BLOG RE/MAX IN BALLARD

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
July 16, 2008
By Aubrey Cohen

[…]

Sellers and their agents also are working harder to fix homes up and have them professionally staged and photographed.

But food is a more basic touch.

“It fills the house with an inviting scent and allows hungry shoppers to take a break and chat,” said Mary Schile, a RE/MAX Mutual Realty agent, who always serves coffee and pie — good market or bad — at her open houses.

“Typically, the folks visiting open homes don’t know if there will be food served or not, so it’s not necessarily a draw.

“But it is something that a good agent can add to enhance the experience.”

Schile throws pie parties every year on National Pie Day (Jan. 23, not to be confused with Pi Day, which is March 14, of course) and in late July, when she can get fresh ingredients. She’s also a “card-carrying member” of the American Pie Council.

“Pie has been my signature dessert amongst my friends for some time and, since I primarily work by referrals from my social network, it was a natural choice,” she said.

Over in Whittier Heights at the end of June, Shelly Baker laid out a spread of fresh fruit, veggies and dip, cheese and crackers, chicken and pasta salads, cookies and drinks on ice.

The food entices people to stay longer, she said. “And it makes it feel a little more welcoming.”

Continue reading at SeattlePI.com

Seattle Times
July 7, 2008
By Elizabeth Rhodes

As he gassed up his 2002 Honda Civic recently, David Underwood found himself at the intersection of two priorities: transportation costs and housing.

Paying $53 for a tank of gas to commute from his Kirkland rental condo to his Seattle job, Underwood realized that price set a “personal best” he’d rather not repeat.

That’s why after much discussion, he and his partner, Kali Kuwada, decided to buy their first home in Seattle, as close to their jobs as possible.

“We found ourselves talking more and more often about house prices going down and gas going up and how that intersected with our priorities: getting home fast and not having to spend a lot on gas,” says Underwood, a student and Seattle Central Community College employee who’s buying a Seattle town house near three bus lines.

“Ideally I’d like to live outside the city so we could get more for our money,” says Kuwada, a student whose 1996 Camry drinks three $70 fill-ups a month. “But gas and money and time are such huge factors. We sit in traffic forever and spend all that money sitting there. It’s insane.”

A Portland economist predicts that buyers soon will choose where to live based on what they would spend for gasoline.

That, eventually, will devalue suburban housing while strengthening in-city home prices, says Joe Cortright, whose Portland consulting firm, Impresa, recently released a report saying as much to U.S. mayors.

Continue reading at the Seattle Times.com

Ballard News Tribune
July 2, 2008
By Steve Shay

Despite the constant drumbeat of housing doom and gloom reported nationally, Ballard’s single-family home market is still rosy but has a few faded blooms.

Nationwide, home values have dropped nearly 15 percent in one year. Florida’s market is swamped with listings and Las Vegas real estate investors lost their shirts.

However, according to Multiple Listing Service statistics in the Ballard zip codes 98107 and 98117, the average selling price is only down about 8 percent.

Inventory of single-family homes and townhouses for May and June is 222, nearly double that of last year’s listings, and average time on the market is now two months, twice last year’s. Still, area realtors and lenders say the market is relatively strong.

“The best stuff, like a sweetheart of a house on a pretty street in a nice neighborhood is getting full price, sometimes higher,” said Michael Busacca, a realtor with Skyline Properties’ Northgate office. Busacca lives in Green Lake and has a listing in Sunset Hill for $622,000.

“Lower-end housing sold quickly between 2002 and 2007,” he recalled of the bygone boom. “Now people are more particular if a house has an Achilles’ heal, like small bedrooms, cat or smoke odor, or if it’s on a real busy street. Prices on those are dropping, but it’s pretty tame compared to the rest of the country.”

Busacca sees more people getting stressed with their income.

“Buyers now want a ‘turnkey’ house, one with nothing dysfunctional, rather than spending a lot of money on improvements.

“Once, lenders gave anyone with a pulse a loan. Now, there are plenty of legitimate first-time buyers but programs have dried up.”

“The media beats us up,” complained realtor Kevin Isaminger of Re/Max in Bellevue, who has listings in Ballard, and West Seattle where he lives. He said potential buyers lack confidence in the local market due to pessimistic news reports of troubled markets in other regions.

Continue reading at Ballard News-Tribune

Daniel Weintraub
The Seattle P.I.

With California on the edge of drought and water restrictions already beginning in some areas, the state might soon be looking toward an ancient practice that is attracting renewed interest around the world: rainwater harvesting.

In Australia, rainwater harvesting has been widespread for years, and in parts of the country it is the only source of fresh water. The government of Texas is an aggressive proponent of the idea. And in Washington’s San Juan Islands, residents have overwhelmed a state agency that grants permits for the installation of harvesting systems.
But in California, the notion of capturing rainwater for use in irrigating landscape still has not reached the mainstream.

Using rainwater for toilet flushing or even drinking is almost unheard of. Dylan Coleman would like to change that. Coleman, from the town of Mount Shasta, is a consultant and seller of rainwater harvesting equipment. With his wife, he also runs a nonprofit foundation — Save The Rain — that raises money to pay for the installation of rainwater harvesting systems in Africa.
Continue reading at the SeattleTimes.com…

Lara Jakes Jordan
The Seattle Times

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department gave a boost Tuesday to online real-estate brokers - and potentially their clients - by forcing new industry policies that give Internet-based agents access to home listings they were previously denied.

The tentative settlement, which requires court approval, could save consumers thousands of dollars when buying a home.

For years, Internet-based brokers have complained that the National Association of Realtors wanted to let real-estate agents exclude some of their listings from their online competitors, many of whom offer discounted prices. More than 800 multiple-listing services nationwide are affiliated with the Realtors group. Continue Reading at seattletimes.com