Seattle Real Estate:

In a surprisingly sensible move, the Washington State Department of Revenue reversed their earlier decision about collecting real estate excise tax on forgiven debt.  You can read the original post about taxing WA short sales here. You can read the letter about how the DOR came to their senses and decided against imposing the REET here.

This just in on the situation with the Washington State Distressed Homeowner law… If you’ve been following along at home (here and here) you know that the Distressed Homeowner law passed in June 2008 in Washington had some “unintended consequences”. This is the latest from the Washington Association of Realtors: Distressed Properties Law Legislative Update: Help [...]

I’m a fan of the Puget Sound Business Journal.  Here are a few of the interesting tidbits from this week. This is qualified good news: Seattle area job growth near nation’s top, says federal report A real estate market that fares as well as can be expected is not possible without this piece of the [...]

King County, Washington which is home to Seattle and much of the metro area is implementing a “cost-savings measure” this year by adding 10 furlough, or unpaid non-working, days to the county schedule.  This was a step to help close the budget gap faced by the county for 2009. What does this have to do [...]

Nope.  Being from the Midwest, where the summers are hot and humid, that’s one thing that Alex and I always notice.  Most people assume that, with the reputation for rain, Seattle is a humid place and typically don’t seem to believe you when you tell them, only when they feel it for themselves. At any [...]

I ran across an interesting article in the Puget Sound Business Journal this week.  Apparently a cottage style development on Whidbey for which second home buyers were the target market is not being purchased by second home buyers…but by downsizing seniors. Back in November I wrote: “It would seem to me that one segment of [...]

As I watch the end of year numbers roll in perusing the national and local news, as well as blog posts; I am reminded of the following piece of wit from my dear Mr. Clemens: “Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to [...]

I found this article in the Seattle Times “Make your home less inviting to mice.” The article offers some very good advice. There is one suggestion that I wouldn’t necessarily take unless that was all I had to work with. It says “Steel wool makes a good temporary plug.” Sadly it has been my experience [...]

Will I get my money back if I remodel my kitchen?  What about adding windows?  We hear these kind of questions all the time from past clients.  We generally recommend that folks never undertake an expensive remodel just for the sake of resale value.  If you’re contemplating a upgrade that you’ll get the use and [...]

Well, last month if you want to get technical… Who said the following? “We in America cherish our homes because they are symbolic of the family…Yet there are too many people in the United States who are not awake to the danger with which home and family in our country is threatened by the world [...]