Tag Archives: Bellevue

Housing assistance for the middle class on the eastside

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I have a client who has been searching for a condominium for 6-months. Typical problem — what he likes, he can’t afford — what he can afford, he doesn’t like. We even looked down at Othello Station and thought we might find something there. They had several units set aside for low income families to purchase. Here the problem was he made too much to qualify for the set-aside units but not enough to buy the market rate units. What’s a person to do?

Well, we found the answer. Last week we had offer and acceptance on a really nice 2 bedroom / 2 bath unit at Frazer Court in Redmond. How did he do it? There is a great program setup between King County and several eastside cities to preserve and increase the supply of housing for low and moderate income households in East King County.

This program is called ARCH (A Regional Coalition for Housing) and has several below market rate duplexes, condominiums and town homes located in various developments in East King County. During the initial marketing period, maximum income levels are established for buyers. Typically, each development will establish a maximum income for buyers somewhere between 80% and 100% of median income. In addition, maximum income guidelines are often adjusted for both household and unit size.

Finally – a program that helps out the buyer caught in the middle income bracket. Check it out at www.archhousing.org.

No Bubble Bursting Here

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Well Galen, when I got pinged to start sussing up some numbers, here’s what I came up with.

True, closings Dec. 05 are down most everywhere. But a second wind has kicked in.

Kirkland Dec .05 closings at 127 were down from 154 in Dec 04 – BUT currently in escrow a whopping 206!

Bellevue more even keeled. Dec 05 at 175 down from 195 in Dec 04. Currently in escrow 200.

The high end is holding its own so far with 27 escrows in Kirkland over a mil and 20 in Bellevue, so no bubbles bursting there yet.

The low end is a scramble. New listings are being gobbled up with multiple offers as fast as they hit the market. A few of them didn’t deserve to be jumped on and I had my buyers pass them by, but someone grabbed them anyway.

One of the reasons Kirkland is way up in current escrows is because we have yet another group of displaced persons being kicked out of their apartments for a condo conversion in downtown Kirkland. Those people are scrambling for new digs and those who don’t want to chance being displaced again are buying instead of renting again.

So no bubbles bursting yet. Question will come when new inventory starts popping in at higher levels when the sun ever decides to come back and stay awhile. If the high end inventory doubles, as I expect it will, the low end will do just fine, but I’m still not sure about the $1.3 million plus crowd.

Oh, forgot. I popped into my old stomping grounds over by Green Lake. Same trend there. 76 closed Dec. 05 vs. 119 Dec. 04 with 136 currently in escrow.

Kirkland stilll leading the pack with 206 now in escrow vs. 127 closings in Dec. Go Kirkland…I mean Seahawks. Actually I’m a Sonics fan. Did anyone catch Ray Allen’s 30 foot shot in double overtime to win the game on Sunday?!?! It was a beaut!! And tonight’s win gives us the first back to back win in awhile. Go Sonics!