Fall can be a focal time for your garden. Rather than pruning back perennials and cleaning up tools, take some time to scrutinize your entire outdoor environment. Here are four areas that may help your garden get a jump on spring…
Seattle Ranks 4th Among Best Tech Regions in U.S.
The Seattle-Puget Sound area is the fourth best tech region in the nation, according to real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle. Three areas around San Francisco led the rankings. Portland was 16th.
In its third annual high-tech office outlook, JLL compared 26 markets using four primary factors:
- overall high-tech employment
- amount of venture capital funding
- number of patents
- number of tech workers as a percentage of people with college degrees
A company representative said employment metrics are weighted most heavily in its rankings.
Why hasn’t the inventory shortage fueled more home construction?
Ever wondered why, in the face of a sharp inventory shortage, new home construction still lags so far behind other housing indicators? According to Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko, there are two reasons…
Demand for Puget Sound area Homes “Still Incredibly Strong”
… but brokers report frenzy is easing in some neighborhoods.
Earlier this month the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported that figures for August show brisk sales, escalating prices and some improvement in inventory, prompting one MLS director to declare, “What these numbers tell us loud and clear is that buyer demand in the Puget Sound region is still incredibly strong.”
In making that comment, OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate, noted the housing market tends to experience some slowing during August, but rising inventory levels and sustained buyer demand fueled “higher than expected home sales and another month of strong appreciation.”
The latest figures from Northwest MLS show pending sales (mutually accepted offers) during August increased 8.7 percent from a year ago. Brokers in the 21 counties served by the MLS reported 9,065 pending sales system-wide. That’s a drop of 500 units from July, but an increase of 727 transactions compared to a year ago (August 2012). In the four-county Puget Sound region (King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish), the total of 6,916 pending sales was the highest volume for August since 2006 when members notched 7,692 sales.
Prices also reflected an upward trajectory. The area-wide median price for last month’s completed sales of single family homes and condominiums was $283,000, which compares to the year ago figure of $250,000 for a gain of 13.2 percent. Only two other months this year have had higher year-over-year increases: March (14.9 percent) and May (13.4 percent). Since January, prices have jumped 18.3 percent.
Prices on single family homes (excluding condos) that sold during August increased from $263,495 to $294,000 for a gain of 11.6 percent.
For Bigger Homebuying Value, Look in These Smaller Markets
With fixed mortgage rates rising by more than a full percentage point since May and more likely to go higher than lower, homes are becoming significantly less affordable for those not buying with cash. That means homebuyers still trying to take advantage of still-low mortgage rates might have to set their sights a little lower when shopping for what they can afford.
Here’s a look at seven smaller housing markets that would be quite affordable for those who don’t have to live in a major metro area.
Suze Orman Changes Homebuying Advice
Now that we are seeing a rebound in the housing market, it is time for a new home buying strategy says Suze Orman. “Financial advice needs to change according to what is happening in the economy,” she says.
In today’s economy, with interest rates still low, relatively speaking, and home prices leveling out, Orman says potential homebuyers no longer need to make a down payment of 20 percent. “I’m fine if you can get a mortgage with 10 percent down,” says Orman.
Claim Energy Efficiency Tax Credit for Homeowners Before it’s Gone
The federal government wants to encourage homeowners to make their homes as energy efficient as possible. To do so, back in 2005 Congress enacted a tax credit for “nonbusiness energy property.”
This was a tax credit (subject to a $500 lifetime cap) for certain energy efficiency improvements to a taxpayer’s existing principal residence. The credit expired at the end of 2011, but was brought back from the dead by the fiscal cliff tax deal back in February. It was made retroactive to apply to 2012 and then expire at the end of 2013.
So, if you haven’t used up your lifetime $500 limit already, 2013 could be your last chance to do so.
Choose Your Clients Carefully
One of the wonderful things that comes with being self-employed is that real estate brokers and agents get to make choices.
We can choose to work with certain clients, or we can choose not to.
In fact, we can even choose to take the day off, and there really isn’t anything anyone can do about it except call us a lazy agent.
Will The Mortgage Rate Spike Slow Market Recovery?
Have you been watching mortgage rates rise the past few months and wonder what that means for the housing market? So have a lot of other people!
Find out when mortgage rates are likely to bite and what other factors are influencing the current market nationwide.
Study Finds 8.3M Homeowners on Verge of Positive Equity
Home prices have rebounded so rapidly that RealtyTrac is reporting 8.3 million borrowers who’ve been underwater are on track to have enough equity to sell their home within the next 15 months-without resorting to a short sale.
Metro markets that boast the highest percentage of homes with resurfacing equity include Omaha, Nebraska; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Managing The Real Estate Details 