King County’s housing market hit two milestones in December: The median single-family home price set a new high, $508,000, topping the $481,000 peak reached in July 2007 before prices began their long slide.

And the number of active listings of houses and condominiums — just 2,196 — hit the lowest monthly level since at least 1993, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

For sellers, it’s a dream. For buyers, it’s a nightmare. And for sellers who want to buy their next home, it’s complicated.

The desperation for listings is so great that it’s encouraging some to go off the beaten path to get deals.

Affordability under pressure

Region at a crossroads as home-buying power shrinks

For example, Faira, a new Kirkland technology firm started by former eBay and Microsoft veterans, is free for sellers and charges buyers only a 0.5 percent fee. Its chief executive even penned a sincere offer to Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff to help sell his Madison Park home.

Mike Chaffee, a John L. Scott broker in Issaquah, uses the personal touch. At homes not on the market, he drops off a handwritten solicitation with a photo of his buyer and $5 Starbucks gift card. The kicker: The whole transaction costs the seller half the typical 6 percent commission.

Such off-market home sales represent a shadow inventory: Chaffee says one-third of the roughly 60 homes he helped sell last year were not listed on the MLS. He guesses that about 10 percent of homes sold by other agents are off-market deals.

“I just sold a 1,600-square-foot house in Kirkland on a 6,000-square-foot lot built in 1940, for $940,000,” Chaffee said. “A little cottage house! It says to me there’s no inventory in really desirable areas. Some people are just fed up of waiting so long, they’re OK with paying a little bit more.”

Or a lot more. Last year’s bidding wars resulted in homes in popular neighborhoods selling for premiums that shocked even brokers. There was a three-bedroom home in north Ballard that sold for $640 a square foot. A Montlake house listed for $880,000 sold for $1.6 million.

November’s $11.2 million sale of a Hunts Point waterfront mansion appeared to be the highest price among homes sold in King County last year. According to media reports, the buyer was a senior Microsoft executive who helped lead its cloud platform.

Surrounding counties also saw robust gains: The median price in Snohomish County was $358,000, up 8 percent; in Pierce County, $252,500, up 11 percent; and in Kitsap, $269,950, up 15 percent.

Location, location

Across the region, however, there continue to be large discrepancies in home prices and market dynamics.

On the Eastside, the most expensive submarket in King County, the median price of single-family homes sold in December was $675,000, up a relatively small 6 percent over the year.

In Seattle, the median price rose 20 percent over the year to $600,000. North King County saw its median price jump 25 percent over the year to $480,000.

Seattle is The Fourth Best Real Estate Market In The Country For 2016

Seattle's supercharged market for everything from skyscrapers to single-family houses is expected to keep booming next year, even with higher interest rates.

  Metro Seattle ranks fourth nationally as the hottest market to watch for 2016, according to the influential Emerging Trends in Real Estate survey by theUrban Land Institute.

  This marks a rise from No. 8 in last year’s report. Emerging Trends has proved to be a good barometer of Seattle’s real-estate prospects.

  “The Seattle market has become so popular with domestic and global investors that in interviews it is not unusual for it to be added to the list of top six markets,” the report states. Among our strengths is a diverse industry base and growth in so-called TAMI sectors (technology, advertising, media and information).

  “One interviewee noted that Seattle is one of those markets where the growth has been strong enough, long enough, that the only potential risk is being able to sustain its current pace,” according to the report.

  The outlook for every real-estate sector in Seattle except hotels is strong. Hotels come off “good,” but not as robust as other sectors. Population growth and constraints on supply make Seattle inviting for single-family house construction.

  Seattle also benefits from its appeal to millennials, as well as being an “18-hour city,” vibrant live-work-play urban areas that are attracting more people and investment, doing better economically, than sprawly places lacking an energetic center.

  Nationally, real estate is expected to continue growing, even with interest rates going up. Foreign investment remains strong. The report’s top three are Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and Charlotte. Seattle is followed by Atlanta, Denver, Nashville, San Francisco, Portland and Los Angeles to round out the top 10 best markets.

For the full article click here   http://www.seattletimes.com/business/economy/a-hot-2016-for-seattle-real-estate-jon-talton/

Wishing You A Happy Holidays and A Fantastic New Year !!!!

Homes and Equity Real Estate Wishes You A Happy Thanksgiving !!!

Housing market slowdown expected, but prices in most areas are still rising

Thinking About Buying A House? Use This Advice

Buying real estate is something you don't want to take lightly. When you make your purchase you feel comfortable about it, you want to make sure you have as much information about real estate so. This article is here so you can learn some tips that can help you with buying real estate.

If you are looking at buying a home and fixing it up to make some quick cash, you should first invest in some literature on the process and different books about how you can increase the value of your home. This will help you make the most out of your investment.

Do not hesitate to ask a real estate agent or another real estate investor if you are unsure whether or not a property value is fair or not. Never make a purchase without obtaining the fair market value that a property is worth. This will keep you from overspending on a home.

A great tip to use when buying real estate is to thoroughly vet your real estate agent. You can not just trust anyone to do a good job for you. Make sure that you check out this person's references, previous properties he or she has sold, and even speaking with those in charge to see how this individual performs overall.

Take your time to search and evaluate, do not just jump on the first thing you see. Many new home buyers make the mistake of buying the first thing they see and end up in a world of regret. You need to do careful research, and make sure that it is the property for you.

To help you get buy real estate effectively, make sure you are aware of the closing costs before you purchase your property. Sometimes, closing costs can be extremely expensive and will add a considerable portion to the cost of your property. Receiving an estimate on closing costs from your real estate agent will help make you better informed on this issue.

This is what is meant by the phrase, buy low sell high. In just about any market conditions, you will be able to re-sell for closer to the full market value, and this approach is much less risky than buying at market value and waiting for the market to go up.

When buying a home try to buy one that has enough space if your thinking about making additions in the future. You may only need one bedroom now, but you might want to buy a home with more so that you will have room for guests and/or new additions to the family.

Make sure you digested all of the information you have just learned about buying real estate. The only way this information is going to be of use to you, is if you apply the information you just learned. If you need to, come back and visit this article from time to time, to make sure that you remember the key points it presents, about buying real estate.

You want to make sure you have as much information about real estate so when you make your purchase you feel comfortable about it. If you are unsure whether or not a property value is fair or not, do not hesitate to ask a real estate agent or another real estate investor. A great tip to use when buying real estate is to thoroughly vet your real estate agent. To help you get buy real estate effectively, make sure you are aware of the closing costs before you purchase your property. Make sure you digested all of the information you have just learned about buying real estate.

Http://www.HomesandEquity.com

Open up Seattle’s single-family zoning to those who aren’t rich

This is a great article that explains the Housing Affordability and Livability Advisory (HALA) Committee

The recommendations reflect a range of housing types that actually already pepper our single-family neighborhoods.

IN 1993, when I was 28 and my second child had just been born, I rented a two-bedroom house in the Central District near where I grew up. I paid $800 a month.

That’s how my Seattle housing story begins, and it’s typical of my generation. In that house, I started the venture I still run, which now employs 14 people. In time, I was able to buy a house in Ballard that has somehow appreciated to a shocking $700,000.

The housing stories of young people nowadays are radically different. My friend Travana, who grew up in the CD a generation after me, cuts hair downtown and commutes by bus from a row house in Everett. That’s the closest family-sized place she, her husband and their baby girl can afford. She hopes to start a business as a clothing designer soon, if she can get ahead of her bills. My friend Meaghan, a new mom, may move to Renton to find an affordable two-bedroom place. Her husband is starting a new career and Seattle’s rents are crushing their finances. Travana and Meaghan are among the lucky ones — they have jobs and supportive families. Thousands of members of our community sleep under bridges or in cars each night, pushed there in part by our city’s white-hot real-estate market.

Housing affordability has become the defining challenge of Seattle’s growth. For the past 10 months, I’ve served on the Housing Affordability and Livability Advisory (HALA) Committee. Mayor Ed Murray asked us for a plan to turn Seattle back into an affordable city.

First, the purpose of changing single-family zoning is to welcome families who aren’t rich. It’s to enable the Travanas and Meaghans to live in these neighborhoods, too, renting and perhaps buying someday, and contributing their talents to our city along the way. The point of affordable housing is not the housing; it’s the people who will live in it.Of all the recommendations in HALA’s 65-point plan, the most controversial part concerns the city’s single-family neighborhoods. It deserves explanation.

Second, HALA had no choice but to recommend changes to single-family zoning. Affordability demands the reforms. Almost two-thirds of Seattle’s zoned land is currently reserved for detached houses. Seattle cannot accommodate the tens of thousands of people who are moving to our community without many of them landing in the single-family zones. Already, growth has made these neighborhoods exclusive to the point of exclusion — intensifying scarcity means only people with money or people from families with money can buy there now. Even small houses in popular neighborhoods start above a half-million dollars. Seattle is well down the path to Silicon Valley’s $1 million entry price for homeownership.

Third, HALA’s recommendations for bigger buildings in single-family areas are limited and fiddle around the edges, literally. HALA recommends an upzone to just 6 percent of the single-family zones. This 6 percent sits inside or adjacent to the city’s designated growth hubs, urban villages, or alongside arterial strips already lined with big buildings.

Fourth, HALA recommends more flexibility, but not bigger buildings, on the other 94 percent of the city’s single-family zones. These areas would stay under existing rules for building sizes: same height limits, same restrictions on total square footage, same setbacks. What would change is that city codes would allow more options in dividing up the allowable square footage. We recommend more in-law apartments, backyard cottages, cottage clusters, miniature duplexes and triplexes, courtyard housing, row houses, town houses, and stacked flats. We also recommended allowing separate ownership of these dwellings so that more people can afford to buy homes.

These suggestions reflect the range of housing types that actually already pepper our single-family neighborhoods, left over from before current restrictions. My friends Chris and Mary live in Wallingford on a neighborhood greenway. The three-story home they have restored themselves is surrounded by gardens and a chicken coop. It’s divided into three flats and they live on the top floor. My friends Valerie and Brian live in a classic old Capitol Hill house with a downstairs in-law apartment, which they rent to a single mom. Two doors up from my friends Pete and Christine, in a single-family zone in Ballard, is a triplex — two up, one down — built decades ago. My friend Rick lives near Green Lake and can point to the converted corner stores with apartments up top that are sprinkled through his neighborhood.

HALA means to say, in short: more like that! Neighborhoods would feel the same — the same tree cover and lawns, porches and rain gardens, chicken coops and tiny lending libraries — but with more people like Travana and Meaghan and their husbands and children. More people like my own children, now in their 20s, who I hope could live in their hometown someday and possibly own homes. And more people like 28-year-old me.

Alan Durning is executive director of the Seattle-based policy research center Sightline Institute and author of “Unlocking Home: Three Keys to Affordable Communities.” He lives in a single-family zone in Ballard.

http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/open-up-seattles-single-family-zoning-to-those-who-arent-rich/