Windermere Woodinville Blog

“Is this A Good Time to Buy a Home in Washington State? For Many It Certainly Is!” says the lead of an op ed piece by Scott Jarvis, Director Washington State Department of Financial Institutions

Scott Jarvis was appointed director of the Department of Financial Institutions by the Governor of Washington on March 8, 2005.

A native of New York, Jarvis moved to Washington State to attend law school in 1973 at the University of Puget Sound.  He has worked in the government regulatory area for more than 27 years, mostly with the Washington State Office of Insurance Commissioner.  For eight years, from 1993 to 2001, Jarvis served as legal counsel to the state treasurer’s office.

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Miss that meeting to brain storm how to inspire agents and resurrect the company dollar?  No problem here are the meeting notes.

For agents:

Read up, pray up, and show up.

Work the sphere with personal notes, calls and coffee.

Resort to imagination and creativity to put the deals together.

Exude confidence. Show your clients a positive, up beat, optimistic face

For owners and managers:

Don’t just preach; lead by example.

Be first in the office before all staff and last to leave.

Put up the flag, make the coffee; turn on the copy machine.

Be bouncing on the balls of your feet when the first agent arrives: “What can I do to help you?”

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This last Session, the Washington State legislature passed several consumer-protection laws impacting real estate practice.  Bless our lawmakers. Certainly the industry and consumers could benefit by a few course corrections.

But at a time when market conditions challenge agents to find buyers, in a season where agents struggle to sell homes in a timely manner … in an atmosphere where the private sector fights to hold off recession and vouchsafe the government tax base … here come new laws to dampen the entrepreneurial fires. 

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Across the country short sales have become more prevalent. 

What is a “short sale?”

The fellow on the far right in our “line up” owes more on his home than he will get when he sells.  He won’t gross enough to pay for the underlying loan.  He’s underwater, upside down and he will come up “short.”

The other home owners in the line up also owe some money on their mortgage, but their heads are above water.  The homeowner on the far left, a little more in the blue, will make more than the homeowner in the middle.

When the two on the left sell, they’ll make enough to pay off the mortgage (the money they borrowed for their home) and still have something left over as profit.  The money they “made” on their home they can pocket (watch out for capital gains) or move on to use this profit to buy their next home.

When buying a “short sale” home the buyer and the seller must have the lender’s approval for the sale.  This creates a “contingency” on the seller’s side of the transaction.  It also creates complications in the sale.  Special expertise is required to make sure there’s a chance of closing a short sale.

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It’s baseball season and even if the Mariners aren’t tearing up the American League,  here is  heartening news from  the NWREporter of July 2008 on home values.  When it comes to home appreciation, Mercer Island still has a great batting average.  And Seattle downtown condos aren’t doing too shabby, either.

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 People we ask are home prices falling?  Or they will ask when will we see homes appreciate again in our Puget Sound area?  Well, home prices are not falling much and in some areas they’re are holding steady and in still others appreciating. 

The best source of information for us to answer such questions is the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.  The “Multiple” collects the most reliable data for us.  What is the Multiple saying? 

KIRKLAND, Wash. (June 5, 2008) – “If you’re a buyer, this is the time to take advantage of unique market conditions” says the Northwest Multiple Listing Service in its June 5 release.

Prices area-wide are showing moderate fluctuation. While median selling prices in most counties served by NWMLS are down from a year ago, many areas are showing stability and even increases.

In 30 “sub-areas” the MLS tracks within King County, for example, 21 areas reported higher prices in May compared to April.

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• Check out this website for free counseling if you’re thinking of  buying a home or if you are a current homeowner having trouble with your mortgage.

• Find foreclosure help, refinancing information and generally educate yourself about mortgages.

• Look at  http://www.dfi.wa.gov/consumers/homeownership

• Thanks for reading this blog.

Our agents are passing around these “good news” quotations:

“The Wall Street Journal ranks Seattle at the top for housing market conditions.

“Our metro area and employment outlook are strong — and we’ve got the lowest supply of housing inventory in 28 markets.  Those in the hunt for a home can feel confident buying a new home in the Puget Sound market.

“The New York Times calls our region’s residential real estate sales and prices ‘robust.’ Our market has seen the fourth smallest decline out of 20 cities measured in the national home price index. The Bellevue market is particularly strong, making it an excellent location to buy a new home!

“A housing recovery could be coming our way! Housing re-sales in California were up in April — and since Seattle started its decline later, this could be a great sign that a recovery is on the way.

“Now is the time to buy before prices in our market or interest rates start to escalate.”

Thank you for taking time to read this blog.  Your interest is greatly appreciated.

We love the Seattle Times for its article on June 15, 2008 on home equity.  Syndicated columnist, Kenneth R. Harney, concludes that the dark clouds falling on home equity (value of homes) may not hover over our area of the county.  The I-5 corridor looks pretty healthy.

“When you look at home-price data over the last five years, you find that large parts of the county never got caught up in the boom-and-bust cycle,” writes Harney.

“The Fed’s [equity-decline] numbers for the country as a whole are really being dragged down disproportionately by the big drops in prices in California, Florida and a handful of other states,” says Mr. Harney in a quotation.

“While prices in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area fell 0.43 percent in the first quarter, they were up 2.82 percent over the past year [according to the Fed index] and 63.43 percent over the past five years.”

“Bottom line:  National numbers, especially on the downside, get all the attention.  But unless you bought in a highly volatile area using a toxic mortgage, things probably aren’t anywhere near that bleak,” writes Harney.

Thank you Mr. Harney. Things aren’t bleak in Washington State.  Now is a good time for buyers to embrace that home they love.  Values remain healthy in our area.

Thanks for reading this blog.

Matthew Gardner, a partner in Gardner Johnson Land Use Economics provides analysis and commentary on the Western Washington real estate market.

Mr. Gardner dispels doom-and-gloom market theories that, in as much as they may apply to the US as a whole, are not necessarily applicable to the Pacific Northwest.

In a report for Windermere Real Estate prepared in this Spring of 2008 (The Gardner Report), the economist concludes:

“Inventory levels remain stubbornly high with buyers on the sidelines and sellers unwilling to move on price; it is an impasse.  Sales activity, although down, is hardly at a standstill with over 11,000 transactions recorded in the first-quarter.

“Our is a market in transition.  In as much as it is clearly likely that we will see an overall decline in values in 2008, we believe  that this will be temporary and that moderately increasing values will return to the market in 2009.”

After receiving degrees in Economics and English at Oxford, Mr. Gardner acted as a Land Agent for Cluttons, an international firm of Chartered Surveyors where he advised clients such as the British Royal family and the Church of England in their real estate matters.

Mr. Gardner is a regular lecturer in real estate forecasting & economics and currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Washington State University Center for Real Estate Research.

Matthew Gardner