Moving Day at Eastside Real Estate Buzz

I am moving from the eblogger platform to wordpress over the next couple of days. Wordpress gives me the option to categorize my blog posts so you can search for the information that interests to you. You will be able to find all of the statistics, school information, etc. all under separate tag headings in the sidebar.


If you are accessing this blog via http://www.eastsiderealestatebuzz.com/, then your access should switch over automatically when we switch the domain name to the new blog. If your RSS feeds don't pickup the new blog site in a few days, you may need to resubscribe with the URL above.


Stay tuned!

Grab a Copy Of This Sunday's New York Times to Read an Article About the Economy, Mortgages, and Housing by Financial Expert, Roger Lowenstein

This morning on National Public Radio, Steve Inskeep interviewed Roger Lowenstein about the economy and the housing market. Roger Lowenstein, the author of The Origins of The Crash: The Great Bubble, a book about the Wall Street crash of the 1990's, has written an article which will be in Sunday's New York Times magazine about the housing market. In today's interview, he brought up some interesting points about the history of mortgages in this country. According to Mr. Lowenstein, in the 1950's local banks gave people mortgages. Investment accounts earned 3% and bankers used this money to provide 6% mortgages. People dealt with the local bank as, obviously, today's myriad of lending institutions did not exist.

In the 1970's Wall Street got into the mortgage lending act and created new securities from mortgage money, which were then sold to investors. Bankers would get paid to originate the loan and then would sell the loan to investors. Local mortgages were no longer the only source for money. All kinds of options for lending were created. Through the 80's and 90's, more "new style" loan programs were created. These new loan packages contributed to the problems we are seeing today.

I am sure Mr. Lowenstein's article will be an interesting and informative read. I will add my thoughts to this blog after I read his article.

However, it is important to remember there is both a national and a local economy. Our local economy is still amongst the strongest in the country and will continue to be so because of our strong job market.

Two Seattle Times articles, an article from the 30th and the headline story in today's paper, report Washington State led the nation with the most number of cities, 5, in the top 20 cities for appreciation so far this year. Prices in Wenatchee were up 23.54% , Longview saw a 13.6% increase, and the Seattle/Bellevue/Everett area experienced a 9.89% increase. Appreciation in the state as a whole ranked third in the nation with 9.12% growth.

It is clear the increase in appreciation happened earlier this year, however, economist Stanley Duobinis states the key to Washington states's economy, "It always comes down to the local economy. Washington's has been an above average performer because of the monster companies there, and their business is pretty solid."

His other comment, "A lot of growth restrictions are basically driving up the price of land, and therefore changing the nature of the house you can build on the land and causing prices to rise quite rapidly," echoes remarks I made in earlier posts this year. The two issues, the great economy and growth management issues will continue to help our real estate market over the long haul.

Please let me know if you have any comments about this article or after you read The New York Times this weekend.

Enjoy the Last Days of Summer on Seattle's Eastside at Snoqualmie Falls

The Puget Sound area is hopping this weekend with events ranging from Bumbershoot to a Jazz Festival in Anacortes to the Barnum and Bailey Circus in Everett.

If you are looking for something a little less hectic to do, you can play "tourist," and check out Snoqualmie Falls. The falls are quite spectacular. I was out there a couple of weeks ago with some family visiting from the east coast. It's funny easy it is to take things like the falls for granted. I hadn't been to the falls for years. Visitors tend to get us locals out to see the great stuff this area has to offer.

Although clearly not as massive as Niagara Falls, Snoqualmie Falls, at 270 feet, is actually about 100 feet higher. The falls are beautiful, but do not have the volume of water this time of year that can be found in the spring with the snow melt from the Cascades. I've been there then and the spray coming from the falls can drench you! If you click on the above link, you can see a photo of the falls when there is a huge volume of water. November tends to be the wettest month in the Puget Sound area, so the falls can run pretty strongly then.

There's a large observation deck that overlooks the falls and is a great viewing spot. However, if you head down the path there is even a better spot for viewing the falls which is less crowded than the main observation deck. You can get a more panoramic view of the falls from here.

There are picnic tables and a nice grassy area to stretch out, relax, and enjoy a picnic.

A path leads you down to the river, which is a good hike, but worth it!

Don't forget to stop in and see the Salish Lodge, one of the premier luxury lodges in the Northwest. The Lodge offers fine dining, luxurious rooms, and a wonderful spa.

The Future of Real Estate Marketing, My Views From Connect SF

For my last thoughts on the Real Estate Connect conference, Connect SF, here are some of the trends we should expect to see in real estate. Many of these trends are already here and becoming part of the very social fabric of our lives, not just in real estate. A case in point: In the August 27, 2007 issue of Newsweek, the cover story was about Facebook and how it jumped from a venue for college students to a site for everyone and anyone to connect. Turning to the section called, "My Turn", the Dean of Admissions at Pomona College, Bruce Poch, wrote about looking for authenticity when reviewing college applicant's information. Frank Rich of The New York Times said in the August 19th edition, "The rise of YouTube certifies the passing of Mr. Rove's (Karl Rove) era, a cultural changing of the guard in the digital age". Open information, connectivity, and authenticity on the internet, web 2.0, is everywhere, including real estate.

Here is what we should see in the world of real estate:

A national multiple listing service - every home everywhere in one database.

Video presentations for homes on the internet - real people talking about real homes.

Real time video tours of a home with viewer interaction.

Mapping will no longer be "flat maps", but will show homes at different angles. Layers of maps with different information regarding a specific property will be superimposed onto each other.

Web 2.0 is a place for collaboration and conversation. Think Craig's List, think Facebook, these sites are just the tip of the iceberg. Everything will be open and available on the internet.

Localism - This is huge! People crave information about the area, the neighborhood, the street and it will all be open and out there for buyers to review. Buyers are demanding more detailed information about schools, commutes, shopping, a particular street, the neighbors, and neighborhood activities. Finding out the local school's test scores is no longer enough.

Real estate - real time. Mobile real estate. Picture yourself walking by a home for sale and checking all the information, including video tours and photos on your phone.

Blogs will be the future of Realtor advertising. A blog will give the public insight into the writer, the Realtor. Authenticity will be the key to success. Buyers and sellers will first "interview" prospective Realtors by getting to know them online. Buyers and sellers will contact the Realtor with whom they feel most comfortable.

More of an online presence for traditional media.

The beauty of web 2.0 is the amount of valuable information out there for the public. It's refreshing to see buyers and sellers become more educated.

When You Are Selling Your Home-The First 6 Hours Are Critical

You have worked for weeks getting your home ready. You've had your garage sale and you've been packing up and decluttering your home. It's been painted, recarpeted. It looks so great, you wonder why you never did all these things before. You wonder why you are moving, except commuting to NYC for work from Seattle can be a bit difficult.

Your home is posted for sale and the phone does not ring. No one comes to see your new home when it's fresh on the market. You wonder why. You look on your Realtor's company website to see your home. Your home is posted, the description is right on, but it says:

NO PHOTO AVAILABLE

Your Realtor posted your home on the internet but missed the most critical marketing piece. There are no professional photos showing your home. It's not a particularly exciting presentation for your home. Your home is at the party, but is not dressed for it!

First marketing mistake: listing your home before marketing materials and websites have been created by your Realtor with professional photos. Most of us know that buyers use a prospecting tool to download new listings. Buyers learn about new listings within minutes.

Your home gets one first impression. Your Realtor must make that great first impression for your home with fabulous photos immediately online and professional quality marketing materials in your home. If buyers are not interested when they see your listing pop up, they may not be back. Remember, there are lots of other homes dressed for the party right now.

So when you interview a Realtor, ask about professional photography and how quickly the photos are online. This is a such a critical question and most home owners never ask it. Do yourself a favor and ask your Realtor the right questions.

What were the chances of selling a condo on Seattle's Eastside in July, 2007?

Sellers had a 36% chance of selling a condo on Seattle's Eastside in July of 2007.
(information obtained from MLS and Windermere charts)

• July, 2007 918 condos for sale, 332 sales, 36% chance of selling a condo.
• June, 2007 840 condos for sale, 382 sales, 45% chance of selling a condo.
• July, 2006 554 condos for sale, 393 sales, 70% chance of selling a condo.

The increase in inventory is the big news this year. Since the start of the year, inventory has climbed from 507 to 918 condos for sale. Inventory is up by 55% since January! There were 288 sales in January and 332 this past month. Sales have only increased by 14% this year.

Although sales increased from January to now, sales numbers decreased from last July, from 393 to 332 sales. The decrease in sales is not so dramatic, particularly when compared to the increase in inventory.

The condo market has undergone a huge shift from last year when 70% of the listings were selling. Everything sold last year with multiple offers. Now we are seeing more price reductions and longer market times. Last month we saw a more level playing field between buyers and sellers. This month we have gone from a strong seller's market to a buyer's market.

Your neighborhood skinny: what were the chances of a home selling in your neighborhood in July,2007?

The chances of selling a home on the Eastside in July of July 2007 ranged from a low of 18% to a high of 33%. All of the areas experienced a decline in the chances of selling a home.

The plateau: Sammamish, Issaquah, North Bend and Fall City

Sellers had a 21% chance of getting a home sold, DOWN from 25% last month and DOWN from 42% last year.
Median home prices dropped by about 5% to $569,800 from $602,475.
Inventory is up by 51.7% and sales have declined by 21.7% from last year.

I repeat my words from last month. If you are looking for a home on the plateau, now is the time to grab it! As a buyer, you have more choices than have been available for three years.


West Redmond/East Bellevue

Sellers had a 33% chance of getting a home sold, DOWN from 42% last month and DOWN last year.
Median sales price increased to $599,000 from $524,950 last year, 1 14.1% change.
Inventory is also up by 51.9%

The neighborhoods close to Microsoft are still the best performing area on the Eastside. However, we are seeing slowing down there also.

South Bellevue

Sellers had a 22% chance of selling a home, DOWN from 25% last month and DOWN from 36% last year.
Median price climbed to $749,975 from $679,000, a 10.5% increase.
Inventory jumped up by 35%.

Woodinville/Bothell/Kenmore/Duvall

Sellers had a 25% chance of selling a home, DOWN from 26% last month and DOWN from 36% last year.
Median price was up from $476,000 to $550,000, a 15.5% increase.
Inventory is up a whopping 56.2%

Kirkland

Sellers had a 22% chance of selling a home, DOWN slightly from 23% last month and DOWN slightly from 25% last year.
Median price climbed by 15.8% to $757,475 from $654,250.
Inventory is up by about 21%

The percentage of sales as compared to inventory has changed the least of all the Eastside areas.

West Bellevue

Sellers had an 18% chance of selling a home, DOWN significantly from 33% last month, and UP from 14% last year.
Median pricing rose by 23.2% to $1,354,975 from $1,100,000.
Inventory climbed by 20%.

The sales drop translates to 21 less sales this past month.

Redmond/Education Hill/Carnation

Sellers had a 21% chance of selling a home, DOWN from 25% last month, and DOWN from 31% last year.
Median pricing was up from $624,900 to $644,435, a 3.1% increase.
Inventory doubled and was up by 53.2%

Last month appreciation was down because the appreciation reported was a reflection of last month's sales, which were lower in price.

What were the chances of a home selling on Seattle's Eastside in July, 2007

Sellers had a 25% chance of getting their homes sold.

Here are the numbers for single family residences:

For complete year-to-date data, you can review these charts.

• This month, July, 2007: 3235 homes available, 773 homes sold, 25% chance of selling.
• Last month, June, 2007: 3107 homes available, 841 homes sold, 27% chance of selling.
• July 2006: 2281 homes for sale, 803 homes sold, 34% chance of selling.
  (Numbers are from derived from MLS data and for pending sales of single family homes, not closed sales)

Inventory increased this July by about 1000 homes from last July, a significant jump in available homes. With each passing month, inventory has increased this year, so our numbers are much higher than January (1895 homes in January vs. 3235 in July). However, the number of new listings coming on the market is less than previous months. The addition of 128 homes for sale in July is one of the smallest monthly increases this year. Below is a list the number of new listings added to to the market each month:

• January - 1895 homes available
• February - 1910 homes available, 15 new listings
• March - 2126 homes available, 216 new listings
• April - 2444 homes available, 318 new listings
• May - 2823 homes available, 379 new listings
• June - 3107 homes available, 284 new listings
• July - 3235 homes available, 128 new listings

Overall, the number of properties, homes and condos, on the market increased by 224 properties this month, an increase of 96 condos along with 128 single family listings. (I will be reporting about the Eastside condo market in a separate article. )

How have sellers been fairing? Our median sale price is up, but not every month. The median price each month is a function of what's sold that month, so we are seeing some monthly fluctuation. However, I believe, barring any complete meltdown of the mortgage industry, there will be some good appreciation come December. Competition, however, has increased as the overall gap between the number of listings and the number of sales became greater. When selling your home, it should be priced against the current competition, not just the past sales. If you are a seller, expect to have your home in pristine condition when going on the market. Your home must be perfect and positioned with professional marketing the first moment your listing hits the internet, not a day later. Your Realtor should have all of the marketing complete and ready to go before you are listed.

Is there a silver lining for sellers? With less new listings coming to market, is the amount of new inventory slowing down? We shall see in the next few months.

How are buyers fairing? Buyers should be out buying right now. The choices are just great. In many areas there's a softening of prices. If sellers are in tune with the current market, sellers are more negotiable. I have seen some price reductions in some communities where homes sold with multiple offers just a few months ago. If you are a buyer with impeccable credit, this is a time for you to be out looking and buying. You may also have less competition with other buyers.

Can homes still sell in a day in this market? Yes, I just had a closing on a home in central Bellevue that sold in one day for just over $700,000. My buyers were able to see the home within hours of its listing. We presented the offer that night and it was accepted first thing in the morning. That day many other buyers were scrambling on that house, but too late. My buyers were able to react quickly because they had seen a lot of homes. When they walked into this home, it was clear it was the one and it was worth the full asking price.

Check out the charts listed above and let me know if there is other data you would like to see. I will comment each month with some different things I see happening in the market. Your thoughts are welcome! Stay tuned for my condo report and eastside neighborhood report.

Viral marketing, Thinking Outside of the Box, What Your Realtor Should Do When Marketing Your Home

Back to a few more articles on Connect SF, Real Estate Connect in San Francisco. Connect SF was great, but nothing was more fun and interesting than the keynote speaker, Hugh MacLeod. Hugh is a cartoonist, humorist, and viral marketer extraordinaire. He has a website called gapingvoid.com. One of his jobs is marketing wine for a South African winery, Stormhoek.

(This is my photo of the Blue Monster cartoon taken during Hugh's talk at Connect SF. Great copies of the cartoon can be found on the attached Gaping Void links.)

His sense of humor and creativity resulted in a marketing campaign that greatly increased the number of cases of wine sold. Here is how he did it. Hugh created this cartoon which he passed onto a friend who worked at Microsoft and the cartoon took off. Microsofties have gotten a big kick out of it, downloaded the cartoon, and put it on computers and T shirts, you name it. There is even a group on Facebook called Friends of the Blue Monster.

Part of the beauty of this cartoon is the website for the winery, Stormhoek, is listed at the bottom of the cartoon, along with Hugh's gapingvoid.com website. This, of course, piqued a whole lot of people's interest, resulting in a new segment of the market finding out about Stormhoek and buying the wine. Hugh sent complimentary bottles of wine to bloggers who subsequently blogged about the wine, helping again to increase wine sales dramatically.

The message here: The job description for Realtors includes marketing properties. Realtors need to think outside of the box. It is even more important now when the market is tougher.

When you hire a Realtor to market your home, your Realtor should use creative internet and web 2.0 marketing to showcase and sell your home. There are new and great sites for putting homes and information out in front of buyers. The old marketing strategies of newspaper ads and open houses is not enough. A dynamic web presence is the key to maximum exposure and maximum dollars to home sellers. As I mentioned on a previous post, Street Advisor is just one example. This site gives neighbors a chance to comment on the nature of the neighborhood. For example, does everyone get together for an Easter egg hunt or a summer picnic. The internet is the portal to community information. What about Craigs List? This is a "community based" website which is the perfect vehicle for advertising a home. Try using Zillow. Realtors can advertise homes on the site. Expolive, Microsoft's website is another great marketing tool.


Bottom line, there are great marketing tools out there to reach a vast number of people. Make sure your home gets full advantage of these marketing sites.

Thanks to The Seattle Humane Society for Our New Family Member, Henry the Dog

Meet Henry...... and think about adopting a dog.

(Okay, I admit this article has nothing to do with real estate and I swore I would only write articles about real estate statistics, information and trends, area information, etc. But it has been a long day at the computer looking at July stats so I thought I would digress.... )

It had been a while since my husband and I had been without a dog. Between the two of us, dogs have been a part of our lives since 1975. We lost our most recent dog in the fall of last year to kidney failure. Zippy was with us for 15 years. We had rescued her from the pound in 1991 and were fortunate to have her until the fall of 2006. We vowed we would get another dog, but waited until we were not traveling so much.

We, or I, started our search online this time. There is a great website for locating dogs from all over the country. I spent a fair amount of time online looking at all the dogs in need of a home. Pretty heartbreaking stories. It makes you want to take them all home. There were dogs who were blind, without a limb or had socialization problems. By the way, a word of warning, do not start looking at these sites until you are truly ready to get a dog!

A couple of weeks ago, we saw a little Yorkie, named Curtis, on The Seattle Humane Society website. He looked cute and very much like our Silky Terrier, Zippy. He is ten years old and has some health issues. Apparently, he had been found by King County animal control and had been shipped off to The Humane Society for treatment. He had had a flea problem and subsequent skin issues. Some of his fur had been shaved off so he could heal. His back end was not a pretty sight! His face, however, was just adorable.

Here is how it works at The Humane Society:

When you go to The Humane Society, they let you look at all the dogs in the kennels. If you are interested in meeting one of the dogs or cats, you take the animal's information to one of the volunteers. After meeting with the volunteer about the dog or cat, you are then able to meet the animal. We met our Yorkie prospect in one of the "private" fenced-in areas. At first, it did not go well. This dog was completely distracted by all the other dogs and people walking by. Even though the area in which you "meet and greet" the dogs is mostly private, there are still spots in the fence in which a dog can see everything else going on. The dog across the way, who was "meeting" with some other people, was having the same problem. He also was unable to focus on the people who were trying to meet him.

We spent about 40 minutes with "Curtis" and barely connected. We were just about to give up when I asked if there was a private space in which we could meet with the dog. Fortunately, we were able to use their kitchen/workroom for about 10 minutes. At that point, we got a few minutes in which "Curtis" actually focused on us. We went outside with him and he allowed us to hold him while he still "supervised" all the action. It was at that moment we decided we might have a chance to win his affection and we chose to adopt him.

I have to say, he's been just great. He's kind of quiet, which is okay as he is an old guy. He is really sweet, and, after a just a few weeks with us, he is appearing to be very comfortable. He has found all of the furniture to be quite to his liking! I am pretty impressed with how comfortable he seems to be. No one knows how long he was out on the street.

If you are thinking of getting a dog or cat, think about adopting. There are so many wonderful animals in need of a home you will have a lot of choices. Contrary to what many people think, adopting an older dog does not always mean you will find a dog with lots of issues. Just remember, if you go to The Humane Society in Bellevue, ask to have a private space even for a few minutes if your dog is really distracted. If we had not done that, we would probably have left without our dog.

By the way, the dogs are given names if they are strays and no one knows the dog's name. Our dog was called Curtis, but never responded to this name. There is already a new "Curtis" on the society's website.

We spent a lot of time going through names for a while. Radar was our first choice since the dog was so on alert when we were trying to meet him, but we soon tired of that. We went through a lot of possibilities. I loved Laptop, since he is clearly a lap dog, but knew that was a just a joke. After, Jake, Buster, Scottie, Scooter, etc. we settle on Henry. Henry is not a typical dog's name, but it fits our older guy.