New Lisitng-7336 12th Ave NW-$839,000

This beautiful new Craftsman in the highly desired Whittier Heights/Ballard neighborhood is just minutes away from shopping, restaurants, and parks. It’s also centrally located on a quiet residential street only two blocks from Whittier Elementary School.

High-end design throughout features hardwood floors, a gourmet kitchen with slab granite and stainless appliances, a formal dining room, and much more. The master suite has vaulted ceilings, a large walk-in closet, a gas fireplace, and jetted tub. Artisan touches in this open and light-filled home include wainscoting, extensive crown molding, and custom fixtures. With a large bonus room for recreation or media, a two car garage, and a private back yard, this home is spacious and inviting.

Click here for the full, official listing on Windermere.

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 3

Year Built: 2006

Heat Source: Forced Air

Sq. Footage: 2800 sq. ft.*

MLS# 27093099

*This information is provided as a courtesy only; buyer to verify all information.

April House Sales

Bucking the national trend, the price of King County houses has risen for the fourth month in a row, reaching a median $465,000 in April, according to statistics released Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. At the same time, single-family home sales are slowing throughout much of the four-county Central Puget Sound region. The majority of single-family homes sold within Seattle last month went for more than the asking price, an analysis by Windermere Real Estate shows. That trend in Seattle was strongest for two-bedroom houses. Less expensive because of their small size, they’re in high demand as “starter homes.” They brought an average 100.43 percent of their asking price, Windermere found. Three-bedroom houses — the largest percentage of sales — on average sold for 100.25 percent of asking. Only five-bedroom houses in Seattle, which as a group are larger and more expensive, sold for less: 97.6 percent of the original asking price. Buoyed by a strong local economy that’s been growing at twice the national rate, some 64 percent of all Seattle houses sold within 30 days, Windermere reported. In other parts of the country, where the economy is more sluggish and foreclosures have started to push down prices, average selling times are 90 days or more. “If it’s a good, clean property and priced right,” it will sell quickly, said Jerry Martin, broker and owner of RE/MAX Northwest Realtors-Kirkland. He noted that homes priced below $500,000 sold the fastest, sometimes receiving multiple offers. Plus there are significantly more properties to choose from compared with a year ago.

In King County, the number of houses available increased 38 percent in April. The number of condos for sale rose 74 percent as more new buildings and conversions came on the market. That strong uptick helps explain why pending sales for houses and condos combined fell 5.4 percent last month compared with a year earlier. Pending sales reflect the relationship between the number of available properties and the number of accepted transactions.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

Seattle Home Buying Seminars

April 22-28: Real-estate classes, seminars and events

For anyone interested in learning more about home buying, check out these great opportunities!

For Homebuyers:

TUE Seminar covers contingencies and home-buyer tips for all types of residential properties including condos; good-faith estimates provided; preregistration required. 6:30 p.m., Whole Foods Market, 1026 N.E. 64th St., Seattle; free (206-985-1500 ext. 0 or http://vickisez.com)

Insider tips to buying a home:

THU Learn the secrets to a stress-free home-buying experience; preregistration required. 6:30-8:30 p.m., Renton Technical College, Room C-113, 3000 N.E. Fourth St., Renton; $10 (425-235-2352 ext. 5727 or www.sheribay.com/realestateclasses)

Avoiding predatory lenders:

THU Class examines various loan sources, how interest rates are quoted and misquoted, six common frauds committed by predatory lenders; preregistration required. 6-9 p.m., Discover U, 2150 N. 107th St., Seattle, $45 (206-365-0400 or www.discoveru.org)

Thinking about renting?

Apartment rents throughout the central Puget Sound area are the highest in years and vacancy rates are tightening — narrowing options for renters who increasingly are finding themselves also priced out of homeownership. Blame it on a strong economy that’s creating apartment demand. Blame it on weak apartment construction activity that isn’t meeting the demand. And blame it on condominium conversions that are sucking away rental supply, said apartment analyst Mike Scott, of Dupre+Scott Apartment Advisors in Seattle. Based on its semiannual survey of apartment owners and managers, Dupre+Scott found that the areawide vacancy rate is one of the lowest in 20 years.

Strong Seattle Market Growth Continues

After stalling for two months, home prices in King and Snohomish counties perked up last month, disappointing potential buyers who thought slowing price appreciation had presented an opportunity. Brian and Jennifer Rutherford are experiencing King County’s strengthening real-estate market firsthand as they shop for a Bellevue home in the $500,000 range. They initially planned to take their time to find the right house, said Brian, who does business development for a software company. Brian and Jennifer, a nurse, own a condominium in West Seattle. “We were just hoping things would cool off. It might have cooled off from its highest point, but not too far,” he said. “Now we’re making more of an effort to step up our looking.” Home-sales data released Thursday by the Northwest Multiple List Service for March prove his point. King County’s median single-family home price rose 6 percent to a record $454,950 last month. Snohomish County’s single-family home price, which also hesitated, moved up 7.4 percent, reaching a median $382,500 in March. In Kitsap County, the median single-family house price was up 2.2 percent to $291,250.Only Pierce County bucked the trend, with the median single-family house price declining 2.4 percent to $280,000 last month.

Median means half the properties sell for more, half for less. Thursday’s news that Microsoft is leasing 1.3 million square feet of Bellevue office space, enough to house 4,000 employees, is a near guarantee that Brian Rutherford is correct about home-buying prospects. More workers in Bellevue may create more competition from other buyers in the Rutherfords’ target neighborhoods. Mortgage rates also have remained near historic lows, making it possible for more people to buy a home.

Still, Rutherford remains philosophic. “It is what it is. That’s the region we live in,” he said. If the Rutherfords decide to sell their West Seattle condo, they will enjoy the upside of a healthy market. “I’ve been here for 41 years, so I’ve seen slow markets, and this is not a slow market,” said Rich Bianchi, owner/broker of the Keller Williams Realty office in West Seattle. Rather, he senses “the market is active, but not quite as active as last year,” and that has confused buyers who thought prices would fall. They haven’t. “I think some people thought they’d wait until after the first of the year to get a bargain,” Bianchi said. “That didn’t happen.” Indeed, West Seattle homes priced at less than $500,000 are drawing multiple offers — the same dynamic the Rutherfords have found in Bellevue. They already have lost a bidding war on a $480,000 Bellevue house. Seven offers pushed the price to $535,000. Builders are adding to the mix. Windermere agent Daniel Toth’s West Seattle listing for a 1928 brick Tudor — original period detailing plus a new kitchen for $499,950 — recently was snapped up by a builder. He plans to construct two additional homes in its back yard. Lennox Scott, chairman of John L. Scott Real Estate, said a shortage of affordably priced homes will keep the local market strong.

New Listing in South Seattle $395,000 MLS 27029741 (just sold)

This charming 1911 Craftsman home is located near Seward Park, Lake Washington, Columbia City shopping, and a new light rail station (Othello). Beautifully landscaped on a large 9300 sqft lot (buyer to verify all sqft), this inviting home is perfect for a sunny day BBQ and entertaining.

Inside you’ll find a spacious family room with a stone fireplace and a formal dining room with original craftsman millwork. Three cozy bedrooms with designer colors and a huge bonus room or 4th bedroom is on the upper floor. New carpet, new engineered hardwoods, and an updated kitchen are recent upgrades to this well-kept home. Below the main level is a full basement with plenty of storage.

Summary:
-1911 Craftsman
-4 Bedrooms
-2.25 Bathrooms
-Attached garage
-Approx. 2400 finished sq ft
-820 sq ft basement
-Lot Size: 9300 sq ft
-Heat: Gas furnace
-New floors, carpet, paint throughout and much more.
7947 46th Ave S Seattle, WA. 98118 Call for more information.

Spring is here!

It’s too early to say if this spring’s home sales will be a repeat of last spring’s frenetic activity, but February’s home sales point to it, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. The number of pending sales in King County climbed 31 percent to 3,272 last month, compared with 2,492 in January. However, King County’s median single-family home price has not edged upward in several months, according to the MLS. February’s median sold price was $429,925, about what it has been for roughly the past six months, but up almost 9 percent compared with February a year ago. Median means half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less. It is considered a more accurate figure than the average sales price, which can be easily skewed by the sales of a small number of very high or very low priced houses (Single-family home sales numbers include town houses). The picture is more complex for King County condos. Median sales prices have bobbled up and down — from $269,950 in December to $229,900 in January to $285,250 last month. That’s happened for a number of reasons.

One big one: Numerous new condo projects are now being sold, which can affect the mix of sales, and thus the median prices, in any given month. But the buyers are definitely there, said Lennox Scott, chief executive of John L. Scott Real Estate. He said February sales showed growth compared to the previous months, and sales were on a par with a year ago. Scott also credited mortgage rates, which remain at near-historic lows, and employers continuing to create jobs, as favorable factors for the real-estate market. Windermere broker Karen Lavallee said sales activity in her office’s West Seattle neighborhood showed a marked increase recently. “Our office picked up about the third week of January, and it’s been good ever since,” she said. Lavallee thinks that reflects pent-up demand from November and December, when bad weather kept home shoppers away. “But the sun comes up and everything perks up,” Lavallee said. Scott said the strongest sales are in the more-affordable price ranges, which vary by neighborhood. For example, in Bellevue, west of I-405, the median sold price of a single-family home last month was $595,900. Anything below that would be considered affordable for that neighborhood.

Tax Deductions!

Homeownership carries lots of responsibilities and occasional expenses. But at tax time, owning almost always trumps renting. That’s because Uncle Sam lets homeowners take a laundry list of deductions or exemptions on everything from mortgage interest and capital gains on a sale to maintaining a home office or even renting out a second property. Aside from deductions, home ownership may allow for tax credits and other benefits, too. Here’s a look at deductions available to many homeowners. Some apply for 2006; others you can prepare for in advance of taxes filed for 2007.

Not all deductions will be available to all homeowners, and some might work only for homeowners who itemize their tax deductions. But it never hurts to run through the options with your tax preparer or the Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov; 1-800-829-1040.

1: Home-loan interest

You can deduct the interest portion of your mortgage payments each year. According to the National Association of Realtors, only about one-third of all taxpayers itemize (i.e., catalog) their deductions on their returns; of those who do, at least 60 percent deduct mortgage interest. For some homebuyers, the increased costs of owning versus renting are often offset by this significant deduction, which has been available since 1913. It applies to the interest from both your primary mortgage and any second mortgage you may have on a property, such as a home-equity or home-improvement loan.

2: Points on a loan

Points amount to 1 percent of a loan’s principal, and lenders may charge points as part of your loan. You can deduct points on the purchase of a home but not points related to a mortgage broker’s fees. Deductions for points can take place when you purchase a home or refinance a home loan.

3: Property tax

Local and state-level property taxes get a full deduction. However, if you are disabled, elderly or own a property eligible for listing on a local or national registry of historic places (see related story), you may be eligible for property-tax exemptions or reductions in the total amount of property tax owed.

Seattle’s Condo Craze

For those who have been paying attention to Downtown Seattle’s skyline, you may have noticed a significant increase in new mixed-use construction, condo conversions, and other residential highrise developments.  There are over a dozen different projects totalling over two thousand new units currently underway, and researchers are confident that market demand will continue to increase for these types of housing.

Skeptics are wary of flooding the market with too many condominiums at once, but developers say that the target income brackets for high end condos in the Downtown and South Lake Union areas are some of the fastest growing in Seattle.  Attempting to attract empty-nesters away from big suburban homes is done with the promise of luxury amenities and convenience- who wants to mow the lawn when you can go to the spa instead?  Another target group is upwardly mobile young professionals who want to live close to the restaurants and nightlife of Seattle’s downtown core.

Regardless of who buys, the benefits of urban living are being packaged and marketed en masse by various projects, from luxury condos on top of hotels to modern urban lofts that appeal to Seattle’s hipsters and artists.  With change on the horizon, the question remains of what type of communities will form within and around these new developments.  Thankfully, with Seattle’s inclination towards urban villages as more walkable and liveable neighborhoods, shared open and green spaces will help to add some personality and character to what could otherwise become a cold and colorless exercise in urban density.  If you’re wanting to move into the city, you better act fast- many units are pre-selling quickly!

Puget Sound market

By Elizabeth Rhodes
Seattle Times business reporter

One of this year’s biggest residential real-estate topics was the anticipated slowdown in sales and appreciation.

Would the Puget Sound market tank?

Would prices deflate?

Neither of those things occurred locally, although other parts of the country have seen moderate-to-severe downturns this year.

What happened here was a gentler transition in housing activity, from its record 2005 levels to a slower pace by this year’s end. What will 2007 bring? Here’s what Seattle real-estate experts are saying. Last December, The Times noted Seattle real-estate economist Matthew Gardner’s prediction that houses would appreciate about 7 percent this year. But through November, median house prices were up almost 11 percent in the tri-county region (King, Snohomish and Pierce counties), according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

So much for any bubble bursting this year.

Gardner doesn’t see that happening next year, either. “This bubble lunacy is still prevalent, but not in Seattle, and I’ll keep saying that,” said Gardner, of the land-use economics firm Gardner Johnson. “All the fundamentals are in place for good job growth and in-migration. That, and our limited land availability, means we’re protected and will continue to appreciate in value.” Appreciation in 2007 “will vary dramatically” by location, which is normal, he said. The closer homes are to the major job hubs of Seattle and Bellevue, “the higher appreciation you’ll get,” Gardner said. “That’s because there’s intrinsically a value to our time.” He expects closer-in areas to appreciate about 10 percent over the coming year; farther out, 7 percent appreciation will be more the norm for single-family homes and for condominiums. But forecasting, Gardner stresses, is an inexact science based on the best information at the time — which is why his prediction for this year didn’t match the market’s performance.

The wild card was interest rates. This time last year, Gardner was among many economists who predicted that mortgage interest rates would climb and put the brakes on housing activity. Rates didn’t climb. His list of possible wild cards that could affect appreciation next year: a sustained jump in inflation, a terrorist incident, a quick increase in oil prices. We’ve come off two incredible years — 2004 and 2005 — so what did we have in 2006? “A more balanced market,” said Bill Riss, CEO of Coldwell Banker Bain. That’s giving buyers “a little more time to think, plan and write good offers.”

Indeed, compared with the fall of 2005, this fall’s sales were down and inventory was up — two indicators of a cooling market. Riss thinks 2007 will probably be a copycat of 2006 in terms of inventory and the number of sales “unless there’s something in the condo market that causes oversupply.” There’s been some talk of that among local real-estate experts but no consensus that a condo glut is ahead. Fueling the replay will be wage and job growth, which spur demand, he said.

“[That has] continued to provide an imbalance — more buyers than sellers — even though inventory is up,” Riss said. Riss wouldn’t be surprised if spring sales roar to life, causing another feeding frenzy, albeit not at record levels of past years.

One serious factor that could affect it: affordability.

According to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research, median-income buyers are increasingly being priced out of Western Washington counties. First-time buyers are particularly strapped. Only 40 percent of people in this category can afford a single-family starter home in King County, and only about half can in Pierce and Snohomish counties. Last December the national average for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages was 6.39 percent. Now it’s 6.18 percent. A rise in inflation could drive rates up, but that’s not a concern now, Frank Nothaft, chief economist for mortgage-money provider Freddie Mac, recently told the Washington Association of Mortgage Brokers. “Inflation will be tame, and interest rates will not change much in the next six months,” Nothaft said. “They may drop after that. We don’t see mortgage rates even getting up to 7 percent [by the end of 2007].” Nothaft expects an 11 percent drop in the number of mortgages written next year. That’s because refinances, which peaked in 2003, will continue to decline. He also anticipates the number of nontraditional loans, such as negative amortization and interest-only, will drop as borrowers choose other mortgage products instead.

The same strong regional economics sustaining the local home-sales market are also fueling apartment demand, said analyst Mike Scott, of Seattle’s Dupre + Scott Apartment Advisors. Logically, strong demand should ramp up apartment construction, but it hasn’t worked out that way, Scott said. A year ago, he forecast 3,600 new units would be built in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties this year. Instead, just under 3,100 opened. In 2007 Scott anticipates even fewer: just 2,600 new apartments. “Developers have not been able to bring as many units to the market as they planned because of rising construction and land costs,” he explained. Meanwhile, apartment investors, bullish on the Seattle area’s economy, are busy buying up buildings. On average they’re paying 15 percent more for them this year than in 2005. Many owners are planning to renovate their new purchases, Scott reported, and renters should “expect significant rent increases as a result.”

Taken together, all these factors will cause apartment rents to jump about 8 percent next year, Scott predicted. Vacancies will fall from their current 4.7 percent to roughly 3.5 percent, he said. The stealth factor is condominium conversions. While the conventional wisdom is that they take units out of the rental pool, Scott estimates that up to 25 percent of them are bought by investors for continued use as rentals. “That’s true of regular condos, too,” Scott said. “All the condo construction in the last few years may have actually provided a hidden supply of rentals.” The national news has been full of stories about homebuilders cutting production and prices as the real-estate market cools. In November, for example, building permits nationwide fell to a nine-year low, according to a government report.

“But that’s the national news, not the local news,” said Suzanne Britsch, senior analyst for New Home Trends, a construction-analysis and consulting firm in Mill Creek. “We still have job growth and a shortage of lots here, so we have just not had a problem with standing inventory.” But part of that may be because builders cut back on supply, building 3,000 fewer single-family homes this year than they did in 2005 in King, Snohomish, Pierce, Thurston, Kitsap and Skagit counties combined. The total number built in those counties this year: 19,264. Meanwhile, area-wide condo construction has been booming. In all of 2005, some 8,400 units were built. Through September of this year, 9,583 new units had been built. “Most of those are in King County, and the majority are presold,” Britsch said. “The jump is in high-rises in Seattle and Bellevue. It’s a status thing now: Which building do you live in?”

Propelled by strong job growth, buyers will be plentiful next year for new houses and condos, she predicted. But new construction doesn’t come cheap. In King County, the average price of a new house will be $750,000, she predicted. A big chunk of that expense is the land. The rock-bottom price for a lot in a new King County subdivision is now $250,000. In Snohomish County, new single-family homes will start at $400,000. And they’ll likely be on 3,500-square-foot lots, rather than 6,000 square feet, the norm there until recently.

New condominiums in King County, which is seeing the majority of new condo construction, will be priced at $350,000 or more regardless of their size, she said. Conversions often will be priced lower.

Elizabeth Rhodes: erhodes@seattletimes.com