About Bellevue's Crossroads

Attenders at this year's Bellevue Strawberry Festival were blessed with one of the most perfect days we've had so far this summer, and the Crossroads Park couldn't have been more beautiful. Bellevue does such a terrific job of keeping their parks clean and well maintained.

The playground is as nice as any I've ever seen, complete with a large scale reproduction of a Killer Whale for kids to crawl on and over. The water spout ran a steady stream of cool water that made for more excitement of the kids sliding over it back to the ground.

One of our highlights was stopping by the Reading with Rover booth with our dog Gracie, an Anatolian Shepherd. Reading with Rover is a community-based volunteer organization that provides a unique literacy program to schools to support those children who have difficulties with reading. Kids are able to increase their reading skills through time spent in the classroom with the dogs and their handlers who have been carefully selected for this purpose.

They also bring "Rover" to the local libraries and bookstores around Puget Sound. The goal is simple, to increase literacy at all levels, using a unique approach of being near a pet who can calm a child's anxiety in a non-judgmental way. Children gain additional time with the pet by accomplishing the assignments and reading to the pet.

Interested pet owners who have the desire to qualify their pet can visit the website for Reading with Rover.

The organization would like more dogs whose termperment is calm and submissive, gentle is best when working with small children.

Our dog Gracie fits the bill perfectly, loves kids, is well trained, and loves the interaction. We've been looking for the right opportunity and this looks like a great fit. There were so many attractions at this year's Strawberry Festival it was a really fun time to experience the joy of being a Bellevue resident in our richly cultural diverse neighborhoods.

Great Bellevue event today at the Crossroads Mall in Bellevue, WA.  Caspar Babypants is a great children's band lead by Chris Ballew who is the former frontman of the Presidents of the United States (of the Peaches fame).  After a great run in the early in 1990's with the Presidents of the United States, Ballew started writing children's music and has established a great children's following here in Seattle, WA.  Here is a good article in the Seattle Weekly on Caspar BabyPants in Seattle, WA

I took my daughter and a group of friends today (April 30, 2011) to the Crossroads Mall in Bellevue, WA to see Caspar Babypants.  Ballew did a free concert for the King County Library.  Since it was at the mall, there was plenty of space for everyone.  We had tried to go see Caspar Babypants previously, but the shows were generally sold out. 

Ballew put on a great show for several hundred people in the mall.  There was a good group of kids dancing in the front.  All in all, it was a fantastic time.  I highly recommend checking out Caspar Babypants if you have young children.  Here is a link to the Caspar Babypants web site for future shows.

Homes for sale in the Crossroads Neighborhood of Bellevue, Washington for great homes near Microsoft. The Crossroads area comprises the east end of the city across rolling hills to the shores of Lake Sammamish. This great neighborhood in Bellevue boast about 3811 homes dating back to the 1950 all the way up to brand new homes. 2009 saw 105 of these homes sell with an average sales price of $485,000. Of the homes sold in 2009 the average home size was 2,140 square feet 4 bedroom and 2 bath. Download the market trend report. You can also sign up for a Market Snapshot to see how your home measures up.

This quiet group neighborhood on the west side of Lake Sammamish have wonderful waterfront homes, view homes and quaint residential neighborhoods. Ardmore, Hollywood Hill, Tam O'Shanter are just a few neighborhoods you will find. Public Schools serving this area are Ardmore Elementary, Bennett Elementary, Sherwood Forest Elementary, Olympus Northwest Middle School, and Interlake High School

Residence enjoy walks through neighborhoods and parks. Enjoy hiking, golf, and wildlife at Weowna Beach Park, Tam O'Shanter Park or Crossroads Park. Crossroads Park is perfect for large gatherings with a grand picnic shelter with lots of tables, 2 barbecues, plus water and electricity.

Homes for sale in the Crossroads area maintain their value year over year. This is due in part to the great neighbors and of course the cardinal rule of real estate. Location, Location, Location! Minutes from Crossroads Mall, Microsoft Campus and the 520 Freeway, make the Crossroads Neighborhood of Bellevue, Washington a great place to live, work & play!

Shaun Donovan, HUD secretary announced that FHA will allow the $8,000 tax credit to be used for down payment at a NAR conference yesterday. We do not expect any details on the program from HUD until next week. His comments seem to have traveled through the real estate industry very quickly and we are getting a lot of questions already on it. I will share more information as I learn it.