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REALTORS® Say Government Officials Can Help Ease Housing Squeeze
SKCAR is urging public officials to increase the supply of housing near employment centers to meet the needs of median income workers by improving Buildable Lands Reports. Additionally, SKCAR advocates a combination of solutions that preserve single-family neighborhoods, allow multi-family housing opportunities in certain areas, adjust zoning to increase density in small increments, and support innovations in housing designs that cater to changing demographics.
Read the complete SKCAR release here. (pdf format)
Seattle Department of Transportation Heightens Enforcement on Directional Arrow Wood Stake Real Estate Signs
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has issued a notice stating that directional arrow wood stake signs are not allowed within the City of Seattle on public right-of-ways, street medians, planting strips or city property. Non-complying signs may be impounded by SDOT staff. Impounded signs are subject to at least $97 per sign impound fee when retrieved by the owner. Failure to comply may also result in a citation of up to $500. Please note that this does not reflect a change in sign regulation but rather an increase in the City’s enforcement of current regulation.
Open House A-Board signs may be used during open house hours. The Seattle-King County Association of REALTORS worked with SDOT to ensure that open house signs could continue to be used in serving your clients. Open House A-Board signs may be placed along the periphery of a right of way but cannot impede pedestrian access/mobility, cannot impede bicycle mobility, and cannot interfere with vehicular traffic.
Baby Boomer Study Shows Changing Housing Needs, Uncertain Retirement
(October 16, 2006) NAR – Baby boomers have a wide variety of housing needs in the future, depending on their retirement plans - or lack thereof - according to a study by the National Association of REALTORS. (More...)
Washington REALTORS Weigh the Pros and Cons on Initiative 933, Remain Neutral
(October 16, 2006) Washington REALTORS – The Washington Association of Realtors announced that the 25,000-member organization will remain neutral on Initiative 933. Since February, the Washington Realtors have studied the possible effects of I-933, which would require state and local government to compensate property owners for regulations that damage the use or value of private property. Read the Press Release...
NAR Joins with Mexican Association
(October 6, 2006) REALTOR Magazine – NAR officially forged a partnership with the Mexico’s national real estate association by signing its first-ever reciprocal membership agreement with a foreign real estate organization. (More...)
NAR Launches Employer-Assisted Housing Campaign
(September 27, 2006) REALTOR Magazine – NAR has launched a campaign to create more affordable housing opportunities for public- and private-sector workers. The Home from Work campaign trains REALTORS® to work with their local businesses to develop employer-assisted housing benefit plans for their workers. These programs may include homebuying workshops, one-on-one housing counseling led by REALTORS®, and financial incentives. Home from Work is the newest initiative from NAR’s Housing Opportunity Program, which aims to position REALTORS® as community leaders in identifying, developing, and promoting business opportunities that expand housing availability, and to ensure an adequate housing supply for renters and owners. (More...)
Seattle's Housing Market Not Prone to Price Drops
(September 3, 2006) Seattle Times – Princeton economist Paul Krugman, writing in The New York Times, said: "The long-feared housing bust has arrived." Nationally speaking, anyway. If history is any indication, King County may escape it, according to a Seattle Times analysis of single-family-home prices. It shows that appreciation rates have risen and fallen, sometimes precipitously. But not once since 1985 — through recession years, interest-rate spikes, wars and employment downturns — has the countywide median price of a single-family home fallen, although it's come close. (More...)
City Has to Prepare for Growth
(August 16, 2006) Seattle P-I – Op-ed by Terry Sullivan, President of the Washington REALTORS, about changes that need to be made to keep housing affordable. (More...)
Put Homeownership in Reach of Hardworking Washingtonians
(August 23, 2006) Seattle Times – Op-ed by Ron Fowler, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Washington REALTORS, about the desperate need for more affordable housing. (More...)
Lawmakers, Gregoire OK New Study on Affordable Housing
(August 9, 2006) Seattle Times – Prompted by a letter from the Washington REALTORS, Gov. Christine Gregoire and top legislative leaders Tuesday authorized a study of ways to promote affordable housing in the state. (More...)
Fees for Access to Do-Not-Call Registry to Increase September 1, 2006
The Federal Trade Commission has moved forward with plans to increase its fees for access to the federal Do-Not-Call Registry. For individual area codes in excess of the five free codes, the fee will jump from $56 to $62. For access to the entire registry, the fee will increase from $15,400 to $17,050. The new fee schedule takes effect Sept. 1. NAR voiced its opposition to the fee increase in a comment letter earlier this year. The FTC says it will review the policy again next year. To view the rule, click here.
Choosing a Good Real Estate Agent
(August 5, 2006) Seattle Times – Prospective buyers and sellers should take steps to ensure that they get one of the good agents and one they feel comfortable working with. (More...)
Seattle Still Near Top of US Housing Market Hot Spots
(July 31, 2006) RISMedia – While much of the country is experiencing a balanced housing market between buyer demand and seller supply, a recent HouseHunt national survey has identified a dozen metro area hot spots where most listings are selling in 30 days or less, sellers greatly outnumber buyers, and 46% of sellers are getting 100% or more of their asking prices. (More...)
Rate Rises Will Start to Hurt Variable-Rate Borrowers
(July 27, 2006) REALTORMag – Higher interest rates will soon start to pinch for the huge number of home owners who have variable-rate mortgages on their house or have taken out variable-rate home equity loans. (More...)
FHA Reform Passes the US House of Representatives
(July 25, 2006) National Realty News – The U.S. House of Representatives passed "The Expanding American Homeownership Act,” which will increase homeownership opportunities for millions of Americans by modernizing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and returning it to its traditional role as an important financing option in today’s housing market. (More...)
People Don't Work in the Same Communities in Which They Live
(July 22, 2006) Seattle Times – Despite the dramatic surge of new jobs in suburbia over the past three decades, most people in Seattle and other metropolitan areas don't work in the same communities in which they live. (More...)
Only 9 Areas in King County Left for Middle Income Buyers
(July 16, 2006) Seattle Times – Throughout the county, buyers earning solidly middle-class wages have been increasingly unable to find what are traditionally thought of as middle-class houses because escalating prices mean the pool has been shrinking dramatically. (More...)
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