Category Archives: Seattle Rental Market

Seattle Home Show This Weekend

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Are you thinking about updating your home, but having a difficult time coming up with savvy ideas for improvements? The Seattle Home Show is in town this weekend, and is the perfect place to gain inspiration for new home projects. The Home Show is the Northwest’s largest consumer home show with everything indoor and outdoor home related.

Photo Courtesy of the Seattle Home Show

The expo begins tomorrow at the Century Link Field Event Center, and will showcase hundreds of exhibits from builders, developers and re-modelers, with the latest models of new appliances, fixtures, and landscaping. There will be seminars throughout the weekend, and special events such as wine tasting to boot! Tickets are $10 in advance, or $12 at the door for adults,  and $7 in advance for seniors. All ticket pricing includes free parking at Century Link Field Event Center, and a free cup of F.X. McRory’s chowder. For more information on the Seattle Home Show, visit their website.

Seattle Gives the Ok for Amazon’s Highrise Complex

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With a 3-2 vote in favor of moving forward, Amazon’s proposed 3 block high rise complex in the Denny Triangle received the OK from the Seattle Design and Review Board yesterday, which will be the biggest complex downtown Seattle has ever seen. The vote was just a means of presenting the project to the City’s Department of Planning and Development, but it is certainly a breakthrough for such a bold project to receive high regard.

According to the Seattle Times, the board has held 5 meetings to discuss the project’s progression over  the past 6 months, to review designs submitted by Amazon’s Architect NBBJ. The Department of Planning and Development will now review the board’s recommendations, as it examines Amazon’s application to obtain a  land-use permit for the complex. Amazon has indicated their hopes to begin construction on the project next year, and a final decision could come to a conclusion as early as November. For more information on the project, visit the Seattle Times.

Tips For Choosing the Perfect Rental

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The Rental market has become quite competitive in recent months, with long time homeowners swiftly switching back into the renting along with prospective renters, all in search of the perfect rental. While everyone seems to be scrambling to find a home, there are a few things to keep in mind while searching for the right rental for you, before you sign the lease.

Make sure you know what you want before you go shopping. What are your personal requirements for renting? Do you need covered parking, a good pet policy, or washer and dryer in the unit? What are your wants vs needs? Make sure that you’re open to different options, and that you don’t expect the landlord to add additional amenities just for you. It’s also important to connect with the landlord; you don’t have to be best friends, but you want to make sure you’re able to have a working relationship with them. Being aware of possible scams is a good thing to keep in mind when you’re searching rentals on Craigslist, Zillow, other sites where anyone can post a listing. Don’t give financial information to just anyone, or even personal information if you don’t have legitimate information on the company or landlord first. For more information on rental listings, visit Ewing & Clark Inc.

Vacationing Late Summer? Review Home Security Tips to Keep Your Residence Safe

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Summer is prime time for vacationers to pack up and get in the car, and it’s smart to make sure your home is secured before leaving the humble abode for an extended weekend or longer. Zillow has compiled a precautionary checklist to review before leaving your home alone, and the first item on the list is to consider having a house sitter or consulting with your friends and neighbors to see if they’re able to check on the house while you’re gone, which could be simple if you’re having someone check on your pets, or water your plants.

It might be wise for a neighbor to park in front of your home while you’re away, creating the illusion that someone is home at all times. Shutting off a main valve might be a cautious step to take before you leave to avoid any pipes leaking, which can cause extensive damage, and become very costly. You could consider putting up motion sensor lights (check with your landlord to see if this is feasible) or electrical timers for inside lighting, again you could also have your neighbors stop by and do the same thing. For other tips on securing your home, visit Zillow.

Zillow Reports Home Values See High Monthly Increase

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Attention Homeowners: there is hope after all for your beloved family home that holds more personal value than net worth! Last week, Real Estate website Zillow reported that both national home values and rent both rose in the month of April. According to Zillow, home values rose nationwide 0.7%, marking the largest month to month increase in value since 2006, and April is also the second month in a row for the value to increase! While King County home prices are on the rise, rent is also steadily climbing; of the 178 areas covered by the Zillow Real Estate Market Reports, 78% felt a rent increase. The housing recovery appears to be headed in the right direction overall, even though a weighted number of Americans still have homes with mortgages that are underwater, or risk foreclosure.

Holland Development Plans Huge High Rise on 9th & Pine

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If you’ve always dreamed of living in the highest high rise apartment building in Seattle you’re in luck…. Holland Development is planning the construction for your new humble abode right now! According to a report today in the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce,  Holland is preparing to start construction on what will soon be noted as Seattle’s tallest apartment tower. The building will sit on the Southwest corner of 9th & Pine just West of the Paramount Theater and will stand nearly 40 feet taller than the nearby Aspira building. The building is planned to be 440 feet tall, with 386 units and 269 parking stalls. While this might seem like a hefty project for Holland Development by itself, they also have 6 other projects in the works and will be responsible for putting 1,400 new apartment units downtown. For more information on the project please visit the Daily Journal of Commerce.

Buying a Home Might Not Get Much Cheaper

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Many renters today are choosing to put off buying a home for several reasons, statistics show that buying a home might not get any cheaper than it is right now. Experts say that 2012 may bet the last year for buyers to take advantage of the weak housing market and foreclosure influx. According to CNN Money, home prices are down 34% Nationally from 2006, and mortgage rates are at an all time low, making it the best year yet to find the bargain deal of a lifetime.

Economists with PNC Financial Services believe that home prices will flatten out by the third quarter of this year, and might begin to climb at the beginning of next year. There are several indicators that the housing market is picking up like the decline in foreclosures, and continued job growth nationwide, and buyers will have more access to affordable mortgages as they build their credit scores. While some prospective buyers who have been wary might be more willing to follow through because of the all-time low mortgage rates and lower home values, some renters still aren’t in a position to take the next step and will ultimately miss the grace period. For more information on the housing market, click here.

Zillow Reports Rentals Continue to Outshine Housing Market

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According to Zillow’s Real Estate Market Report in February, the median price in rent had risen 2% since February 2011, and home values had continued to fall, dropping 4.5% during the same time period. Zillow’s Rent Index illustrated that the year over year gains for an estimated 68% of metropolitan markets measured by the ZRI, and only 8% of metro areas covered by the Zillow Home Value Indexsaw home values rise.

Seattle Rental In Leschi Neighborhood

Today’s rental market is continuing to heat up, with an emphasis on areas where home values have consistently been declining. Foreclosures have been at the forefront in keeping home values down, with foreclosure re-sales making up an  estimated 20.3% of all sales in the month of February. Zillow experts have said that we’ve made it through the worst of the housing market recession, but with the enormous inventory of foreclosures and unemployment are all still factors to overcome on the rise to recovery. For more information on rental listings in the Seattle area, visit Ewing & Clark and Craigslist.