Two months ago a wrote about an experiment. I thought my home’s value in Zillow was low and noticed they had erroneous property information. I claimed ownership of the house and edited the info, promising to report back as to what effect this had on my Zestimate. Nothing changed. It did not go up–and in fact the information is back... Read More »
The other day I got to talking to a friend, Greg Horn, who builds docks. His company is Pacific Dock Builders, LLC. Greg lives and works primarily in Lakewood, which is Shangri La if you are a dock builder because wherever you are in Lakewood you’re near a lake. He estimated that two out of every three homes on Lake... Read More »
The latest NWMLS Report is unquestionably positive. It shows inventory for the entire service area at its lowest level since May and pending sales up 20% from a year ago. Locally, we are seeing the same encouraging trends. In Pierce county inventory is 11% below where it was at this time last year and we have 9.7% more pending sales.... Read More »
As if insanely low interest rates, rock bottom prices and a great selection of real estate inventory here in Tacoma weren’t enough of an inducement, here is one more reason to look at buying a home now. There is still a federal credit for first time homebuyers! I suspect most of you didn’t know that. It’s not exactly the same... Read More »
This blog is generally about the Tacoma market, but I wanted to write about a condominium project that a high school friend of mine is involved with on the island of Maui. Why? Because as this September weather eventually turns on us, thinking about warm, tropical beaches and fruity drinks is a proven defense. Also, I know several of our... Read More »
Anon posted a comment last week suggesting it would be interesting to compare Tacoma’s sales ratios with markets traditionally known for being higher end, such as Seattle and Gig Harbor. It turns out Seattle is quite a bit more robust in the higher end (and across the board, really) as the chart shows. Not only are the percentages better, the... Read More »
NWMLS numbers for August are out. There is cause for optimism here. It shows Washington state’s pending sales up 26% over Aug 2010, as well as closed sales being up, but it’s way too early to break out the champagne. We are going to continue to see a heavy volume of foreclosures in the coming months. Now if you have... Read More »
“You can’t trust the Zillow value…” I hear this from my fellow agents. I say it to sellers, and it’s true that you cannot rely on a Zestimate alone to determine an asking price for your property. How would Zillow know if you recently put in gold plated bathroom fixtures while your neighbor’s place still has the same harvest gold... Read More »
I put together these sales ratios the other day. (Sales Ratios Explained) What I found striking was the lack of sales activity over $350,000. With interest rates around 4 PERCENT and great inventory to choose from, what causes this? I will tell you a theory my brother Matt just shared with me. Matt says buyers of homes over $350,000 tend... Read More »
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