Tag Archives: Local-News

Inbox: What’s the best neighborhood for same-sex couples with children?

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Continuing on the theme of opening up some of the questions I get via email to my readers, I’ve listed another question and my response below. I’m definitely interested in hearing from anyone in the community who feels they can add something to my response.

Question: My partner and I are thinking of moving to Seattle. We both have professional jobs and would like to be somewhere with good schools for our two children. What neighborhoods do you recommend for families where both parents are the same-sex?

Answer: I’m of the option that just about any neighborhood in Seattle would be very welcoming of you and your partner. I’m aware of only a few gay parents in my neighborhood, but I would not be surprised to learn that there were many more who just blend in with all the other families.

In terms of schools, I would recommend checking out the school guide that is put out by the Seattle Times. Seattle has some really great schools and some schools that probably won’t meet your expectations. While high test scores probably shouldn’t be the only way a school is judged, knowing this information can help weed out the schools that you would find unacceptable.

In addition to finding an appropriate school, a very relevant question is how much you are willing to spend on a house. A starter home in most neighborhoods in the City start at around 350k-400k. If this seems reasonable to you, then you should have no problem finding an appropriate home in a wonderful neighborhood.

Do you have a better answer for this question? Are there any neighborhoods that this family should definitely be considering? Are there some special resources that might make the transition easier for this family should they move to Seattle? Please share your knowledge in the comments section!

It’s getting more expensive to borrow money

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The federal reserve has been raising interest rates for more than a year and that means that it is getting more expensive for homeowners to raise money by borrowing against their equity. For example, the prime rate is now at 6.5%, while it was only at 4% at the beginning of 2004. However, with the substantial increase in the value of nearly all homes during the past few years, home owners are still finding it convenient to refinance their mortgages and withdraw cash.

The Seattle Times had an article today about how this “cash-out” refinancing will have the largest influence on first-time home buyers, who used home-equity lines for “piggyback loans”: “Unable to foot a 10 percent or 20 percent down payment, many bought homes with little or no money down by taking a first-lien mortgage and one or two home-equity lines, according to Mary Boudreau, owner of Penfield Financial, a Fairfield, Conn., mortgage broker.”

Home buying tips

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When I begin with a new client, I often work out a “road map” so that we can clarify a list of priorities. Along those lines, it is often important to layout a time-frame. I’ve worked with buyers who want to move into a new home in weeks and buyers who are planning ahead for months… Being realistic about when you can move into a place helps insure that everyone’s expectations are met! Also, keep in mind that it may take 30-90 days (or more) to locate the right home, secure financing, and complete the home-buying process.

Are you interested in more information? I’ve put together a Home Buying Packet (*.pdf) that lists a bunch of good information about the home buying process with sections on:

  • The Home-Buying Process
  • Home Search Criteria
  • Loan Application Checklist
  • Making an Offer
  • Contract Checklist
  • Home Inspection
  • Glossary of Real Estate Terms
  • and many more!

In filling out the form in the Home Search Criteria section it is important to distinguish between the “Need to Have

Seattle’s hot summer…

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rising home prices graphThis proved to be another hot summer in Seattle as the median home price rose over 15 percent during the past year. However, the hottest local market was the Eastside where the median sale price rose over 23 percent.

On one side, I’ve talked with a few sellers who are hesitant to sell for the reason of not knowing what will they be able to afford after that sale. And on the other, I’ve noticed a large influx of people relocating to Seattle for technology-related jobs, but maybe I’m just more aware of this subset of people now that I’m running a blog.

Minorities paying more for loans in Seattle?

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high-rate mortgagesThe Seattle Times analyzed loan applications for single-family, owner-occupied homes in 2004 from 25 of the nation’s largest lenders and concluded that minorities are paying more for loans in Seattle. The numbers show that black people in Seattle are more than four times likely to carry a high-rate mortgage than white people (13.2% vs 3.1%). However, the data also shows that black people in the rest of the country are even worse off as they are more than twice as likely to carry a high-rate mortgage than in Seattle (26.6% vs. 13.2%).

Also interesting is that the rates are not due to income differences as “low-income whites are far less likely than high-income blacks to wind up with high-interest mortgages (3.9 percent vs. 11.3 percent).” In looking for answers to why, the times speculates that differences “may be due to a variety of factors, ranging from the financial savvy of loan customers with differing backgrounds, to which lenders operate in which parts of town.”

Lyon Garden StatueI’m pretty sure that everyone reading this blog is aware that it is illegal for lenders to discriminate based on race and/or to discriminate against a neighborhood known as “redlining”. And I’m positive that all lenders are aware that this is illegal, so it makes me think that the difference must have something to do with the financial savvy of the loan customers.

What is the solution to this problem? It seems like educating the consumers of high-rate loans. Along those lines, here are some helpful links and organizations that I’m aware of:

  • Fair Loans, Fair Housing (*.pdf) by the City of Seattle that provides some advice on avoiding predatory loans.
  • Community Home Ownership Center (CHOC) (206-587-5641) CHOC provides seminars for first-time home buyers with links to statewide seminars, and also provides training for real estate agents.
  • El Centro de la Raza (206-329-7960) El Centro provides home buyer education classes in English and Spanish.
  • HomeSight (206-723-4355) HomeSight provides purchase assistance and other financial and educational information to home buyers (in Seattle, South King County and Snohomish County).
  • International District Housing Alliance (206-623-0122) Provides home buyer education and housing counseling in Vietnamese, Cambodian, Tagalog and several Chinese dialects including Cantonese, Mandarin and Taiwanese.
  • Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle (206-461-3792) Provides one-on-one counseling and monthly home buyers seminars.

If anyone is aware of any other local programs, I’d definitely be interested in hearing about them. In particular, I’d be interested in hearing about mortgage brokers that are working to educate minorities.

Thanks to Todd at Lendorama for highlighting the Seattle Times article.

Bigger homes and smaller lots?

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The Seattle Times had an interesting article about how the technology changing our life style influence preferences in real estate.

In the past 25 years, the size of homes nationwide has been on the rise, while the size of lots has been shrinking. According to the U.S. Census, the median size of new single-family homes increased almost 29 percent from 1978 to 2003, but median lot size shrank 13 percent. The census does not track this information at the city or county level. Census statistics show that regionally, lots in the West have been the smallest in the country every year since 1992, the first year regional numbers were available.

Local builders and others in the residential-construction industry say declining lot size, in particular, is true for the Puget Sound region. Developers say they’re building homes on 4,500- to 5,500-square-foot lots, but older figures were unavailable for comparison.

“The most significant change we’ve seen is that the lot size is shrinking over time,” says Michael Feuerborn, owner and president of Auburn-based DreamCraft Homes. “They’re getting pretty much the same house we built 10, 15 years ago, but it’s on a smaller lot.”

Dan French, general manager and co-owner of Kirkland-based Austin Royce Design/Build, agrees.

“In the last five years, I don’t think there’s been so much increase in size [of homes] as there has been shrinkage in land,” French said.

And they give an interesting reason for such thing:

“Years ago, there was no such thing as a media room,” said Paul Glosniak, president of Bellevue-based Bennett Homes, which builds about 300 homes a year. “Now we have relatively inexpensive large-screen TVs and surround-sound systems, and people want spaces to put those in.”

With the influence of the Internet, e-mail, fax machines and high-speed Internet access, more people are telecommuting and want home offices. Glosniak sometimes builds his-and-her offices.

Lifestyle changes have made yard space less important than it once was.

“A smaller lot means ease of maintenance,” Glosniak said. “With everyone being so busy and with two people in a household working in order to afford the home, people are not wanting to do a lot of yard work, so people are accepting smaller lots as a convenience.”

Here is a summary of the US Census numbers that show how median homes have grown nearly 29 percent in the U.S. since 1978, while lots have shrunk 13 percent.

Year: Home sq. ft. / Lot sq. ft.
1978: 1,650 / 9,790
1983: 1,580 / 8,375
1988: 1,800 / 9,225
1993: 1,900 / 9,680
1998: 2,000 / 8,992
2003: 2,125 / 8,666

Latest stab at on-line mapping

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Eating LeavesGalen over at shackprices alerted me to a new google maps search by Windermere. I can’t say that I’m surprised to see that Windermere updated their search since their VP of technology told me they would be releasing something soon… None the less, it is always interesting to see what gets produced. My initial reaction is that they’ve built a really clean home search tool (note that they still consider this a BETA site).

Out of the sites that I’ve seen, this is currently the best home search (MLS search) site. Some features I like:

  • As you zoom in to your area, the number of available homes (based on your search criteria) gets updated. This works real fast demonstrating that the Windermere people have thought-through their spacial analysis backend.
  • It is integrated well into the standard MLS search. Nothing will surprise someone who has searched for a home on the internet.

If you are looking for a home in Seattle, I’d highly recommend the Windermere tool. Although there is some good news for all the other people building home search sites. The Beta site that Windermere has published does not do anything really innovative, so there is still plenty of room for someone to break the field wide open. I’m still waiting for someone to use the power of the web to improve search results.

Shack Prices

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Picture of Homes on RiverShack Prices (which I mentioned a few days ago in the comments section of this post) just went live. Their site gives the sale price of King County homes (including Seattle!). Their reason to be:

Shack Prices was created with the hope of giving people as much information about home values as possible. We realized that there were many websites that show you prices of homes on the market (i.e. homes that haven’t yet sold) and some websites that would sell you information about comparable houses nearby, but no sites that let you pick the comparables and the area. The difference between Shack Prices and realtor web sites is that Shack Prices shows the actual price that each house sold for versus the price that someone hopes their house is worth. You can use it to virtually appraise your home or a neighborhood. We hope it helps you as buyer or seller.

In playing around a little, the site seemed pretty darn intuitive. If you are interested in getting a rough idea of how much your home would be worth on the open market, just insert your bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet. If there is not a lot of data in your area, extend the time-frame out a year, instead of the default three months.

If I had to give a critique of the site, it is that they borrowed a little too heavily from the typical home search websites instead of re-thinking how an “appraisal” site might work. For example, if I’m going to appraise my home, I know precisely how many bedrooms and bathrooms are in the home. Why do they have the option for a range? Also, my experience in estimating a home’s value is that some other data fields within the County’s home sales database (like the home’s style code) is much better than the number of bedrooms at indicating the estimated value of a home. The number of bathrooms plays a minor role at best, so I wouldn’t have even bothered with that field. Granted, some of my suggestions might take some user training if they are used to the more traditional home search, but it would be a more valuable tool.

With that said, if you are living in King County and interested in an estimated value of your home, Shack Prices is a great place to start. However, if you want something a little more robust just ask any real estate agent. ANY agent looking for more business will prepare a “Comparative Market Analysis” for free and the agent will likely be more experienced at weeding through the appropriate data fields to develop a better estimate of your home’s value.

Congratulations to Galen for making this happen and check out Seattle Real Estate Talk’s post on Shack Prices…