Joseph Hill

Hello everyone,

Well it looks like I have been a bad bad Real Estate Agent the past 10 days! No Blog posts, and no showing or previewing appointments. Although I have been on the phone with clients, and emailing daily, the past 10 days have been filled with lots of in-town tourist activities... BUT there is a good reason...

I have three sisters, they all live out of state and have young children. Last week, my mother and one of my sisters - and her three children - all decended on Seattle and my small Leschi / Madrona area home. The little kiddies, ages 6, 4, and 9 months all had never been to the big city before. They wanted to do everything, and that is what we did!

Here is a good, if hurried guide you may want to adapt to your own pace should you have the good fortune to be inundated with relatives looking for a good time in the emerald city with small kids:

• Woodland Park Zoo! The Pink Flamingos may be the newest attraction this summer ...

But the African Safari always Steals the Show!

It is funny what kids will want to do after the zoo - There was sidwalk Chalk to play with, Happy Meals to eat, and the always popular option of the nearest playground... they wanted to run around in the new 'Zoomazium' at the west entrance to the zoo! This is a great little facility all indoors with faux 'eggs' that kids can build around each other, a 'hiking trail' complete with caves and aquariums! And of course a giant 'Tree' that has a slide going down the middle of it. Note to parents: Your kids will probably have more fun in the Zoomazium than at the actual Zoo...

• Seattle Aquarium! The touchable tide pools will entertain and delight youngsters for HOURS..

Just be aware that the exit to the aquarium has become very 'Disneyesque' You MUST walk through the gift shop to get out - Danger - !

• Argosy Cruises! The Harbour cruise was a first for me - this 45 minute jaunt is a GREAT RESTING OPPORTUNITY for tired shoulders that have had toddlers hanging on them from the hours in the aquarium, and the views are arguably the best that can be had of Downtown, Sculpture Park, and Harbor Island. Lots of picture opportunities

• Space Needle! Alrighty, so to be honest the kids really couldn't care less about this fabulous structure, or the views from the top, but the LOVED the new interactive computer screens that have cameos of every day Seattleites doing what they do best, hanging out on Alki, Walking downtown, Playing at Madison Beach... Go check out whats new, and by the way, with all the construction in Downtown Seattle, the Skyline will look new to you also

• Pacific Science Center! Ok, Ok, so I didn't know what to expect about the Science Center for small kids. The only things I had previously done at the Center were IMAX movies... but WOW there is a TON of interactive displays and fun things that kids could literally spend the entire day just wandering around 'discovering' stuff. Right now they have an exhibit called 'SPEED' it was too technical for the age group of my visitors, but I really enjoyed it - and learned something! -We are all, always, moving at the speed of light- Really! Ask me about it sometime...

OK, so we did all the obligatory things to do in Seattle on a first visit. But we did not go to Pike Place Market because the kids would just not care. And we DID go to the new Madison Valley park to play Four times!!!!

Kids are fun to have around, but I would probably not make the best parent. I really look up to my sisters for the decision they have made to stay at home and care for thier children. Mothering is definitely the HARDEST job around!

So, Thank you MOM, Thank you Anna, Thank you Katie, Thank you Ashley, and Thank you Sterling for such a fun filled week. I miss you so much already.

Now back to work! (its ok, I love what I do!)

Been to one of these Seattle landmark institutions? What are some take-aways you experienced?

joseph

206.734.4741

What does it mean to 'WALK' in a neighborhood? What about 'Walkability'? Depends on why your walking... Seattles new Walkscore.com website allows users to log on and type in an address, and get an instant 0-100 score for the neighborhood 'walkability'. Here is a general map from todays Seattle Pi that showcases the walkable trends in Seattle.

I like the idea of this site. Addresses are considered 'walkable' based on relative proximity to services. Walkscore uses public information available from Google searches for restaurants, bars, grocery stores, etc and overlays them in proximity to the address you type in.

There are some serious weaknesses in this approach...

My home is located just two blocks east of Marting Luther King Blvd and one block south of Cherry St. Officially I am in Leschi, however the neighborhood is much more like the Central District first and Madrona Second, with Leschi being a distant 10 blocks away (at least the businesses in Leschi)

When I plugged in my address on Walkscore.com this morning I was surprised to see it rated a 72 out of 100 for walkablilty, on thier scale that is near the top for walkable neighborhoods.

I don't walk my neighborhood - Where would I go?

Walkscore has me going to LOTS of places - mostly Ethiopian restuarants between two and 5 blocks away, a couple of ethnic grocery stores, and the Red Apple at Jackson and 23rd is considered walkable.

Two things give me pause here.

1 - If I walk to any of these places - what do I have to walk past... It matters!

2 - The grocery store is a brisk 10 minutes walk away, and that is empty handed without heavy cartons of milk and cheese to lug back home!

Madrona restuarants such as St. Cloud, Cremant, and Madrona Bar & Ale House I WOULD consider walkable - mostly because the experience of getting there by foot is MUCH more pleasant than that of walking to the Red Apple...

All I am saying here is that location matters - and in the city, location changes very quickly - often from one block to the next. Your REALTOR should ask you lifestyle questions and engage you in a conversation about what is most important to you in a neighborhood.

One of the (I Feel) missleading objectives walkscore.com is to help you become less car-dependent, well maybe. But according to Walkscore.com, the Western edge of Magnolia - all along the Puget Sound waterfront in Ballard up to Shilshole and Golden Gardens is considered Car Dependant. If you have ever walked these neighborhoods you know that these are some of the most scenic and well maintained neighborhoods in the entire City. Again, what you walk through matters.

I suggest Walkscore.com ask thier visitors to create profiles for each visitor by asking them questions to determine what is important to walk to in thier neighborhood. One persons 100% walkable neighborhood is another persons Club Crazed Pioneer Square!

Comments welcomed,

joseph

206.734.4741

Townhouse Solutions?? Uglify or Beautify - not such a clear line.

March 8th 2008 the Seattle PI ran the article: ‘On Architecture: The Townhouse Scourge’. Writer Lawrence Cheek penned these two sentences in the opening paragraph:

“Seattle has the townhouse pox. A rash of trite, stale and clumsy faux-Craftsman eightplexes is ripping through the city's neighborhoods, bleeding vitality and visual interest out of the streetscapes.”

Cheek knows that there are plenty of other lesser offenders out there as well. Developers hungry for quick turn around times and the potential to make some money forego the expensive and liability ridden option of building higher density apartment-style Condo buildings and put up stock ‘faux-Craftsman’ designs that are quite a sight.

I often preview several homes at a time before showing any to a client. Many people who want to live in the Metro Seattle area find townhouses to be an affordable option to a Condominium. Trouble is - there is often little difference from one townhouse to the next! I get lost in the same oak floors, maple or cherry cabinets, ‘uba-tuba’ granite tiles or sometimes slab. Oh, don’t forget the corner gas fireplaces with a nook above for the television.

These are not ‘bad’ homes, they are just homes that have not had much design thought given to them.

Today, Tuesday 10th of June, the Seattle PI ran this headline:

Townhouse Solutions could Uglify instead of Beautify.

The article is a re-cap of a Seattle City Council meeting held last night. I found some of the quotes to be VERY funny:

-Sally Clark: “There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the townhome. But I agree that, as a community, we’re seeing some things that we think we could do better”

Apparently Tim Burges stole the stage by suggesting that NO NEW TOWNHOME LOTS BE ALLOWED until the council changes the rules!

-Greg Hill, member of the Wallingford Community Council: “This is not a civil way to live, I don’t think you can expect people to be happy living in this kind of environment.”

HUH? Poor Greg, I’m sure your Land Rover wouldn’t fit in many of the current townhouse garages...

Tina Podowski has a proposal to change many of the perceived flaws of current Seattle townhome designs. Greg Hill didn’t think they were worth much consideration, calling Tina’s proposals “a horror show” allowing bigger, boxier buildings closer to neighbors. He said “I just don’t buy any of that”

Then the developers and a consultant jumped into the fray.

Brittany Ard: “You can’t guarantee good design all the time” There are people who are going to cut corners.”

Here are the design change proposals in a nutshell, as printed in the PI:

PROPOSED CHANGES TO TOWNHOUSES

• Buildings would have to be set back at least 5 feet from the lot line, with an average of 7 feet, on all sides, although the first steps of a stoop could go to the front or rear property lines. Abutting single-family zones, limits would be similar to current rules, which require greater front and rear setbacks, with the front one based on the average setbacks of neighboring properties.

• Height limits would increase from 25 feet, with up to 10 extra feet for pitched roofs, in lower-density townhouse zones to 30 feet, with up to 5 extra feet for pitched roofs.

• Current limits on the width and depth of all townhouses, and how much of a lot they could cover, would only apply on lots larger than 9,000 square feet.

• The total floor area of townhouses would be limited to one to two times the lot size, depending on the zone.

• Parking could have access from the street even when there is an alley. Driveways would have to be 2 feet wider than current requirements. No parking would be required in urban centers and light rail station areas.

• All townhouses along the street would have to have an entrance facing the street and windows and doors making up at least 20 percent of the facade, and fences along the front could be no higher than 4 feet.

• Open space would have to be at 5 percent of floor area per home, which would end up being a decrease from the current 200 to 400 square feet per unit, although a new "green factor" would require additional landscaping to aid water quality. The open space could be shared between homes.

Details: go to seattle.gov/DPD and click on "Planning," and then "Complete Project List" and then "Multifamily Zoning Update." CITY LOOKING AT RULES FOR MULTIFAMILY LIVING

I think there are good townhouses out there, and right now there are PLENTY to choose from the the Metro Seattle area. What do you think about the current offerings in this type of housing?

Joseph

The Bottom Line here is that LOCATION MATTERS, The lines between the pain free and painful areas are often blury, just ask people in the Central District trying to sell a home right now - or ask someone in Greenlake ... Both are in Seattle and yet have very different statistics.

For information on YOUR neighborhood, give me a call, or send me a note and ask. I am happy to help anyway I can!

Comments and Feedback ALWAYS appreciated!

Joseph R Hill

(The following is a repeat of the 'words' in the above analysis, Active Rain Blogging format does not allow me to paste the actual files the way they appear unless I convert them to JPEG images...)

The Headline: AREA HOME PRICES UP 2.8%
FROM A YEAR AGO - Really??
• Later we find that the ʻareaʼ consists of King and Pierce counties, and the time frame
is First Quarter 2007 Vs. First Quarter 2008.
• We donʼt ever find out what a ʻtypicalʼ Seattle-area house is...
I donʼt find these types of articles very informative. The Seattle P-I, the newspaper I
ready daily, published this headline and the ensuing article on Friday May 23 2008. I
decided to do a little sniffing on my own and see if the headline is accurate.
Here are the criteria that I used:
• All Data pulled from the NW Multiple Listing Service (so sales that were ʻFSBOʼ or
county only recorded sales will not reflect here)
• Area = 1 mile radius of three different locations -
• Seattle Public Library 1000 4th Ave Seattle WA 98104
• Seattle Greenlake Library 7364 E Green Lake Dr. N Seattle 98115
• Seattle Douglas - Truth Library 2300 E Yesler Way Seattle 98122
• We are using all residential homes up to $1,000,000 as our ʻtypicalʼ home. This
captures the vast majority of condos, townhomes, and single family homes and will
not have a significant effect on price outcomes for our models.
REMEMBER, we are looking for prices to be UP ~ 2.8% from a year ago...
This is what we found:
$0
$125,000
$250,000
$375,000
$500,000
$ 1 Qtr 2007 $ 1 Qtr 2008
Price of Stand Alone Homes and Condos 2007 vs. 2008
Downtown Seattle Green Lake Central District
$431,632 $433,084
$440,666 $491,369
$401,797
$381,947
Downtown GreenLake Central District
0
35
70
105
140
2007 2008
Volume of Transactions 1st Quarter 2007 vs 1st Quarter 2008
131
85
83
62
127
74
Location = 1 mile
radius % Change in
Price % Change
Volume
Downtown Library
+0.996 - 35.1%
Green Lake
Library +11.5 - 25.3%
Central District
Libary - 4.9% - 41.7%
Summary:
•Homes within 1 mile of these randomly chosen Seattle libraries are
an average of 2.5% MORE EXPENSIVE in 1st Quarter 2008 than
they were in 2007
•Changes in overall volumes of people moving are significantly
reduced, by an average of - 34.03%