Oct 26 2006
One more good thing about living in the Emerald City -
“I’ve been to enough house fires where people are crying for us to save their pets,” Seattle firefighter Jennifer Bessler said. “This just gives us one more tool to help out a pet that’s maybe been in too long.”
Oct 17 2006
The Housing Affordability Index (HAI), as calculated by WSU’s Washington Center for Real Estate Research, continues it’s downward spiral. Figures for 2nd quarter 2006 show the HAI for King County is 70.4, down from 1st quarter’s 77.1. It’s even tougher on first-time home buyers who have an HAI of 39.4.
Housing Affordability Index measures the ability of middle income family to carry the mortgage payments on a median price home. When the index is 100 there is a balance between the family’s ability to pay and the cost. Higher indexes indicate housing is more affordable.
Oct 16 2006
The Seattle PI posted an article today about the lack of family-friendly living in the downtown core. Parents cite lack of larger units, developers cite lack of schools and schools cite lack of demand; an unenviable catch-22. Yet, I’m not sure there is an easy solution.
Certainly, bringing schools to the area will provide a foundation for families to consider urban living. But, should the city invest into a new school that currently would have very little demand, especially at a time when other schools are closing? Will building larger units, as some parents claim, bring them to the downtown area? Considering that 2-bedroom units at Rollin Street Flats & Escala start at $800,000, it reasons that only uber-wealthy families could afford a 3-bedroom “family-sized” condo. And, would children who live in million-dollar condos attend public rather than private schools?
The PI had an accompanying article about how downtown family living works in Vancouver, BC. The article cited downtown schools and the fact that many of those families came from areas where high-rise family living is common and that’s why it works. Which may certainly be true. But, Vancouver’s downtown area, and I’m talking about the West End (between the financial district & Stanley Park), is essentially residential with a mixture of low and high-rise residential buildings, single-family homes, parks, schools and quiet tree-lined streets. Families lived in this part of downtown long before the explosion of high-rises along False Creek and Burrard Inlet.
The fact of the matter is Seattle isn’t Vancouver and never will be. Plus, Vancouver has something Seattle doesn’t, a long-established downtown residential neighborhood with infrastructure and community services to support it. Rather than compare ourselves to Vancouver, Seattle (the city) needs to look inward to determine if the downtown area can truly support urban family living for all classes. And, if so, the city needs to develop solutions rather than rely on developers or the wait endlessly before the demographics change.
Oct 13 2006
As a volunteer & foster parent with the Seattle Animal Shelter at Interbay (between Queen Anne & Magnolia), I wanted to take this opportunity to get the word out about an upcoming dog adoption event.
The Adopt-A-Dog month event will take place on October 22nd at Wags Belltown (113-A Bell Street) from 11 am to 3 pm. Folks from Wellness Food and the Belltown Feed & Seed will be on hand. There will be a raffle too.
The adoption fee range between $125 to $165 and include a fabulous dog companion, plus:
Wags Belltown will be hosting a Halloween Costume Party on Sunday, October 29th from 2 to 5 pm. There will be food, games and prizes for best costume. So, bring your urbanite pooch and enjoy the fun.
Oct 13 2006
The Seattle Home Show 2 is going on this weekend at the Qwest Field Event Center.
The show is open Thursday - Saturday, 10 am to 8:30 pm and Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm.
Oct 12 2006
The Washington State Ferry system, which introduced free Wi-Fi access on a number of routes back in 2004, will now start charging for access. Additionally, the ferry system will expand Wi-Fi access to all 28th vessels in it’s fleet.
The cost of the Wi-Fi access is to be determined but may be similar to Wi-Fi prices at the state’s highway rest stops. Currently, the rest stops charge $2.95 for 15 minutes, $6.95 per day or $29.95 per month.
Oct 11 2006
The old Rainier Brewery in the Georgetown neighborhood was acquired by the Sabey Corp. Sabey plans to convert the landmark designated, 5.5 acre property into new condominium housing.
Oct 09 2006
Informative article in the Seattle PI on the disappearing marine life from Puget Sound due to contaminants and shoreline changes, affecting natural plants, crabs, seabirds, salmon and the orca populations. Here’s a clip of the various sources of pollution affecting the sound.
Oct 08 2006
A while back I wrote a post about the human cost of conversions with the new owner/developers only needing to provide 90 days notice and $500 to displaced tenants. It looks like the increasing number of conversions, and thus, more displaced tenants, who undoubtedly are unable to afford to purchase the snazzy conversions, are getting noticed by the politicos. From the PI’s Forced Out Tenants article:
(State Senator) Fairley’s plan would ban construction, remodeling or repairs during the required advance notice period for conversion or until at least 12 hours after the last tenant moved out. It also would increase the minimum payment to $2,500, then adjust it each year for inflation.
It would allow cities to cap the number of apartments that could be converted to condos each year and extend the notice period from 90 to 120 days.
I personally don’t fully support the current proposal, but I applaud steps to protect tenants and to fairly compensate them when they’re displaced due to a conversion. Conversions, after all, is a business venture so it does need to be economically feasible to the developer and to provide needed housing units for would-be home owners.
Oct 06 2006
Moda Condominiums is a new development in Belltown. It got a lot of press and I even have a couple of entries on my Seattle Condo blog, most notably for it’s small studio size (sub 300 sq ft) and pricing starting at $149,950.
Yet, it was popular with buyers as the 250 units sold out in only a few days requiring Moda to start a waiting list. But not everyone who registered or visited their presentation center put their name down so they sent out an email letting interested people know about the waiting list.
They sent the email to hundreds of people. The problem was, they put everyone’s email address in the “To” field instead of the “BCC” field. So, now hundreds of people have hundreds of email address. And, Real Estate is about sales and marketing and those email addresses can certainly fall into unscrupulous hands.
