ARDELL DellaLoggia

Below are some photos of a townhome for sale in Rivertrail, Redmond WA

For many, choosing townhome over single family home offers many advantages. The interior finishes are generally much newer and upscale than one could possible get at the same price and location in a single family home. The asking price of this townhome is $464,500. A single family home at the same price would likely be an older rambler from the 60s of 1,300 square feet or so.

This townhome is 1,544 square feet with a two car garage and gated patio area.

Not all townhomes are created equal. This one has new bamboo hardwood floors on the main level. another added feature not often found in townhomes at this price is the crown molding up at the top of the wall at the ceiling, upgraded baseboards, and a built in window seat for extra storage.

Freshly painted in currently popular colors is an added plus, when considering one townhome over another.

The Kitchen is at least as large, if not larger, than many single family homes that cost $200,000 more in lesser locations.

Five rooms on the main level include a living room with gas fireplace, a 1/2 bath off the slate entryway, a formal dining room, family room and kitchen. The family room shown above can also be used for expanded kitchen eating area. This owner uses it as a playroom for her two small children.

Vaulted ceilings in the master bedroom and a five piece master bath with double sinks, a soaking tub and a pocket door to the toilet and stall shower area. Clearly these amenities do not come in a single family home at this price.

The gated patio is perfect for small children at play or pets. There are few, if any, restrictions regarding pets at Rivertrail. Basically they are the same as City of Redmond restrictions regarding dogs on leash, etc.

An attached two car garage with alley access.

Rivetrail in Redmond backs up to the Burke-Gilman Trail and is in walking distance to Bella Botega. Of course it's proximity to Microsoft and Downtown Redmond and Redmond Towne Center make it a just about perfect place to live.

Townhome Living can give you much more than a single family home and at a more affordable price.

Affordable Downtown Kirkland Condos are more often South of Central vs. East or West of Market, which is why I really like the location of Soho. It is one of the few condo complexes East of Market and that makes it easier for visitors to park on the street. It also is much easier for residents to get in and out of town without hitting traffic jams. It's between 5th and 6th Street on 7th Ave.

The prices are currently set a bit artificially low as they were undergoing improvements by the builder during the most recent market upswing. That and 10 foot ceilings make it a still affordable condo complex amongst a sea of many that may be overpriced two years down the road in hindsight. When it was built in 2000 it won design awards and was one of the first buildings to go with the 10 foot ceilings. Several of the more favored buildings of its time had 8' or 9' ceilings and were built in the 90s. Today it stands as one of the most reasonably priced buildings with 10' ceilings in the units.

Soho has 58 units. As in all complexes, the first and top floors being the more desirable and selling generally at a higher price per square foot than those with units both above and below them for the normal and obvious reasons. Though position within the complex and view considerations will outweigh the which floor is it on consideration.

There are currently 3 one bedroom units for sale from $329,000 to $365,000, the lowest priced one being more than 100 sf smaller than the two higher priced units. There is a two bedroom priced just over $500,00 with the square footage being 40% more while the price is 33% more making it attractive if someone can afford the difference in price.

You have to be careful about price per square foot as the worst location in the complex may want to price at the price per square foot of a view unit. So pay attention to the detail and not just the face value of the comps without reasearching the location considerations.

Convenience of getting in and out of town quickly and having several options to do so without hitting any big traffic logjams, but still being very close to everything and walkable to everything, is Soho's biggest claim to fame.

How do you determine if a neighborhood is GREAT?! How about when 1/3 of the current owners are the original owners since the late eighties and 2/3rds of the owners have lived there for 10 years or more?

English Hill in Redmond Washington is really several different neighborhoods. Here is a link to the HOA website that makes an important announcement regarding the Schools and some changes for English Hill residents.

One of my clients purchased a home in English Hill from an original owner and to me that is a sign of a good neighborhood. Many say people are living in their homes for less and less time. But when you find a neighborhood built quite some time ago that still has some original owners, it's a good heads up that this is likely a really good neighborhood.

Today I'm going to look at the section of English Hill called Crown Heights. There are 39 homes in the Crown Heights section of English Hill. Most of the homes were built in 1988 and 1989 with a couple built in 1987 or 1990. Generally this section of English Hill consists of large homes with 3 of them just under 3,000 square feet, 17 of them between 3,000 sf and 3,500 sf, 13 are between 3,500 sf and 4,000 sf and 6 are between 4,000 sf and 4,500 sf. That's a pretty big variance in square footage for a neighborhood of 39 homes.

11 are original owners, 23 of 39 owners have lived in Crown Heights of English Hill since before 2000 and most for longer than 10 years.

Only 2 homes changed owners in 2007, 2 in 2006, 2 in 2005 and 2 in 2004. Not exactly a mass exodus of any kind. Strong numbers for a neighborhood, making Crown Heights of English Hill an excellent choice for homebuyers.

Large lots of mostly about 3/4 of an acre ranging from 2/3rds of an acre to almost a full acre.

Original prices back in the late eighties reflected a price per square foot of about $85. Today you can expect to pay $250 per sf give or take, depending on what improvements have been made to the house over the years.

That's my Spotlight on Crown Heights of English Hill in Redmond, WA for today. I'll report on some of the other English Hill Neighborhoods and tag them English Hill for your convenience.

Happy Easter!

Seattle was doing very well relative to the rest of the Country until the mortgage industry impact in September of 2007.

How much will the changes in the mortgage industry affect us here in Seattle?

Tonights data is continuing to show dramtic reductions in the number of properties sold and is starting to show signs of price weakness.

While there will be late postings for the month of February into next week, the number of condo sales at present is down 47% for the month of February compared to February of last year.

For the full data for this week,, January 2006, 2007 and 2008 as well as February for those three years, click here.

Here's a quick snapshot of this breaking news...let's hope a whole lot of people didn't post their month end closings yet. I predict that 47% reduction in sales is going to be more like 40%, but still...that's a whole lot of down.

UPDATE: As of March 6, late postings show condo sales down between 39% and 40% February 2008 vs. February 2007.

This is the post that moves me to the #1 Real Estate Agent in the State of Washington here in Active Rain. The spot became available when Rich Jacobson took a job at ActiveRain and vacated the spot. Before that time it was not possible for anyone to achieve that position, given the numerous points given to the #1 and #2 spot people for being moderators of ActiveRain. Points not available to the average ActiveRain participant. While that system no longer exists, when someone has many thousands of Bonus Points for bonuses not available to the general membership, it is not an even playing field.

I expect and hope that the dashboard arrangement will at some point be drastically modified so that all members have a better chance to shine down from the top and for good reason, good reasons from the consumer standpoint and not just the "good old boy" system of backslapping and he's my buddy so he's BEST.

So for this post, the post that puts me in the #1 spot, I ask that the AR Gods come up with a better system for highlighting the agents who give of their time here. One that suggests that consumer-centric writing is important, as we all know that agent-centric writing at ActiveRain is the point gainer around here.

For the few and lucky ones like me, I can now truly blog here. Now that I've pulled the brass ring, I can blog normally, as I do at RainCityGuide. I have given some consideration to using the Tomato method of simply writing a few blurbs to get to 50 words and then linking to my posts at Rain City Guide. Not sure. Time will tell.

Now that I'm in the #1 spot guys, change that system, as being here for a long time and catering to the agents in order to get to the top sends the wrong message to those who blog. Blogging is not for each other. It is not agent-centric, even though being agent-centric is the more expedient method to achieve status in ActiveRain.