Seattle Washington Real Estate

Seattle WA real estate market again beats the national picture

The latest report, U.S. April S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city NATIONAL home price index down record 15.3% UPDATE, just came out and it is not a rosy scenario. NATIONALLY home prices are plunging! NATIONALLY Home prices are falling the fastest in more than two decades.  This is the sixteenth straight month of yearly declines!  Get it… NATIONALLY. 

Check out the Comparison Chart below for an insight into how National Prices vs. Seattle real estate prices changed over time.

And that is how it is NATIONALLY.  But you don’t live NATIONALLY.  Seattle didn’t experience the irrational exuberance of places like San Diego, Denver and many other large cities.  I don’t know, I guess that we were just slow.  What luck.  You don’t go up so far, so fast.  So I would suspect that you don’t go down so far, so fast.

Last I heard Seattle WA, well, King County WA anyhow, had a price decline, year over year, of 5.3%!  That sounds like a lot to me.  But it also sounds like too much also.  Of course as soon as I write this article another source comes out with 4.8% drop in King County WA.  Numbers are simply coming too fast to keep up.  It seems like an onslaught, doesn’t it? 

So I ran the numbers straight from the MLS

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The Rainier Beach area of Seattle WA has been a sleeper for a long time.  It is an area of older, turn of the century homes and everything in between.  Many of the homes in Rainier Beach have sweeping views of Lake Washington from Mount Baker to the North to Mt. Rainier to the South.  Other homes have a vision of downtown Seattle and Puget Sound as well as the Olympic Peninsula mountains.  There are a lot of affordable homes in the area. 

Residents have access to Seattle via a beautiful drive down Lake Washington, very soothing for the soul.  Keep an eye out for bald eagles chasing ducks, Canadian Geese, beaver, muskrat and other wildlife.  It is a veritable zoo of a therapeutic drive.  The Sound Transit light rail provides quick and easy access to Seatac airport and downtown Seattle. 

Renton WA, which is undergoing a rebirth, is just minutes away.

Kubota Gardens is a Seattle owned garden of unsurpassed beauty. During the summer it is the setting for numerous outdoor weddings.  Visit their website and click on the large picture to view some of the flowers and trees.  You will absolutely enjoy walking through the park.

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Home buyers in the Seattle WA real estate market anxiety

There is an old investment adage that probably relates to the Seattle Washington real estate market “When there is blood in the street it is time to be a buyer“.

Well, it certainly feels like there is plenty of blood in the street, doesn’t it?  Then of course there is the God awful mortgage crisis as well.  There would appear to be a lot of reasons to hold your breath and see what happens next.  But remember, there is blood in the streets and you should take advantage of this opportunity to be a home buyer in South Seattle WA real estate.  Personally I don’t believe that home prices are going to be falling much more. Sure home prices will go down over the next year or so, but the real question is “How much?” and “What impact will that drop have on me if I buy?".  “How much will I lose if I buy to soon?”

Let’s start with an understanding and add a shameless plug.  I am a real estate agent in the South Seattle WA real estate markets.  I am very familiar with the real estate markets Rainier Beach, Lakeridge, Rainier Valley WA, Renton WA, Kent WA, Des Moines WA, Burien WA, Tukwila WA, West Seattle WA, Kent WA and any place, reasonably, in between.

As a real estate agent of course I want to list and sell homes.  That’s how i make my living.  Love helping people into their new Seattle homes.  Don’t much care to hurt people.  Wouldn’t want to encourage people into stepping into something that sticks on to the bottom of their shoes and can’t be shook off.  Life is simply to short to not give a damn for your fellow travelers.

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Shhhhhhh… this is a tightly controlled home Purchase mortgage / Refinance secret! 

I have been in the real estate business for 30 years and provided my clients with mortgages for 20 years and every now and then stumble across a little known mortgage product. 

This is the third time that this has happened.  The last time a really great program became available we helped 56 home mortgage borrowers obtain 30 year fixed rate mortgages with an interest rate of 4.125%.  That was amazing!  Well, this is amazing also.  The two mortgage programs didn’t last that long, and this one may not either.  Time may be of the essence.  If you find this information to be interesting, “Run, don’t Walk” to get in touch with us and get the ball rolling on your real estate purchase or mortgage refinance!

As this blog points out, by example, other lenders simply don’t want your business.  Our lender does.  Other lenders can’t sell your mortgage, ours has resolved that problem.

Call Tyler Todhunter at 206-575-7495 ext. 302  or email tylert@Columbiafunding.net , Columbia Funding Group or

Fernando Rodriguez at 206-575-7495 ext. 303 or email fr@columbiafunding.net for complete details and a Good Faith Estimate, Se Habla Expanol

Many of my mortgage clients have been turned down by Conventional lending sources because their mortgage went over the $417,000 Conventional loan limit.  They wanted a cash back mortgage refinance and the cash back mortgage put them over the Conventional loan limit.  FICO credit scores zoomed up to 700 for anything over $417,001.  These mortgage borrowers found that they couldn’t meet that requirement!  Well, our lender loans down to 650 FICO credit score!

Benefits of OUR  real estate mortgage Lender of Choice

1. Your home mortgage interest rate will be as much, or more, than 3.13% BELOW other Jumbo mortgage lenders!
2. In our example, your monthly mortgage payment will be $2,000 below the competitor mortgage companies and $3,750 per month lower on our Interest Only product.
3. Low mortgage closing costs, by as much as $23,840- $26,000 (other mortgage lenders cost of adjustments)
   
4. Priced for 60-day lock on your home purchase mortgage (this gives more time to sell your time and close!).
5. Priced for 30-day lock on a mortgage REFINANCE.
6. Continuous interest rate float down at no cost! Get the lowest mortgage interest rate at the lowest mortgage price offered from lock in to 3 days prior to closing your mortgage.
   
7. Minimum FICO 650 score for employed borrowers and 700 for Self-employed mortgage borrowers!  I hope that you are aware that these low FICO compared to what other home mortgage lenders are requiring.
   
8. No Escrow impounds.
9. Maximum Debt to Income Ratio of 45%, even on 10 year Interest Only loans!  And this at a time when other real estate lenders are making everything more difficult!
10. Has you second mortgage lender cancelled your mortgage line of credit on your primary residence? You should check, most lenders have done just that. Our Lender will go to $250,000.
11. Business or multi-family property owners can obtain secured COMMERCIAL loans up to $500,000 on their COMMERCIAL or Multi-family properties valued at up to $3,000,000. First or second lien positions.

Call Dick Todhunter at 206-898-3776 or email dt@seattlerealestatesource.com

You know the situation, its in all of the newspapers and on TV.

It is really hard for higher end Seattle real estate and home sales (of course including Bellevue WA, Normandy Park WA, Issaquah WA, Mercer Island WA- wherever these properties live). Let’s describe a “Jumbo” property as one where the mortgage amount exceeds $450,000 up to $3,000,000.  That is the real estate mortgage range our lender is best at.

You have our permission, please, to tell your home buying friends about this program, they will THANK YOU!

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My blogs are for my home buying, home selling and real estate investor clients and prospective clients (mostly Internet leads), those that I am working with and the ones I am not working with.  If you want to understand how I look at you, in part, the below blog will provide you with an insight.  You are not someone who I want to disengage through overwhelming contact; rather I want to respect your anonymity wishes.  I just don’t know how to know when you are really ready to be a buyer or seller… AND that is who I am looking for.  So please, take a moment to just let me know your goals, objectives and time frames.  Who knows, we could be friends!  You could view me as a resource to answer your real estate and mortgage questions without being badgered.  You don’t want to be badgered and I don’t want that either.

You should be interested in the Internet leads (you) portion of this blog and the section dealing with Vlad and open warfare might just be an interesting piece.  I feel that, as a blogger, there is a need to support Vlad by letting you into an interesting story. 

This is a tale of intrigue, a tale of a lead generation company and their efforts to promote their unique method of lead generation, a tale of how they employed an authoritative real estate blogger to review their website and how it backfired on the lead generation company.   

But first a primer….

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