Seattle, WA vs. Vancouver, BC – Sister Cities?

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[photopress:Seattle.jpg,full,alignright]Stephen Jagger of Ubertor gave me a “heads up” this morning about an article written in Vancouver Magazine. 

Sometimes you learn more about your own City by reading the reviews and travel guides of its visitors vs. its residents.

Some of the facts in the article that I found interesting:

Hot Neighborhoods: Seattle’s Pioneer Square – Vancouver’s Gastown are both “troubled historic neighborhoods by the port”.

[photopress:bim.jpg,thumb,alignleft]Hole in the wall burrito Joints: Seattle’s Bimbos Bitchin’ Burrito Kitchen – Vancouver’s Budgies Burritos (location and phone number in Vancouver Mag’s Article)

Mayor’s “GREEN” Record – Seattle’s Nickels nationally recognized for taking Seattle “green” and adopting the Kyoto protocol while Vancouver’s Sam Sullivan “wants his new ecodensity intitiative to be nationally recognized”. 

Seattle invented the term: “Skid Road” – Vancouver invented the word “Skid Row”  (Actually I had heard San Francisco invented the term “Skid Row” – My partner says Seattle invented “Skid Row” – Google says My partner is correct, but I’d let Vancouver have that one.)

Date downtown burned to the ground: Seattle 6/6/1889 – Vancouver 6/13/1886

I’m wondering how many large cities burned to the ground?  I don’t think Philadelphia ever did, because The Betsy Ross House is still standing (note to Bubble People – Betsy Ross was “a renter” in case you are compiling a list of “famous renters throughout history 🙂 ) and so is Independence Hall as well as The World’s First Penitentiary attributed to Benjamin Franlin’s idea.  For anyone interested in REALLY OLD buildings, this virtual tour of Historic Philadelphia is very cool.

Voter turnout last civic election:  Seattle – 30%    Vancouver – 32.4%

Median age:  Seattle – 30     Vancouver – 38 (average age here in Kirkland is 30-something too.  Where do the older people live?)

Seattle is the “fittest” City in the U.S. – Vancouver is the “fittest City in Canada (based on the percentage of the population considered to be overweight) I’m sure there is some City in CA that is going to dispute that one.

Trevor Boddy, Vancouver Magazine’s author of the article titled “The New Seattle”  (from which the above photo was derived “Old and New: Seattle’s iconic Space Needle and Alexander Calder’s Eagle, one of the installations at the new Olympic Sculpture Park.Image credit: Rosemary Poole”) has this to say:

“Vancouver and Seattle are Siamese twins. Yet we are fused not at the head, but at the back – looking in different directions. ”  This is just one of several posts in Vancouver Magazine’s “Seattle Series”.  I highly recommend a read of the entire series. 

THE SEATTLE SERIES:

36 Hours in Seattle: Where to eat, drink, shop and sightsee.

Bed Check: Reviews of three very different Seattle hotels.

Culture Crawl: Our ranking of Seattle’s independent coffeehouses, and listings of the best local books and music acts.

The New Seattle: What Vancouver can learn from its Pacific sister.

A Tale of Two Cities: Which city’s wealthier? Safer? Healthier? Seattle and Vancouver by the numbers.

I’m not certain all of the facts about Seattle and Vancouver are true – but it is a fun read.  A Big Thank You to Stephen of Ubertor for the email and “head’s up”. 

My favorite Vancouver Magazine article is Playing the Real Estate Game and I hope to write a “sister article” based on that one, comparing the Seattle Real Estate Market to Vancouver’s by week end.

Owning the Malibu Community

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About a month ago, I got a call from a friend who highly recommended that I give a chance to a real estate agent who is working very hard to break into the Malibu market. The idea of “owning” a piece of Malibu is somewhat irresistible to me (even if it is only the digital dirt!), so I couldn’t refuse, despite the many wonderful options (or maybe because I had too many wonderful options!)

[photopress:madison.jpg,full,alignright]Anyway, to make a long story short, I met up with the agent for breakfast, had a wonderful conversation and decided to coach him as part of Project Blogger. So, without further ado, I’m happy to introduce Madison Hildebrand and his most wonderful blog, InsideBu.com.

Probably one of the most appealing aspects to working with Madison is that he already understand how to use self-promotion in the real estate context (he could teach me a thing or two!), so our conversations really get to focus on the ways in which he can use the technologies behind online social networks (we’ve got ideas for Flickr, YouTube, ActiveRain, the Move Blogs, etc. in addition to consistent and inspired blogging!) to build up a healthy online community around a local real estate market. Malibu is an incredibly challenging market where a few big names dominate the local scene. I am thrilled to have this chance to work with Madison to bring this unique market into the digital age! 🙂

Seatte Metropolitan Magazine's Best Places to Live

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This month’s issue of Seattle Metropolitan Magazine features their annual “Best Places to Live”.    What strikes me is their number one pick is[photopress:seattlemet.jpg,thumb,alignright] not any where near Seattle; nor is it “metropolitan”.   It’s Kent.  I’m not knocking Kent.   In fact, my main office is head quartered on the East Hill of Kent and I grew up in south east King County.   It just seems out of place to have 40% of Seattle Metropolitan Magazine’s Best Places to Live be outside of Seattle city limits.

Here is the Best Places to Live according to SMM with the median home price:

  1. Kent $278,500
  2. Lower Queen Anne $289,000
  3. High Point $315,990
  4. Belltown $324,450
  5. Victory Heights/Pinehurst $356,750
  6. Rainier Vista $390,000
  7. South Lake Union $394,000
  8. Issaquah Highlands $569,950
  9. Somerset $697,500
  10. Yarrow Point $1,500,000

Is SMM out of neighborhoods in Seattle they feel are worthy?  Are they searching for newly constructed fresh neighborhoods…Seattle is pretty darn old, afterall.  

Last year, Eileen covered SMMs 2006 Best Neighborhoods on RCG.   She asked why not Burien?  Which I agree–Burien continues to be completely overlooked and…in my opinion, so is Des Moines.   Both of these neighborhoods are technically “Seattle”.  

What Seattle neighborhoods would have made your top 10 that are not receiving recognition on this years list?

How Well Do You Know Your Mortgage?

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I was at my massage therapist yesterday (I was in an auto accident last July) and she was “talking mortgage” with me because she thought I find the conversation relaxing. 🙂  She recently was in the process of going through a refinance (with someone else, aahhhh…even more soothing) and discovered she has a prepayment penalty of $7,000 on her current mortgage.   She called off the refinance even though it could save her a couple hundred dollars a month (she may not keep her current residence for long, so this may not be a good move for her…I do not have all of her financial details, so I cannot provide a professional opinion).

Apparently her original lender never disclosed her prepayment penalty; at least she does not recall such a discussion.    She was very surprised with how little she knows about her largest debt.   She’s not alone.

I’m challenging RCG readers to make sure you understand your current mortgage.   I double dog dare you to dig up your Note (this should be with the inch thick stack of papers you received at your signing appointment) and confirm:

  1. What is your interest rate?  
  2. How is the mortgage amortized?
  3. Is there a prepayment penalty?   

Is your mortgage an Adjustable Rate Mortgage?   I have some additional questions…just for you:

  1. What is the date that your mortgage scheduled to have the first rate adjustment?
  2. How will your new rate be determined?  (What is the margin and index).
  3. How much can your mortgage adjust when the fixed payment period is over?
  4. How often can your mortgage adjust when your fixed period is over?
  5. Do you have deferred interest or negative amortization?

In light of all the press mortgages are getting these days, this is a good excuse to brush up on yours.   Just like my Massage Therapist, your Loan Originator may not have fully explained the details, or maybe you were so caught up in purchasing or financing your home, all those numbers slipped by.  It happens.

It’s up to you to make sure you are massaging your financial future to work in your best interest.   You can always contact your previous Loan Originator and have them explain your mortgage in fine detail or find another Mortgage Professional to help you.     

Google's My Maps

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You can create and link to custom maps on Google now. It’s an easy to use slick interface that would be useful for real estate agents interested in making a tour of their neighborhood. Parts of your tour will also pop up in searchers results, so don’t forget to put a link to your homepage. Actually useful for marketing? Only if you do it “right” and make some interesting tours. It’s like websites – every agent has one, but only a few (like Marlow) have great ones.

Non-agents (the home buying / renting public): it looks like it’ll be a great way to get to know a neighborhood once more maps are created.

What a week!

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First Zillow releases a new version of their web site.

Then Microsoft releases a new Virtual Earth (VE 3D in Firefox).

Then the a new Beta of Realtor.com is released.

Galen releases new ShackPrices features.

Ardell is using her Verizon EVDO card in Vegas, probably while playing the slots and sipping drinks with umbrellas in them.

Then I discover, Redfin is merging with Move and they also just sold a home in neighborhood!

I’m feeling WAY behind the tech curve today.  I’m going curl up into a ball and read my RSS feeds in a corner now…. 😉