the
Volume 11 | Issue 8
EYE ON THE
AUGUST 2019
market
The local real estate market is in excellent shape this summer and we can't find any signs of a cooldown. In King County specifically, single-family home prices for the month of June decreased by 2.8 percent from a year ago, and the county also recorded a 24 percent increase in active listings compared to last year. Supply in the county is still below two months, however. This level of inventory is true for most counties along the I-5 corridor, with the exception of a few smaller ones. Moreover, seven out of 10 properties that sold in King County were on the market for 15 days or fewer. Over half of the listings in the county sold at or above list price–one of the highest ratios we've seen since July 2018. Looking at our market west and south of Seattle, Kitsap and Pierce counties have reached new highs in the median sales price for single-family homes. Kitsap was recorded at $391,657, and Pierce was at $376,500 for the month of June.
LOCAL Tacoma is now one of the up-and-coming housing markets in the country. Analysts have seen a shift in terms of high-earning households moving towards Tacoma and south King County. Local economic experts suggest that affordability be a top consideration as home prices increase, to prevent displacement of those who struggle to afford property taxes in our region. Real estate experts suggest that we could see a shift in the market between the Eastside and Seattle area, as news recently broke that Apple will be adding an office in South Lake Union. The company plans to have 2,000 employees placed at its South Lake Union location by the end of 2019. Mortgage rates are at an all-time low as we enter the final weeks of summer. As of the last week of June, the monthly average for the month was recorded at 3.8 percent. This time last year, the monthly average for June was 4.57 percent. We tend to see rates increase as summer months come along, but this summer has shown us otherwise.
app CORNER—HOME ORGANIZATION
happenings
7/29 -8/3 Seafair Fleet Week in Seattle seafair.com/events 7/31-8/4 Thurston County Fair thurstoncountywa.gov 2-4 Seafair Weekend Festival seafair.com 9 South Lake Union Block Party slublockparty.com 9-11 AuburnFest auburnwa.gov 10 Mutt Strut everettwa.gov 10 Brew Five Three: Tacoma’s Beer & Music Festival broadwaycenter.org 10 Sunsets in Snohomish 2019 Wine Walk ci.snohomish.wa.us 11 Kirkland Waterfront Car Show kirklandwaterfrontcarshow.org 15-17 Wine Weekend auctionofwawines.org 16 Dockstock 2019 whidbeycamanoislands.com
Reports by the National Association of Professional Organizers show that people spend about a year on average looking for lost items—wallets, keys, emails, you name it! We’ve come up with a list of apps to help you keep organized.
IFTTT (“If This Then That”) IFTTT allows you to combine all your services and apps to sync them together. You organize these functions by Applets. You could set up an Applet to turn on the lights in your home as soon as you park the car, or set the temperature of your smart thermostat as you leave the house. Best of all, it’s free. LastPass Keeping your confidential information secure is essential, but keeping track of the different passwords you have can be challenging. While LastPass isn’t free ($2-$4 a month), this app will let you store multiple passwords for safekeeping.
Sortly Have you ever wished you could view your closet on your phone? Well, dreams do come true. Create a visual inventory by taking pictures or scanning barcodes of items, then categorizes those items into different “collections” e.g., closet, bedroom, living room If getting the kids to do chores around the house is a chore itself, download ChoreMonster to get things done. With a parent’s supervision, kids can log in to the app and earn rewards and points for completing tasks around the house. You can download these apps from the iOS App Store or Google Play Store from your smartphone.
8/22-9/2 Evergreen State Fair in Monroe evergreenfair.org 24 Standup for the Cure: Paddleboard Race suftc.org 25 State & National Parks Free Day discoverpass.wa.gov 8/30- Washington State Fair 9/22* thefair.com/state-fair *The Fair is closed Tuesdays and Sept. 4.