housing

Eco friendly homes that have been on the market for years. Very nice looking, close to Green Lake, but pricey at the original price of $725K to $825K.

The bank has foreclosed on the remaining, unsold units and they are now for sale again, for $399K to $649K. Their cost was high because of their high-level of built-green certification.

Quoted: Almost all the construction waste was recycled. Some materials from the warehouse that previously occupied the site were reused. Many other construction materials came from local sources. The homes feature formaldehyde-free doors and millwork and on-demand hot water systems. Rain, captured in a 23,000-gallon underground cistern, provides all the water for irrigation. Fixtures and appliances use relatively little energy and water — Pryde Johnson actually prepared an owners' manual telling buyers how to use and maintain them.

possibly of interest to porcile

Quoted: Gone are the days when the only place to find apartment listings was the back of a newspaper. Now you can find conduct apartment searches of all sorts online, and its almost always packed with additional photos, video, and information.

The real estate problems are affecting the high-end, luxury market disproportionately more. However, several developers are still holding steady with pricing and unwilling to do across-the-board cuts, but how long they will continue to tow that line is uncertain.

Short Sales, a type of pre-foreclosure sale negotiated with the bank, are indeed taking a long time to close. It requires the right pricing and the right procedures when working with the bank and seller, and the right documentation. Unfortunately, many agents who do them don't know how they're supposed to work, and as such, they ultimately lead the sellers down to the only option left - foreclosure.

Once banks streamliine the process, the inventory of these types of properties should get moving again. If the MLS can track that these properties are indeed declining, that will be a strong indicator that the market is recovering. Otherwise, monthly numbers that are just number manipulation showing weak signs of recovery (or just market fluctuations) are not good indicators.

Quoted: May sales numbers released Thursday by the broker-owned Northwest Multiple Listing Service reflect the complex and notoriously slow nature of short sales, which real-estate agents say are occurring more frequently in the Seattle market. Pending sales of King County single-family homes — offers that have been accepted by owners, but haven't yet closed — were up 27 percent from May 2008, eliciting cheers from brokers starved for good news. Closings, in contrast, were down 14 percent. Real-estate professionals attributed the disparity to slow-closing short sales.

16.4% drop year over year, compared to 19.1% nationwide.

Granted this figure includes all sales in King, Snohomish and Pierce County, the latter two of which have had a significant bigger price impact than King county real estate has experienced.

Quoted: Another month, another record annual decline for Seattle-area house values.

Green Lake's new, big commercial and residential projects have definiteliy taken a hit in the past year. Most noticeable is the giant hole in the ground where Vitamilk used to a be and purpoted new supermarket (Metropolitan Market???) was supposed to go in.

Pryde Johnson worked on two projects in this article, Ashworth Cottages and Florera. It has another big condo project in Ballard called Hjarta that is now leasing out units. Tough times to be doing development for sure, but some good deals for buyers.

Quoted: Green Lake provides a case study of just how dramatically the local commercial real-estate market has reversed, and how the downturn is touching even the most popular neighborhoods. In the boom years, Green Lake and the park surrounding it were magnets for developer dollars. Applications for new apartment, condo and retail projects seemed as ubiquitous as jogging moms pushing strollers on the 2.8-mile path around the lake. Then came the downturn. Some projects disappeared before they even got permits.

Take a look at the article's charts - interesting numbers showing the decline in pricing for houses and condos in the area over the past year.

Quoted: The key elements: Lower prices. Lower mortgage-interest rates. And new incentives for first-time buyers. The Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported Tuesday that pending single-family home sales in King County topped 2,000 in April, the first month that level has been reached since August 2007

There are definitely some damn good deals in the market. Something that would have cost $400,000 two years ago may be in the low $300Ks now.

It's not just a reflection of the natural price declines of a slowing economy, but also of the downward pricing pressure that homeowners face as they want to sell their homes quickly. Also, add in the fact that more and more homes are in danger of foreclosure and you can see pricing drop rapidly in several areas.

It could be so much worse in Seattle - we are really lucky by comparison.

Quoted: The real estate market is so awful that buyers are now scooping up homes for as little as $1,000. There are 18 listings in Flint, Mich., for under $3,000, according to Realtor.com. There are 22 in Indianapolis, 46 in Cleveland and a whopping 709 in Detroit. All of these communities have been hit hard by foreclosures, and most of these homes are being sold by the lenders that repossessed them.