About Seattle's Wedgwood

Where is it:

Like all Seattle neighborhoods, Wedgwood has no official agreed-upon borders. The unofficial boundaries are:

North - NE 95th Street; East - 45th Avenue NE; South - NE 75th Street; and West - by a route coming north from NE 75th Street along 25th Avenue NE, then jogging west along NE 85th Street and winding up Lake City Way NE to NE 95th Street.

Why it is a Great Neighborhood:

• It is a pocket of affordability among more expensive neigborhoods. Single family residences are currently selling from $283,000 to $1,050,000.
• The schools have a good reputation for high academics and parent involvement.
• Easy access to I-5 and the 520 Bridge make it within minutes to Downtown Seattle and Bellevue.

• Dahl Park is on the western border; The Burke-Gilman Trail and Magnuson Park are just a few blocks east. "Downtown" Wedgwood has all the necessary amenities and more: Two grocery stores, a Post Office, banks, gas stations, a Seattle Public Library, a dry cleaner, yoga and dance studios, hair salons, a variety of churches, a bakery, a community p-patch garden and even Seattle-based Top Pot Doughnuts. The Fiddlers Inn, a cozy, live music venue sits near the Northern boundary.

Neighborhood Trivia:

The Wedgwood neighborhood is named after the English bone china-maker of the same name.

Started sometime in the 1960's, the P-patch garden is the oldest community garden in Seattle.

The Wedgwood neighborhood branch library is the largest branch library and the 2nd busiest public library in the city.

When the neighborhood was developed during the 1940's, many of the large trees were preserved.

There is a lot of buzz in the Seattle media about short sales.  So what the heck are they anyway, and how can they save you tens of thousands of dollars on a home? 

Put simply, a short sale is when a home owner is trying to sell a house, but the proceeds from the sale of the house will not be enough to cover the loans currently owing on the home.  So the seller will need to get bank approval once a buyer makes an offer on the home, because the bank will not get all of their money back when the home sells. 

Why is this a big deal?

A short sale situation can be a big deal as far as the time it takes to close on the house.  Because of the extra step of having to get bank approval, the process can take several extra weeks to several extra months to complete.  Each bank has its own process for considering short sales and not all of them are very efficient.  Part of the problem is the volume of short sales that many banks need to consider.  There are a lot more now than a few years ago.

The time lines are a serious consideration.  Take a client of mine right now.  They are first time home owners who don't have a lot to spend on a home.  They found a house they like but it is a short sale situation.  They decided to move ahead with the offer.  We agreed on terms with the seller, did an inspection and the offer went to the bank.  The timeline has been delayed several times by the bank.  First they told us a few weeks now it is looking more like about a month and a half.  In this situation the bank has all the power and can take almost as long as they want to make a decision. 

So why would anyone consider buying a home that is subject to a short sale?

Quite simply price!  If a seller is not going to make any money on the sale of their home anyway, you can imagine they are much more flexible on terms and price of the sale of their home.   If you are the only person making an offer on the home, the bank will need to take the offer seriously, even if you offer significantly less than the asking price for the house.   In many Seattle neighborhoods, short sales represent some of the best deals around.   In the case of my buyers, we will get the house for nearly $75K less then what the house was refinanced for just a year and a half ago.  Well below market value.  (I won't tell you the value of the home because the negotiation is still going on, but it is well below $300K) 

In short (pun intended) there is no reason to be afraid of a home that will be subject to a short sale.  In fact they may be some of the best values out there.  Just be prepared for a longer timeline, a little more hassle and be sure to use an escrow company, mortgage company and if I may be so bold, real estate agent with some experience in short sales.  You may just find that hidden gem at a bargain basement price.

Happy Hunting

Seattle based Starbucks is hosting a promotion to try to encourage or at least reward people for voting. If you go into a Starbucks tomorrow and tell them that you voted, they will offer you a free coffee.

Can I vote more than once?

http://www.starbucks.com/

With all the doom and gloom in the media and in public perception regarding home prices, I thought I might add a little perspective. Yes prices in Seattle are down, (THIS YEAR). Yes, it is a buyer's market. But if you take a step back and not look so myopically, you see that home prices in Seattle over the past five years are actually up dramatically.

For example, since October 2003:

North East Seattle Median Single Family Home Price is up 38%

North East Seattle Median Condo Price is up 28%

North West Seattle Median Single Family Home Price is up 33%

North West Seattle Median Condo Price is up 27%

Yes, if you bought last year and need to sell now, you are in trouble, but considering the average time horizon of home ownership, most of us are just fine.

Unfortunately human tendency is to look only at the immediate.

The Sky is not falling!

Remember 2003, we were all dressed in animal skins, fire had just been harnessed, and we all looked forward to the day someone would invent a better club so we could scare off the Tyrannosaurus outside our cave. NO, it wasn't that long ago. Take a deep breath. With all due respect to the 1 in 1,600 of the Seattle population that is facing foreclosure, everyone relax. We will get through this. It is temporary.

I have an inspection this afternoon that I helped a buyer client of mine purchase which brought this little nugget of wisdom to mind. 

You should always plan on attending the inspection. 

Inspections take about two hours for the average size home.   If you need to get a sitter, put in for a day off or just plain play hooky, you want to be there.  The inspector will go over the entire house.   They will look at all major systems and offer all kinds of advice.  An inspection is not a pass fail thing. 

Every inspection will find something that need to be addressed even on homes that are just built.   

While the inspection is going on, it is good to be present as a buyer because a good inspector will point out things that you will want to know even if they are not things that need to be addressed immediately.  For example the approximate age of the roof and hot water heater, recent code updates, how to earthquake proof appliances, etc.  All things that you as a home owner, especially first time home owners, will want to hear.  It is all great information and the more you have the more you can avoid problems in the future. 

Give me a call if you need help.