Market News

Price, perks and appearance matter, real estate agents say

By Allison Linn Senior writer, msnbc.com

For millions of home sellers, it’s been a hot summer but a chilly housing market.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes plunged last month to the lowest level in 15 years , despite the lowest mortgage rates in decades and bargain prices in many areas.

Walkscore.com just released some new technology adding to their already cool Walkscore, which measures how pedestrian-friendly your address is. Now you can also measure the Transit Score and see which Seattle neighborhoods are most walkable using a colorized map - http://www.walkscore.com/WA/Seattle. By the way, according to Walkscore, Seattle is the #6 most walkable city in the U.S.

By Rebecca Teagarden, Seattle Times

WE SIT IN the "cafe area" of Steve Sauer's minuscule apartment enjoying the view from the home's only window, street level. Dogs on leashes and legs on humans pass by on a warm Lower Queen Anne evening.

Sauer stands up. This is to demonstrate that at 6-foot-2 he has a no-more-than-needed 2-inch clearance between his head and the ceiling.

by Carolyn Beeler, NPR Morning Edition

Bill Worthington calls himself a human prop. He seems more like an enthusiastic tour guide. Worthington is walking around his $1.5 million Princeton, N.J., home, like a proud owner.

"Look around the kitchen here," Worthington says. "It's essentially a brand-new kitchen, with high-end appliances, brand-new cabinetry ..."

By Helen Chernikoff and Al Yoon, Reuters

ROCKVILLE, Md. — This suburb of Washington, D.C., inspired R.E.M.'s 1984 song about the soul-sucking blandness of a suburban adolescence that has been a staple of rock and roll. "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" described a town of empty houses, "where nobody says hello."

But some experts in the real estate business believe that in the future, more and more of us will be going back to places like the revamped Rockville — quite happily, in fact.

By Eric Pryne, Seattle Times business reporter

Fewer sales. Higher prices.

That's the abridged version of how the real-estate market fared in King County in July.

By MARC STILES, Daily Journal of Commerce Staff Reporter

After years of false starts, a transit-oriented development will start construction next month in downtown Burien.

Meanwhile, city officials think the stalled private portion of Burien Town Square may be back on track in the coming weeks thanks to an infusion from private equity investors, including Starwood Capital. That condo-retail project has been on hold since last fall when federal regulators shut down the construction lender, Chicago-based Corus Bank.

“We hope this period of paralysis is over,” said Burien Economic Development Manager Dick Loman.

By MARC STILES, Daily Journal of Commerce Staff Reporter

Schnitzer West sold two properties on Friday: Advanta Office Commons in Bellevue and the Equinox apartment project in Seattle, for a total of $306 million.

An LLC, Advanta Office Holdings, purchased the 600,000-square-foot Advanta property along Interstate 90 for $240 million. The price works out to $400 per square foot for the building that Microsoft leases.

Equinox is a 204-unit multi-family complex in the Eastlake neighborhood. Public records show the residential portion sold for just over $64.65 million, or $316,940 per unit. When the commercial portion of the building is included, the sales price is $66 million. The buyer is listed as Equinox Apartment Holdings LLC.

By Eric Pryne, Seattle Times business reporter

While other developers may be hunkering down, Seattle-based Touchstone is working on deals to accommodate what founder Douglas Howe calls the "next wave" of demand.

Howe said Thursday that Touchstone hopes to break ground in 2012 on a 15-story office, hotel and retail complex on part of downtown Bellevue's "Superblock."

He called that complex "phase one," but wouldn't reveal what subsequent Superblock phases might entail.

By Larry Olmsted, Special for USA TODAY

It's unusual for any one person to change the face of a major city and more unusual when the person is a private citizen, not a mayor or elected official. Then again, Paul Allen is a pretty unusual guy.

The Microsoft co-founder is one of the world's wealthiest men, a multi-billionaire, and has steadily been a booster for his native Seattle. He owns Seattle's NFL Seahawks and is a minority owner of the Sounders, Seattle's Major League Soccer team. He also owns the nearby Portland Trailblazers of the NBA. He helped develop Qwest Field, where his Seattle teams play. And he built the city's Experience Music Project, Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame, Flying Heritage (aviation) Collection and reopened the historic Seattle Cinerama. He has financed a new library, computer center and several medical school undertakings for the urban University of Washington.