Seattle Washington Real Estate

Home ownership is not typically a quick turn to profits, it is a place to call HOME, a place to LIVE, a place to RAISE A FAMILY! 

Although,from an investment perspective, you will find that the old maxim “location, location, location” is certainly true when cosing your real estate, your HOME. You will find that various neighborhoods of Seattle like Beacon Hill, Mt. Baker, Rainier Beach, Rainier Valley and Seward Park and Renton, WA real estate all have locational reasons to appreciate at different rates. Demand in each area creates pockets of higher priced homes and more affordable real estate.

Our fathers bought their homes and enjoyed the day when they could burn their mortgage papers. Home ownership was the foundation of a solid long term financial plan. The plan was simple “Buy and hold", oddly enough - Me, being a father did just that, I have lived in my Rainier Beach Lake Washington view home for over 33 years. With everything that has gone on over the past 3-4 years:

1. Mortgages which amounted to free money for both owner occupied homes and for investment properties fueled excess exuberance in real estate prices. Investment homes have proved the bane of the last few years as investors simply walked away from their close to zero down investments. Gamblers and unqualified borrowers were allowed to taint the whole industry.
   
2. Extraordinary property value increases created a bubble real estate market.
   
3. Mortgages on our homes enabled us to live beyond our incomes, through what has been proven to be unreal equity asset buildup.
   
4. The comeuppance of reality, our homes really didn’t appreciate in value by those double digit amounts everyone thought they did. Well, they really did for those who sold. You didn’t sell? Your stock has simply gone down. Woulda, coulda, shoulda…. but didn’t. Look at it like a stock trade. I am still living in my home quite comfortably thank you. I appear to be in the Buy and Hold mold.
   

The “Buy and Hold” plan pays off over time

Until recently the average Seattle homeowner lived in their home for around 7 years. Housing appreciation over the last 30 years ran about 4.5% per year. Not bad considering we buy homes as our primary shelter, not as an investment tool. And that 4.5% return is on the whole value of the our home, not just what we put into the home. Over that 7 year period of average home ownership your mortgage will not go down all that much, so you have to rely on that 4.5% annual appreciation to pay your closing costs and create enough wealth to be able to purchase your next home. Interestingly the average homeowner today has 36 times the wealth of the average renter. And that is accomplished by only the 4.5% increase.

That being said, always begin your real estate or home ownership experience with being Pre-Qualified for a mortgage.

Contact Us for your home purchase and mortgage / mortgage refinance needs.  Or for immediate satisfaction call Dick Todhunter at 206-898-3776.