The Northwest received almost $330 million in Federal resources to revitalize our
communities, put people back to work and speed America back on the road to
recovery from what has come to be called “The Great Recession.”

In passing the Recovery Act, the Congress and the President specified a
wide range of activities to which state, county and city governments hard hit
by the downturn could apply Recovery Act funds – your tax dollars – from
meeting critical capital needs to expanding the supply of affordable housing,
from preventing homelessness to helping small businesses gain access to much
needed capital. Under the Act, those local governments were given full
authority to decide for themselves the specific what’s, where’s and how’s of
the projects that would best benefit their communities.

Here are some of the programs that will be funded
by the Federal money in the King County area:

• Promoting Energy Efficiency and Creating Green Jobs
• $40,250,758 to Washington State’s 29 housing authorities.
• $14,863,303 to 30 tribal organizations in Washington.
• Lead Hazard Reduction/Healthy Homes – $6,725,000 to to King County, City of Spokane
  and State of Washington.
• Supporting Shovel-Ready Projects and Assisted Housing Improvements
• Promoting Stable Communities and Helping Families Hardest Hit by the Economic Crisis
• Emergency Shelter Grant Program/Homelessness Prevention – $24,948, 653 to 10 grantees in Washington.

Whether you’re a cat person, a dog person or something in between you may be impacted by the “pet restrictions” that are part of your next home purchase.  When pet policies are part of a home’s or condo’s rules they can affect both your personal uses and investment potential.

For instance, in the Seattle market, I heard an interesting statistic that more home owners have pets than children (more…)

Seattle City Council has just adopted an updated plan for row-homes, townhomes, and cottages.  The first decade of the millennium was full of new construction and a majority of designs in Seattle were the townhomes.   

I don’t want to give you the wrong idea; I do not have anything against (more…)

During this holiday season, it’s not just our waist lines that are experiencing growth. Washington is expected to receive another Congressional seat in the US House, all thanks to the population growth in Washington state.  More specifically, the boom in the Seattle area is on the rise. (more…)

This spring I handed house keys to a first time buyer who’d been dreaming  of owning his own home for over ten years.  In fact he’d been (more…)

When you get approved for a home mortgage you should ask, “What are my closing costs?”  You should see them in writing.  Interest rates are important, but your ‘closing costs’ are equally important.  If you have a rate of 5% on a $300,000 loan with closing costs of $9000 quoted from one bank and you have a rate of 5.5% with 0 closing costs from another bank which is better? (more…)

When working with a homebuyer, I don’t start off by asking, “How much are you approved for buying?”  The better question is, “How much of a payment is comfortable for you?”  Typically, a homebuyer is pre-approved for an amount that is more than what they are willing to pay monthly.  (more…)

When a homebuyer is purchasing a residential property, the seller is required to provide them with a Seller’s Disclosure Statement to detail any pre-existing conditions.  Now, the million dollar question is whether or not everything in the disclosure statement is 100% true.  Is it fact or fiction? 

 Consider that the homeowner is (more…)

Yes, it’s true; a pre-inspection can be a great tool for sellers to verify the condition of their house in preparation for a selling.  So nothing to worry about buyers because the seller has already taken care of everything found on the pre-inspection, right? (more…)