subject: Homes For Sale SeattleWA [print this page] Real Estate Seattle Real Estate Seattle
Real Estate Seattle and Seattle Homes For Sale are leading the pack in the northwest Puget Sound region.
"Foreclosures continue to surge around Real Estate Seattle," reports the Seattle Bubble, with King County's 1,413 notices of trustee sale in July representing an increase of 13 percent compared to July 2009.
Thus this 410-sq.-ft. studio condo on East Thomas Street, just off Belmont on Capitol Hill, which the bank will let you have for $135,000. It's eligible for HomePath financing, so you can buy with just three percent down (about $4,000).
View the listing on Windermere or Redfin. It's a 1917 brick-exterior building, with natural gas and a heat pump. HOA is $252 per month, but property taxes are $1,617.
The price is down from an original $144,900 and it's been on the market for about a month and a half.
Redfin's July real estate summary compares buyers to vultures ("Vultures! Vultures everywhere!" Sorry. It's a tic.) who won't act until sellers pull the listing in despair, or someone else tries to snap it up. Sales volume is down, and inventory even ticked up slightly, as Seattle home sales dropped over 15 percent from June. Their spreadsheet shows 2,129 houses for sale in Seattle, and 1,373 condos. The median sale price for condos was $342 per square foot; for houses, $330.
##Bottom line, says Glenn: "So far in August, we have seen record numbers of Redfin customers touring properties in Seattle, but buyers are very picky, and in no rush. Prices are going to stay down for the rest of the year, and probably longer." Lacey Lingenfelter with Skyline Properties said "Prices are down, rates are down and if you're in a stable financial position, it could be the best time ever to purchase Real Estate Seattle". She went on to say "Seattle Homes For sale at these low rates, gives strong credit buyers amazing buying power but that at the same time, if her buyers are not in a good position to buy now, then don't rush into the market. There's always a good deal out there, right now just happens to be the lowest rates and home prices we've seen in many years".##
Seattle City Councilman Tom Rasmussen is floating a proposal to create a citywide transportation benefit district and add a fee to car tabs registered in Seattle. The money would be used to pay for roads, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian improvements. On the surface, this seems like a reasonable proposal. But the view is a little different if you step back and consider the long-term impacts on our form of government.
I understand and support Rasmussen's efforts to invest in our transportation infrastructure. Virtually every government in the country is struggling with funding issues and how to meet their obligations, and Seattle has more than its share of transportation needs.
Our local roads are funded through our city's general fund. This funding also pays for parks, cops, firefighters, human services, housing, and other services. Departments want out of the general fund because that's where the budget battles happen when there are downturns in revenue. City Light and Seattle Public Utilities are ratepayer funded and therefore largely immune to the ups and downs of taxes. For years, the general fund feasted on the real estate excise tax, but those revenues virtually disappeared when the housing bubble burst.
Transportation is hardly the only department that wants out of the general fund. Parks and libraries also want to escape, and one can visualize a time when Seattle Center is pushed out on its own with a separate funding source or taxing authority. These departments don't want to be competing for funding with cops, firefighters, and programs for the homeless. Plus, the general fund also funds a number of private non-profits that are expert at mobilizing their clients and members in council chambers to protect their funding - putting further competitive pressures on other departments.
So why should we care if we're taxed separately for all these services? Why not also form a public safety benefit district so we can guarantee four firefighters per engine, and a fully funded neighborhood policing plan? Why should libraries and parks have to compete for funding with roads and bridges? What's wrong with government a la carte?
The main concern I have with government a la carte is that elected officials will not be able to resist the temptation to put popular basic services on the ballot for funding, in order to protect the less popular programs in the general fund. This is not new. This is why we have parks and library capital levies. This is the thinking that gave us the Bridging the Gap levy for transportation infrastructure in the Nickels administration. Years ago we had a public safety levy, and more recently a fire levy to upgrade our fire stations.
But there are rumblings that such levies are no longer enough for real estate seattle politicians - mainly because levies are for infrastructure within the real estate seattle area and not staffing. In fact, the recent parks levies have created a need for more staffing in order to maintain and manage our existing facilities. Our former parks superintendent, Tim Gallagher, resigned because, according to him, the failure to create a parks district was compromising the quality of our parks.
The same goes for transportation. Apparently, Bridging the Gap is insufficient although we still have two years left on that levy. Libraries too, feel pinched between public safety and human services.
Government is by necessity a monopoly and cannot go out of business. Elected officials essentially take the place of market pressures found in the private sector. But politics, personal priorities, and a desire to do something are powerful too. That is why other pressures are valuable in creating balance.
In these economic times throughout real estate seattle, government at all levels should reassess the way services are delivered and how priorities are set. This must be done before asking already pinched citizens for more money. We may find that we can't afford everything on the menu.
##If you have any questions about Real Estate Seattle, interest rates, market stability, school area information, home loan modifications or just need additional sound real estate guidance, feel free to contact Lacey Lingenfelter with your questions. She's a licensed real estate Seattle agent with Skyline Properties. Real Estate Seattle is knowledge you can trust with experience you can count on!##
