking around and I see this list, thanks to www.fiftiesweb.com: 

House: $22,000
Average income: $4,137
Ford car: $1606-$2944
Milk: $.92
Gas: $.23
Bread $.18
Postage stamp: $.03
Sirloin chops: $ .69 lb.
Pot Roast: $.43 lb.
Eggs, doz.: $.61
Coffee: $.93 lb.
Milk, ½ gal. $.43
Potatoes, 10 lb. bag: $.53
Starkist Tuna, 6 ½ oz. can: $.25 lb.
Oreo cookies, 11¾ .oz pkg: $.39
Potato Salad, pint: $.29
Cracker Jack, 24 pac: $1.49
Apple cider,½ gal.: $.49
Gum Drops, 1½ lb. pkg: $.29
Ivory Soap, 2 bars: $.29
Mickey Mouse lunchbox: $.88
Slinky: $.88
Nylons, pair: $1.00
Home permanent: $1.50
Baseball Glove: $9.95

 

As I reviewed this list, I’m thinking … wow, some of these haven’t gone up much at all. I mean, last week’s ad for potatoes was something like $1.48 for a ten pound bag (about 3 times more than 1955); milk – $2.59 a gallon (oof, that’s a big price increase: about 6 times, although I’m pretty sure I see milk for $1.99 a gallon now and then) eggs were something like $1.50 a dozen or so (can’t find an ad anywhere) – up about 2.5 times.

gas prices

 

Gas in my area (just south of Seattle) is right around $3.30 a gallon – up 14.3 times (that’s a gotcha!)

 

Anyway, then I decided to look at the price of housing. According to this chart, the price of a home in 1955 was about 5.3 times the average income.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

key with dollar signLooking at local statistics, Washington state reports that the 2011 median income for King County (basically the greater Seattle area) is projected to be $66,294. Median house price for sold homes in King County right now? The Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) says: $343,700 as of end of November. 5.18 times the median income. Pretty close to 1955.

Now, 1955 is just slightly before my memory (I was two in 1955) … I have memories of some of these though! I wonder what my grandchildren born in 2010 will think when looking back at prices when they’re 55.

Enough analysis this time of the morning!

Snow/Ice/Wind Storm of January 2012

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I was a bit (well, a lot) skeptical about whether we’d end up with a storm of the magnitude the weather folks were predicting early last week. We were to get 12-18” of snow. Uh huh … right!

In my area of south King County, we’d had a number of just wet little snow blizzards that melted about the time the flakes hit the ground. What I didn’t know, was that the worst of the storm was just laughing at me … waiting for me to go back into the house to finish my skeptical blog post.

For my area of the Auburn east hill, snow was late to arrive, but when it did, it was daggone serious. Now, remember you east coasters … we’re talking about the Seattle area here. We don’t get much in the way of snow. We may get a few inches here and there, close the schools for a day, and then melt off. There’s little snow equipment in the area, we live up/down on hills and the snow we do get is typically very very wet. None of that dry fluffy stuff that’s fun to ski … just Seattle “concrete.”

P1040017This time around was no exception. After fits and starts, snow really started to fall on Wednesday and it was wet wet wet sticky stuff. Great for making snow sculptures. That sort of thing.

Thursday morning around 7am, the power went out. A quick look outside said that it had snowed a bit more. With accumulations around 8 inches or so after it’d melted off a bit. Bummer—I wanted SNOW!—and an adventure! At my house, situated on a small community well, septic systems, electric heat, it was going to be a cold few hours – outside was around 28 degrees or so.

P1040023But, expecting the best and dressing in layers, we were prepared! Flashlights, generator, a full fridge and pantry full of food, bottles of drinking water and a bathtub full of water for the necessary stuff. Bring it on. We were ready.

HAHAHAHAHAAAA

Fast forward to late Thursday … it’s raining. That’s what was predicted. It was going to rain off all of our accumulations. No problem. What the weather folks didn’t know, is that the rain was freezing. Encapsulating everything and accumulating a deadly layer of ice on top of the snow. And it just kept on accumulating. By the time the rain stopped and turn back to snow on Friday, we’d gathered about an inch of solid ice on top of our snow layer. Stuff is falling off the trees everywhere. (Nothing like laying in bed listening … creeeekkkk, screee, schuuuuuckkkkk, CRASH!) Outside, it’s a winter wonderland with ice coating everything.

P1040025But then the snow kept on coming … again! Now there was about two inches of snow on top of the ice! Yikes! I had no idea. Friday morning I decided to let the dogs out front to avoid the broken tree mess in our back yard … and immediately after stepping off the porch all four legs splayed out on both dogs. Getting purchase and standing back up was a challenge for them.

By late Friday we were able to actually make it out of our driveway and back to the world and what a mess it was. Downed trees, downed wires, cars in ditches; it was total destruction. No wonder we had no power. Lines were down on both sides of our private road, huge trees laying everywhere.

P1040031But real estate calls just kept on coming. My cell phone kept ringing with people looking for houses. So on Saturday I decided to go ahead and make a showing appointment and give it a go. Yikes, what a further mess. Now our feeder road was totally blocked off, with power line trucks guarding the road so no one could get in or out. Lots of yellow caution tape. (Yay!! Maybe they were working on restoring power!) With lots of talking, we were allowed to carefully go around all of the barriers and trees and off to my showing. Only to be stood up by the Buyers. Sigh … but it was a fun adventure!

Here’s a shot of my favorite shade tree during the ice storm … and after. What you can’t see here is the line of tree trunks that are now just sticks. There’s gonna be a lot of tree removal again this year. I’m thinking that Mother Nature decided pruning was necessary so decided to help us get a start at it. We were very very fortunate – no real damage, but sure a lot of destruction. (And I was mighty glad to take a hot shower on Sunday when the power was restored!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Winter Storm Watch Continues

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CIMG0018My husband, the amateur weatherman, has been obsessively following the build-up to the “Megastorm” of decades, currently predicted for our greater Seattle region. We’ve been watching for days, experiencing a bit of snow here, and a bit of snow there. At our home in east Auburn, so far we’ve accumulated a couple of inches, which largely went away today even through additional flurries of wet heavy snow.

I grew up in Seattle and remember a few good-sized snow storms from my childhood; even one or two while raising our own children. This storm, however, is expected to dump somewhere between 12- and 18-inches in our yard, according to the “Futurecast” radar displayed on one of our local news sites, KIRO7. That’s a significant amount of snow. Significant!

According to AccuWeather, the history of great Seattle snowstorms is as follows:

    1. Jan. 5-9, 1880: Est. 36.0″ with 6-foot drifts
    2. Jan. 31-Feb. 3, 1916: 33.4″
    3. Jan. 26-31, 1969: 30.7″
    4. Jan. 12-15, 1950: 26.8″
    5. Dec. 23-27, 1965: 14.9″
    6. Dec. 30-31, 1968: 13.0″
    7. Jan. 23-26, 1972: 12.6″
    8. Jan. 25-26, 1950: 12.4″
    9. Dec. 26-27, 1974: 9.8″
    10. Nov. 20-22, 1985: 9.4″
    11. Nov. 27, 1985: 7.6″

    Twelve-to-eighteen inches. I’m expecting the roof to be fine, but I’m thinking the tarp-type carport under which we park our riding lawnmower and various “stuffs” to probably take a hit. We’ve brought pellets for the stove into the garage. The chickens are safely ensconced in their coop with plenty of food and water. The dogs are oblivious, but will love it. The cat? Well, we may have to hand-carry him out now and then to visit the kitty potty.

    Twelve-to-eighteen inches, followed by rain. It should be exciting!

     

    Real Estate is About to Come to a Screeching Halt in Auburn, WA!!!

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    scraping snow off carTruly! Snow is coming! The world will come to an end in Auburn in three days!

    At least so say the weather stations.

    The greater Puget Sound metropolitan area is a unique place when it snows. We’re hilly around here and our typical warm ocean breezes prevent us from getting much in the way of significant snowfall, which means most of the cities and towns in our area have a minimal amount of snow equipment to deal with the mess. We don’t dump a lot of sand or salt on the roads. Some … but not a lot.

    Oh sure, once a year or so we get dumped on with a couple or three inches, but then it rains away within the next day or so. I know, I know – you Seattle’ites remember the recent great snowfall of ‘ought eight’ when we had 6+ inches on the ground for a week or so.

    It was darned cold out there and the stuff was packed hard on our road. (We happen to live almost at the bottom and no way were we getting out of here.) It was exhilarating! Snowball fights. The dogs romped through the yard like puppies. BIIIGGG snow creatures adorned the yard.

    I remember that the Mayor of Seattle got into all sorts of trouble for not arranging to have side streets and a few major hills plowed (as if he could do much about it with the few plows available), and so on. It was chaos out there.

    But I love the snow. Snuggling inside with hot cocoa and a good book.

    So … just a word to the wise: Beware!! Real estate .. and everything else involving cars … is coming to a screeching halt if we get 1/2” of snow on Sunday. …….

    ……

    ……

    … of course, then it’ll all start back up again in a day or two and we’ll be raring to go back to work.

    Enjoy!