SeattleLocalist

 Affordable housing? This Seattle Times article is making a clear point as to why the city needs to focus on affordable housing.  More inventory is also leading to sellers offering incentives to their buyers, such as closing costs paid and buyer’s bonuses.  

Now is a good time to be a first time buyer; however, I wouldn’t expect prices to drop in the city as they are nationally, so if you are waiting for a good deal, the next three months will be prime. 

 

 

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE — The median price for a single-family home in Seattle has surpassed the half-million-dollar mark for the first time, according to the latest figures from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Half the houses sold in the city in August went for more than $501,000 and half for less, up about 10 percent from last year’s median single-family home price of $455,000, the listing service reported Monday.

Factoring in condominiums, Seattle’s median home price rose to $439,000 in August, up 8.4 percent from last year. Prices rose nearly 6 percent in King County and less than 3 percent across Western Washington. Nationally, housing prices fell 3.2 percent between April in June.

Despite the rising prices in Seattle, buyers showed signs of growing caution amid the downturn in the national housing economy.

Closed sales in Seattle slipped nearly 11 percent from August 2006, the first yearly drop since February and the largest since October. Those sales declined 17 percent across the 19 Washington counties the listing service tracks.

“There are a lot of first-time buyers who are holding onto the belief that the market’s going to change, so they shouldn’t buy,” Windermere Real Estate agent Jim Patterson said.

The number of homes on the market continued to grow, partly because it’s getting harder for some prospective buyers to borrow money.

Lenders have been tightening standards in hopes of stemming the rise of delinquencies and foreclosures that has been rocking the market for sub-prime mortgage loans – those for buyers with shaky credit histories.

“The challenges that we’re seeing in the subprime market have made it more difficult for entry-level buyers,” said Erik Hand, president of Response Mortgage Services, John L. Scott Real Estate’s in-house mortgage lender.

Despite the national price declines, most real estate experts predict Seattle-area prices will continue rising moderately.

Seattle to buy back property from Allen to clean up ‘Mercer Mess’

Associated Press – August 15, 2007 10:55 AM ET

SEATTLE (AP) – The city of Seattle is starting to buy back some properties it sold six years ago to Paul Allen’s development company.

The city will likely have to pay much more than the $20 million it received. It needs the land now to address what’s called the “Mercer Mess” traffic problem in the south Lake Union area.

The city wants to start a $119 million Mercer Corridor project in 2009. The funding depends on voters approving a three-county roads package on the November sixth ballot.

The land buyback has been approved by the council’s transportation committee. The full council votes September 24th.

There is a new development that is still in its early stages that could prove to be a big addition to the International District.  Ravenhurst Development is looking to add a Best Buy, Lowe’s and four hundred residential affordable housing unit by 2010.

I have a unit at the Harwood Condominum  which I bought at the beginning of the year.  I am very excited to see this community come into the area, which needs a facelift badly. 

Property values should go up very nicely 

Read more here:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002650723_goodwill28m.html

First Avenue, Seattle Wa

I recently got some of my photos of the city added to Webtowns, check the full site out here.