the
Volume 9 | Issue 6
EYE ON THE
JUNE 2018
JUNE happenings
market the number of homes for sale nationwide fell 7.2 percent from March 2017 to March 2018. Hungry buyers and low inventory have resulted in fierce competition benefiting sellers.
Likewise, an article recently published in The Seattle Times indicates that rapid The lack of low- to mid-market inventory, increases in local job gains have yielded combined with a seemingly unlimited a massive influx of residents into the supply of voracious buyers are fueling Seattle metro area. The market has bethe brisk spring-to-summer Puget Sound come increasingly aggressive, with homes market. Sellers continue to be at an averaging only 30 days on the market, advantage, with many finally getting down from 34 days in March of 2017. off the fence, listing their homes, and contributing to a slight uptick in listings. The compounding of these contributing The latest statistics from the Northwest factors has resulted in an excellent MLS show a 6.3 percent increase in the seller’s market in the Seattle metro area. number of listings over the previous Sellers looking to list will find inventory month and an almost 6 percent yearis selling quickly, allowing them to move over-year increase. on and begin their next chapter. As for those homeowners choosing to sit tight, According to a recent report published many are considering renovations that by U.S. News, steady job gains and the will add value to their home should they rising number of millennial buyers choose to sell in the future. As you can resulted in U.S. home prices jumping see, demand is only expected to increase 6.3 percent between February 2017 in our region. and February 2018, while simultaneously
TITLE & ESCROW essentials : IMPOUND ACCOUNTS What’s an impound account and what is it for? Every year, property taxes for King, Pierce and Snohomish County homeowners will increase. If a homeowner’s mortgage lender has set up an impound account (also known as an escrow account or a reserve account), they will see an increase in their minimum monthly house payment each year. What is an impound account? Unless the homeowner pays property taxes owed for the year and deposit taxes directly to the county, these taxes these funds into an impound account are paid through an impound account used to pay the property taxes. In many attached to the mortgage. With an cases, the impound account includes impound account, each month, the the homeowner’s insurance premium, lender or loan servicing company will which will also usually increase each year. set aside approximately 1/12th of the (continued on next page)
1 Tacoma’s First Ever Night Market traveltacoma.com
1-3 Edmonds Waterfront Festival edmondswaterfrontfestival.org 1-10 Seattle International Film Festival siff.net/festival
2 Kent International Festival kentinternationalfestival.com 2-3 Anacortes Waterfront Festival anacortes.org 2-3 Duvall Days duvalldays.org 2-3 Maritime Gig Festival gigharborchamber.net 8-10 Maple Valley Days maplevalleydays.com
9 Georgetown Carnival georgetownmerchants.org 9 Shilshole Boatfest portseattle.org 15-17 Meeker Days Arts & Music Fest puyallupmainstreet.com 16 Solstice Night Market Facebook.com 16-17 Father’s Day Train Ride trainmuseum.org 22-24 Taste of Tacoma tasteoftacoma.com 23-24 Seattle PrideFest seattlepridefest.org