Archives for April 2012

How is the Bellevue Market?

April 16, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

How’s the market? I get asked that daily! Which one? The resale market? The rental market? The investor market? Let’s look at just east of Lake Washington.

In Bellevue 66.2% of properties in all price points were in contract last month.

In the more affordable price point ($0.00 – $500,000.00), 100% of homes were in contract. Yup! 100%!

In the Redmond at the more affordable price point ($0.00 – $400,000.00), 71.4% of homes were in contract.

In these two markets, the sellers are in control – at least for now.

WE NEED INVENTORY! If you know someone who tried to sell in the past but needs to sell now, connect me with them. I want to help.

Filed Under: Art, Real Estate Updates

Fading ‘Fear Factor’ Among Home Buyers?

April 16, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

The real estate market is thawing this spring. Following five years of dismal sales and falling prices, the housing market is starting to see a turnaround, according to housing surveys, agent reports, and economists.

Home buyers are returning to take advantage of record housing affordability while investors are buying up foreclosures in bulk at bargain prices.

"The biggest challenge that we’ve had over the past four years is fear — fear that the economy is collapsing, that property values are collapsing, that the world is coming to an end," Mark Prather, a broker at ERA Buy America Real Estate in La Palma, Calif., told the Associated Press. "The fear factor is all but gone."

The signs are already there: Home sales prices are starting to edge up, even in hard-hit housing areas like Phoenix and Miami. Also, banks are issuing more mortgages. JPMorgan Chase recently reported an uptick in loan applications recently by 33 percent, and the bank said that it issued 6 percent more mortgages from January through March than last year. Wells Fargo reported an 84 percent increase in loan applications and the issuing of 54 percent more mortgages in the last year.

Still, the housing market has some ways to go, with a surge of foreclosures expected to soon hit the market and the unemployment rate still high in many parts of the country.

"This gradual healing is encouraging, but we must tread carefully as the housing market is still far from a robust recovery," Michelle Meyer, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told Reuters News.

Source: “US home-buying season finally signaling a recovery,” The Associated Press (April 15, 2012) and “Close to Bottoming, Home Prices May Rise in 2013,” Reuters (April 12, 2012)

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Real Estate

The origin and anatomy of the Stanley Cup [infographic]

April 15, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Blog, Hockey Tagged With: stanely cup

Mind the gap: Millennials v. boomers [infographic]

April 14, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

I find it fascinating how we try to put people into boxes. While I understand why, it’s important to remember that we are not defined by age alone.

Filed Under: Blog, Random Thoughts

After 23 Moves, a Couple Finds Their Forever Home

April 13, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Dream Come True

Chills ran up my arms while I watched the crew roll my beautiful old home, creaking and groaning, off its crumbling stacked-sandstone foundation and onto rails set up in the side yard. I knew we had to pour a concrete foundation to save the 1901 house, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. A few nerve-racking hours later, it was safe and sound on its temporary resting place. What a relief! My husband, Dennis, who has decades of home-building experience, had planned everything out to the inch, so I should have known he and the crew would get it right, but it was a scary ordeal. After all, this wonderful old house was my dream come true, and I really didn’t like seeing it perched perilously off the ground.

See, for years I routed my morning walks through the historic district of our mountain town of Bozeman, Montana, imagining what the interiors of the 19th- and 20th-century homes must be like. While visions of my very own old bungalow danced in my head, I never really believed I could talk Dennis into the idea of "rectifying someone else’s mistakes," as he puts it. But after 23 moves during his 29-year career, he promised the next move would be my choice. I jumped at the offer, dragging him off to tour several old houses on the market.

Shown: The renovated Dutch Colonial Revival’s red shutters pop against new cedar shingles. Porch railings and a portico entry mimic the home’s original woodwork.

Read the rest here at ThisOldHouse.com

Filed Under: Blog, Real Estate Updates

Home Ownership Makes Tax Time Less Taxing

April 12, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

With the April 17 tax deadline less than a week away, your clients still have time to take advantage of the valuable tax benefits home ownership affords. The National Association of REALTORS®’ consumer site, HouseLogic.com, can help.

“Our government encourages home ownership because it benefits families, communities, and our nation’s economy; home ownership is an investment in our collective futures,” said NAR President Moe Veissi, broker-owner of Veissi & Associates Inc., in Miami. “HouseLogic.com helps home owners identify the benefits that will save them money today and plan ahead for future savings, as well.”

HouseLogic.com provides tips and tools for home owners, and devotes an entire section of its site to tax incentives for the home. NAR members can check out A Home Owner’s Guide to Taxes to find helpful articles they can pass along to their clients, such as 10 Easy Mistakes Home Owners Make on their Taxes, 12 Tough Questions (and Answers) About Home Office Deductions, and 6 Deduction Traps and How to Avoid Them that provide consumers with a wealth of information to ensure they get the maximum return to which they’re entitled.

Tax benefits that encourage home ownership include the mortgage interest deduction, deductions for property taxes, and tax credits for energy-efficient remodeling projects and heating and cooling systems.

Source: NAR

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Real Estate Tagged With: mortgage interest deduction, tax benefits

What America Buys

April 12, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

To learn more, click image

Filed Under: Blog, Economy

Stunning Hillside Forest Retreat Welcomes Nature Indoors

April 11, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Living in the midst of nature is one thing. Inviting nature into your home as a part of the living space is something entirely different. In the case of the Corallo House by PAZ Arquitectura, it is also something completely wonderful.

Residing in a heavily forested area of Guatemala City, the Corallo House incorporates the surrounding forest into its overall design. The home is in the forest, but the forest is also in the home.

One of the main goals of the project was to preserve the existing trees on the site and incorporate them into the home’s overall design.

The result is a home that uses both natural materials and nature itself – in the form of living, growing trees – to honor the beautiful piece of earth on which it sits.

The interior changes in level correspond with the natural topography changes of the site itself. The home hugs the natural contours of the landscape, connecting it even more firmly to the forest in which it resides.

Inside and out, the home’s materials reflect nature at every turn. Rich oiled wood, weathered timber, expansive glass, smooth pebbles and rough stones, shiny steel and exposed concrete – and, of course, the living trees – all combine to form a gentle conversation with the forest.

While the entire house is amazing and truly an unforgettable architectural treat, it seems likely that the residents would have a hard time enjoying the whole building. When you have a bedroom this spectacular, why would you ever want to leave it?

Filed Under: Architecture, Blog Tagged With: architecture