Uncategorized • June 5, 2017

Do Good While Dining Out During June!

by Leslie Fox

This month Windermere Real Estate Co. has teamed up with neighboring restaurants to Dine Well – Do Good. Each Monday night in the month of June, Windermere Real Estate Co. is matching tips made to servers – up to $3,000 per night – and 100% of these funds will be donated to Food Lifeline, via the Windermere Foundation.

Food Lifeline is the food bank to food banks. They rescue millions of pounds of surplus food from farmers, manufacturers, grocery stores, and restaurants; then deliver this healthy and nutritious food to 275 food banks, shelters, and meal programs across Western Washington. Through their own ingenuity and clever practices, a single $1 donation can provide the equivalent of four complete meals.

Please join us in supporting local restaurant businesses while also supporting Food Lifeline and the crucial work they do. Browse through the list of participating restaurants and set your Monday night menu for the month of June!

The Beach House
1927 43^rd AVE E, Seattle, WA 98112

Ballard Loft
5105 Ballard AVE NW, Seattle, WA 98107

Bramling Cross
5205 Ballard AVE NE, Seattle, WA 98107

Bryant Corner Café
3118 NE 65th Street, Seattle WA 98115

Cactus
4220 East Madison Seattle, WA 98112

Fiddler’s Inn
9219 35^th AVE NE, Seattle, WA 98115

Kabul Afghan Cuisine
2301 N. 45th Street, Seattle, WA 98103

Kizuki
319 NE Thornton Place, Seattle, WA. 98125

Mioposto
3426 NE 55^th Street, Seattle, WA 98105

Rock Creek
4300 Fremont Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103

Sand Point Grill
5214 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105

Serafina
2043 Eastlake AVE E, Seattle WA 98102

Sushi Kappo Tamura
2968 Eastlake AVE E, Seattle, WA 98102

Varlamos Pizzeria
3617 NE 45th St, Seattle, WA 98105

The Watershed Pub & Kitchen
10104 3^rd AVE NE, Seattle, WA 98125

Uncategorized • May 30, 2017

Seattle once again nation’s fastest growing big city; population exceeds 700,000

by Leslie Fox

For the first time, Seattle is adding more people on average each year than during the post-Gold-Rush boom years. We’ve never grown this fast, and we’ve never been this populous.

by Gene Balk, The Seattle Times, 5/25/17

Seattle is back on top.

For the second time this decade, we’re the fastest-growing big city in the country, according to my analysis of population data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

If you’re among the thousands of folks who moved here this past year, give yourself a pat on the back — you’re part of the team effort that got us there.

From July 1, 2015, to July 1, 2016, Seattle had a net gain of nearly 21,000 people — 57 a day, on average. That pencils out to a 3.1 percent population increase for the one-year period. Among the 50 most populous cities in the nation, that’s easily the fastest rate of growth. Previously, Seattle had ranked fourth among big cities.

Last year is also a personal best.

Back in 2013, when Seattle first topped the ranks of major cities, we added 18,000 people for a growth rate of 2.8 percent. At the time, that seemed mind-boggling. Now, those numbers sound almost quaint in comparison. Seattle is a city on steroids.

Let’s put last year’s growth spurt in context: It marks just the second time since the start of this decade that one of the 50 largest cities exceeded a 3 percent growth rate. Austin, Texas, hit the mark in 2012.

Austin is also the only other city to rank No. 1 for growth twice since 2010. But the Texas capital has slowed in the past couple of years, falling out of the top five. So has the previous No. 1 city, Denver, which fell back to eighth place.

Seattle, on the other hand, seems to be picking up steam. How long we can keep going at this dizzying pace is anybody’s guess.

What you might think would be a logical deterrent to such rapid growth — the high cost of housing — sure isn’t keeping folks away. Not when the city is adding thousands of high-paying jobs.

With the big bump in population, Seattle also hit a milestone this past year, passing the 700,000 mark for the first time. And remarkably, it didn’t even take us 10 years from the previous milestone of 600,000 — that happened in 2009.

Seattle’s population, to be exact, hit 704,352 in 2016, according to the Census Bureau’s estimate. We remain the 18th largest city in the country, and also the 10th most densely populated, now with 8,391 people per square mile.

In terms of raw numbers, Phoenix was the top city for growth in 2016, adding more than 32,000 people. But Seattle’s gain of 21,000 residents still ranks an impressive fifth, just slightly behind New York.

But wait, there’s more.

With last year’s influx, we’ve added on average 15,658 people a year since the start of the decade. That eclipses, for the first time, the annual average growth from the city’s post-Gold-Rush boom years.

Among Washington cities with at least 50,000 people, only one grew faster than Seattle: Redmond, with a 3.2 percent growth rate. Bellevue grew less than half as fast. And only one lost population, though it was just by a 10th of a percent: Shoreline.

Seattle, of course, remains Washington’s largest city, ahead of Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver and Bellevue, in that order.

Its smallest?

Krupp, in Grant County, which has only added one person since 2010.

Total population: 49.

Uncategorized • May 24, 2017

Windermere Greenwood Beer Garden for Charity

by Leslie Fox

Uncategorized • May 18, 2017

Unique Furniture Stores of Seattle

by Leslie Fox

Buy local and find those one-of-a-kind pieces you’ll never see anywhere else.

Looking to add some pomp and flare to your dwelling? Yearning for a unique piece to tie the room together? Look no further. Each of the stores on this list are small, independently curated boutiques, perfect for finding one-of-a-kind furnishings, vintage pieces, and home goods with a distinctly Seattle flair.

Adorn

This is a store with a super-stylish perspective. Adorn is a great place to find something unique for your home. The staff is well known for its friendly attitude and the always charming Rocco, the shop dog.

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Unique Find: Temporary wallpaper in uber-stylish prints

Ballard Consignment

This is a store with a super-stylish perspective. You’ll find an impeccably curated inventory of eclectic vintage furnishings and art.

warthog1

Unique Find: Warthog Taxidermy Mounted Head

Camelion Design

In addition to an amazing array of furniture styles and a seemingly endless selection of fabrics, it’s also a boutique housewares store full of goodies. You’ll discover gifts for everyone in their offerings of serving ware, candles, furniture, art, accessories, and gifts for baby.

monroe-006

Unique Find: Modern furniture that doesn’t compromise comfort for style

Capers

Let your Seattle pride shine at this West Seattle home and lifestyle shop. Featuring the work of local, independent, and eco-friendly artists and craftspeople, Capers is a great spot to pick up a beautiful new cookbook that also serves as a coffee table book.

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Unique Find: Coated outdoor linens that are chic and functional with really stylish textile patterns

Digs

This Market Street staple has an exuberant mix of art, furniture, and craft; boosting a healthy mix of mid-century and contemporary pieces with a generous dose of whimsy.

sculpture

Unique Find: Life size cow sculptures

Fremont Vintage Mall

A basement full of furniture, art, and accessories could be considered the mother of all vintage stores. Spending a couple of hours browsing here is like shopping an entire antique district. Each visit will reveal new things. From the roaring ’20s to midcentury, this gallery isn’t stuck in a particular decade.

Fremont Antique Mall

Unique Find: 1950’s metal carnival clown baseball toss game

Phase Two Interiors

Gigi Buchanan opened Phase Two as an art, décor and furniture shop for gently used home furnishings that are worthy of a second life span, in a new home. The showroom has a large and varied selection spanning many different design styles.

Phase 2

Unique Find: Scooter the shop dog apparently has great taste and is happy to help you find the perfect throw pillow

Second Use

The ultimate store for a hardcore scavenger; going to Second Use feels like being at a 100 yard sales under one roof. From old lumber, vintage cabinet pulls, and fun retro lighting options to modern appliances, unused doors and large stock piles of unused wood flooring options; they literally have it all.

2nd use

Unique Find: Antique Pine Winnowing Table used to separate the wheat from the chaff – great for a side table

Uncategorized • May 9, 2017

2017 Pacific NW Summer Music Festivals & Concerts

by Leslie Fox

Uncategorized • May 1, 2017

The Gardner Report | First Quarter 2017

by Leslie Fox

View this email in your browser

The following analysis of the Western Washington real estate market is provided by Windermere Real Estate Chief Economist Matthew Gardner. We hope that this information may assist you with making better-informed real estate decisions. For further information about the housing market in your area, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

ECONOMIC OVERVIEW

I’m happy to report that Washington State continues to add jobs at a steady rate. While the rate of growth is tapering, this is because many markets are getting close to “full employment”, during which time growth naturally slows. That said, I believe that the state will add around 70,000 jobs in 2017.

Washington State, as well as the markets that make up Western Washington, continues to see unemployment fall and I anticipate that we will see this rate drop further as we move through the year.

In all, the economy continues to perform at or above average levels and 2017 will be another growth year.

HOME SALES

There were 15,652 home sales during the first quarter of 2017. This is an increase of 9.5% from the same period in 2016, but 20.7% below the total number of sales in the final quarter of 2016.
With an increase of 45.5%, sales in Clallam County grew at the fastest rate over the past 12 months. There were double-digit gains seen in an additional 10 counties, suggesting that demand remains very robust. The only modest decline in sales was seen in Grays Harbor County.
The number of homes for sale showed no improvement at all, with an average of just 6,893 homes for sale in the quarter, a decline of 33% from the previous quarter and 25% from the first quarter of 2016. Pending sales rose by 2% relative to the same quarter a year ago.
The key takeaway from this data is that 2017 will offer little relief to would-be home buyers as the housing supply remains severely constrained.

HOME PRICES

With demand continuing to exceed supply, home prices continued to rise at above-average rates. Year-over-year, average prices rose by 9.5% but were 1.1% lower than in the final quarter of 2016. The region’s average sales price is now $409,351.
Price growth in Western Washington is unlikely to taper dramatically in 2017 and many counties will continue to see prices appreciate well above their long-term averages.
When compared to the same period a year ago, price growth was most pronounced in Kittitas County, which rose by 19.6%. Double-digit price growth was seen in an additional 10 counties. The only market where the average price fell was in the ever-volatile San Juan County.
It is clear that rising interest rates have not taken much of a sheen off the market.

DAYS ON MARKET

The average number of days it took to sell a home in the first quarter dropped by 16 days when compared to the first quarter of 2016.
King County remained the tightest market, with the average time to sell a home at just 31 days. Island County was the only area where it took longer to sell a home than seen a year ago; however, the increase was just one day.
In the first quarter of the year, it took an average of 70 days to sell a home. This is down from the 86 days it took in the first quarter of 2016, but up from the 64 days it took in the final quarter of last year.
Given woefully low levels of inventory in all Western Washington markets, I do not expect to see the length of time that it takes to sell a home rising in 2017. In fact, it is likely that it will continue to drop.

CONCLUSIONS

This speedometer reflects the state of the region’s housing market using housing inventory, price gains, home sales, interest rates, and larger economic factors. For the first quarter of 2017, I moved the needle a little more in favor of sellers. The rapid increase in mortgage rates during the fourth quarter of 2016 has slowed and buyers are clearly out in force.

ABOUT MATTHEW GARDNER

Matthew Gardner is the Chief Economist for Windermere Real Estate, specializing in residential market analysis, commercial/industrial market analysis, financial analysis, and land use and regional economics. He is the former Principal of Gardner Economics, and has over 25 years of professional experience both in the U.S. and U.K.

Uncategorized • April 20, 2017

Windermere Cut Party – Cinco de Mayo!

by Leslie Fox

Windermere Cut Party – Cinco de Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo is nacho average holiday and this year the Windermere Cup has planned the biggest Cinco de Mayo party in Seattle in conjunction with one of the world’s premier rowing regattas. What do they have lined up? Let’s taco bout it!

The party will take place along the north shore of the Montlake Cut, west of the Montlake Bridge. Here you’ll have access to a Beer and Margarita Garden, while enjoying live music and a stunning waterfront view overlooking Portage Bay.

Brian DiJulio and The Lovejacks will kick off the event, playing from 6pm to 8 pm. Following them, the always entertaining Spike & the Impalers will take the stage and play out the evening till 10pm.

Food Trucks will be on hand with three of the most popular and sought after Mexican food vendors in the Seattle area; El Camion, Taqueria Tonita, and Tacos La Flaca.

Don’t lay there and siesta – It’s time for a fiesta! Purchase your tickets online at Brown Paper Tickets. And don’t forget, you can come back down to the Montlake Cut on May 6 for Seattle’s biggest free sporting event – The Windermere Cup. More info on WindermereCup.com.

Uncategorized • April 12, 2017

Seattle Farmers Market Schedules

by Leslie Fox

Uncategorized • April 6, 2017

Affordable Downtown Seattle condos are getting competitive

by Leslie Fox

Affordable Downtown Seattle condos are getting competitive

The units going the most above asking in 2017 were listed at below $400K

BY SARAH ANNE LLOYD MAR 23, 2017, 3:04PM PDT

Downtown Seattle’s condo market is heating up in a big way. 2017 kicked off with 46 percent higher condo sale prices, and just last week, 75 percent of the Nexus to sell out two years in advance.

As Seattle residents are scrambling for more affordable housing options, more affordable condos could be at the forefront of that demand.

Data compiled by Urban Condo Spaces (UCS) found that in 2017 so far, the five condos in the greater downtown area driven the most above asking were all listed at below $400,000. Most of them were listed at below $300,000.

The condo driven most above asking listed at $299,900, sold for $370,000—a full 23 percent above asking.

On average, Downtown Seattle condos are going for about 2 percent above asking.

“The story that seems to developing is not just an inventory issue but an affordability issue,” Jeff J. Reynolds of Urban Condo Spaces tells us. “These are all small units with very affordable price points, which has more buyers driving the prices up.”

He notes that there are only two available units downtown under $400,000 right now, plus four in Queen Anne and seven in Capitol Hill.

The transition from renting to owning can get difficult—in addition to needing money on hand for a down payment, the more affordable units are in shorter and shorter supply.

The inventory problem isn’t isolated to affordable units, though. At the time that the last unit in the Insignia sold earlier this month, Downtown condos were experiencing a 57 percent decline year over year.

Uncategorized • March 24, 2017

Windermere Greenwood Shredding Event 2017

by Leslie Fox

Join Us for a FREE Shredding, Electronics Recycling, and Clothing Donation BBQ!

**Reduce * Recycle * Re-Use**

Saturday, April 15th
from 11 am to 2 pm

Windermere Greenwood will have three trucks on site to shred your paper material, recycle obsolete electronics and donate clothing.

Paper Shredding: Shredding sensitive documents is one way to reduce your risk of becoming an identity theft victim. Bring your sensitive papers, bank and credit card statements and personal documents to be destroyed by a professional document destruction service with a mobile shredding unit on-site.

*10 box/bag limit per person

Electronics Recycling:
Items Accepted: DVD players, VCRs, stereo equipment, desktop & laptop computers, monitors, cell phones, iPods, keyboards, mice, cables, scanners, copiers, and TVs under 40″.
Not Accepted: Microwaves, kitchen or other appliances, TVs over 48″, styrofoam or cardboard.

Big Brothers Big Sisters: This year, we will also be accepting used, worn & damaged* clothing donations! Big Brothers Big Sisters accepts donations for all of your clothes, shoes, and linens. Even items that are ripped, torn, have holes are acceptable! Even single shoes, socks, gloves, and other items that are normally paired-up.
* Please do NOT donate are items that are wet, mildewed, or contaminated with hazardous material.

Have Lunch on Us! We will be serving grilled brats, veggie & hot dogs, soda, chips, coffee, cookies, and a smile to thank you for your support!