Seattle Real Estate:

Many Seattle home buyers are interested in a neighborhood that’s “walkable”. In other words, an area where it easy is it to get the necessities of life if you’re mode of transportation is your own two feet.
We’ve mentioned the Walkscore Service before, but they recently completed a feature called America’s Most Walkable Neighborhoods. The Seattle [...]

As I was reading the headlines this morning I noticed that Seattle made Forbes Top Ten List for Recession Recovery. Here’s what they had to say:
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash.
Current GDP: $168.3 billion
End of 2010: $179.8 billion (projected)
Unemployment: 8%
Although battered by recession, the Seattle area’s high-tech economy is poised to start growing again. Moody’s estimates the economy will [...]

Did you know that there’s an Unincorporated King County newsletter?
I confess, though we’re residents of Unincorporated King County, I wasn’t aware of it either until @kcnews posted a link to it on Twitter.
Not only do they have a newsletter, it actually has some interesting tidbits.  For example:

Marymoor Connector Trail Grand Opening - Now open to [...]

The Seattle Times ran a story today talking about the recall of certain GE ranges sold between 2002 and 2005 - “GE Profile Freestanding Dual Fuel Ranges” to be exact.  You can read the details of the affected model numbers here. 
Also buried in the article was a link to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.  [...]

You’ve probably heard by now that sales of homes in the Western United States improved in February.  Not to be a wet blanket….but while I think that could be an encouraging sign, we’re not out of the woods yet.  As always when it comes to real estate, buyers and sellers should be making decisions thoughtfully with information specific to [...]

What do you do when your home doesn’t sell and you have to move on?  Renting is the answer for many property owners.  Whether being a landlord was part of an owner’s plan for investing in real estate or if it came as a last ditch effort to cover a mortgage, the increase of rentals [...]

I’ve been speaking with folks a lot lately about property taxes - people who are wondering how on earth the county assessor seems to think their property is worth more than last year, and people who are asking about the Lower Property Taxes initiative… just to name a few.
When most people think of taxes, they [...]

What are property taxes like in Washington State?  Too high if you ask the folks behind the latest state initiative. (You can read about how property tax works in Washington State here.) There’s a new movement afoot to place a “Lower Property Taxes” initiative on the ballot November 9th, 2009. 
According to the petition, the highlights [...]

From Realtor.org:
“Fannie Loosens Refinancing Rules
Fannie Mae plans to eliminate some credit-score requirements, scale back income-documentation standards, and waive the need for appraisals in some cases, starting on April 4.
The mortgage finance company believes the changes will allow more home owners to refinance into new home loans at near-record low interest rates.
Analysts say the [...]

According to an article on Inman News this morning, we’re about to have an influx of bank owned homes hit the market.  These are homes that have already gone through the foreclosure process, are owned by the banks, and are being listed for sale. Here’s the original article:
http://www.inman.com/news/2009/01/26/banks-unleash-flood-reos
I’ll get back to our Bank Owned Properties Series here [...]