How to Prune Roses Easily | eHow.com

Keeping your garden tidy will improve its sales value.
Roses need pruning all year. They need winterizing pruning in the fall, and clean up pruning in June after they flower. Roses need to be “dead headed” whenever a blossom is spent, so that the energy of the plant goes into growing new branches and flowers and not into developing rose hips.

How to Prune Roses Easily | eHow.com

Shared via AddThis

How to Lay Outdoor Tile | eHow.com

Tile can update and improve a home you are putting up for sale. Follow these tips to do it yourself.
Adding a deck or patio will improve the value of your home.
The first stage in any tile project is to measure the area. Tiles come in many sizes. Design your project, making sure to include the meaurements for the space for the grout. Sloping areas should lead to a drain.
How to Lay Outdoor Tile | eHow.com

Shared via AddThis

MSNBC reports: Seattle #4 to Rebound according to Barbara Corcoran on

MSNBC:

Seattle rated # 4 for rebounding real estate market to rebound. Average home cost is $300,000 and Corcoran says the rebound is because of the well-educated population and good industries, like Microsoft and Amazon.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/30825142#30825142

Seattle Named 7th Best Place to Live, Work, and Make Movies

In January, MovieMaker Magazine assembled its Top 10 Movie Cities of 2008, ranking Seattle seventh in the magazine’s annual countdown. Aspects that determined a city’s ranking included availability of production facilities, educational opportunities, networking events, film festivals, screening venues, as well as quality of local talent pool. It also considered the importance of a city’s financial incentives, as well as the environmental conditions created to foster independent moviemaking. Ultimately it was the sum of these parts that determined Seattle’s ranking as one of the best places to live, work, and make movies.

http://www.moviemaker.com/locations/article/top_10_movie_cities_2008_best_places_to_make_movies_20080128/

Seattle Houseboats for Sale

There are currently 13 houseboats for sale in Seattle, ranging in price from $65,000 (for a barge type live-aboard) to $3 million. Contact me if you’d like more information on Seattle houseboats for sale.

View from Lake Union Houseboat in Seattle

How to Reduce Household Spending | eHow.com

How to Reduce Household Spending | eHow.com

Shared via AddThis

In this time of economic difficulty, we all need to learn to limit our household expenses. Many simple changes around the house can help reduce expenses easily.

Housing Market Index Rises

The NAHB housing market rosee to 16 from 14 in April. Housing starts (new homes being built) was at a record love of 12.8%, an 80% decrease since highs in January 2006. Nearly half of April’s decline was in starts of multifamily homes, as single family homes rose a almost 3%. 

 

Mortgage applications rose nearly 3% as well, and are now 47% above 2008 levels. Refinancing made up three quarters (73.6) of the applications.

 

Freddie Mac reports interest rates of 30-year fixed rates of 4.82.

May Seattle Real Estate News

New statistics are out.

NE Seattle (710) median sales price is $421K; in 2005 it was $416K .

NW Seattle (705) median sales price is $381K; in 2005 it was $350K.

Next, QA/Magnolia (700) is $561K; in 2005 it was $578K.

And Capital Hill/Etc (390) is$470K; in 2005 is was $536K. 

Seattle Housing Market Improves- April Real Estate News

Pending sales in Western Washington rise with improved affordability, buyer incentives

KIRKLAND, WA, May 5, 2009 –Northwest Multiple Listing Service members reported pending sales for April surged 11.4 percent compared to twelve months ago – and rose 21.3 percent from March.

Brokers reported 6,918 pending sales during April across the 19 counties that make up the Northwest MLS market area. That’s up from the year-ago total of 6,208, and the March figure of 5,701 pending sales (offers made and accepted, but not yet closed).

For the four-county Puget Sound area (King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish), brokers notched 5,372 pending sales, the highest total since August 2007 and a jump of 26 percent from March.

Inventory is shrinking and prices are showing some signs of stabilizing, according to data in the latest report from Northwest MLS. The median price for last month’s closed sales of single family homes and condominiums area-wide was $270,000. That matched the figure for March, but still lagged prices of a year ago (down 12.9 percent).

Inventory is down 18.3 percent from year-ago levels, with Clark, Kitsap and Pierce reporting the largest drops. Members added 10,824 new listings of single family homes and condos to inventory last month, down almost 20.5 percent from the year-ago total of 13,607 new listings.

Lower prices, record low mortgage interest rates, improving consumer confidence, the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit and other incentives for buyers are credited with spurring activity. Industry officials, noting activity is quite strong in the lower, more affordable price ranges, hesitate to declare a housing recovery is under way:

• Dropping inventories and rising affordability are positive signs, according to Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The housing market may be edging toward a bottom,” he stated.
• “April was a good market for new pending sales; we seem to be moving to a more balanced market,” said NWMLS director Meribeth Hutchings, broker/owner of Windermere Real Estate/Lake Stevens, Inc.
• “We need several months of sustained growth to demonstrate a recovery in housing, which is necessary for the overall economy to turn around,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors®.
• http://www.nwrealestate.com/nwrpub/common/news.cfm

Will The Real Estate Market Turn Around?

Getting a bank loan is more difficult than it has been in recent years, but many new incentives offer help, especially to new home buyers. Mortgage rates are at all time lows, and a tax credits can lure buyers back to the marketplace. Recent price drops make home buying bargain shopping, but many still fear prices will go lower, and this is slowing the market recover. But of the biggest factors delaying the turnaround is fear. The foreclosures have flooded the marketplace and devalued the inventory. But the main reason the market is slow is this: Consumer Confidence.

Read full article here.

http://www.helium.com/items/848017-will-the-real-estate-market-rebound-soon