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Category: Industry News
Industry News
Cities, planners collaborate to ease housing shortage
The State of Washington was well represented at the second meeting of the Housing Supply Accelerator steering committee when members met in Tacoma in July. Described as a solutions-oriented campaign, the effort is a joint undertaking of the National League of Cities (NLC) and American Planning Association (APA) to ease [..]
Industry News
Escalating rates causing consumers to “hold out for better circumstances”
With mortgage rates at a 23-year high (7.31% for a 30-yr fixed rate mortgage as of 9/28/2023), Freddie Mac indicated more and more buyers and sellers say they are holding out for better circumstances. Lenders and industry insiders have diverging expectations on which direction rates may be heading in the [..]
Industry News
Bellevue’s MFTE credited with spurring builders to include affordable units
Like many cities in the Puget Sound region, Bellevue’s high-priced housing is too expensive for many who work in the city. These workers include first responders, teachers, and health care providers. In an effort to support the development of more affordable housing projects, Bellevue created or modified various initiatives including [..]
Industry News
Experience levels affect likelihood of sales transactions
An agent’s work experience is “highly predictive of how successfully and quickly they can sell homes,” according to the authors of a 100-page working paper titled “Heterogeneous Real Estate Agents and the Housing Cycle.” The report from the National Bureau of Economic Research analyzed 8.5 million real estate transactions from [..]
Industry News
Amazon pledges $40 million to boost homeownership
Amazon pledged $40 million last month to help moderate-income residents become homeowners in three areas where the online retailer and tech company has a major presence. The pilot initiative aims to help up to 800 individuals and families from underserved communities in Nashville, Tennessee; Arlington, Virginia; and the Puget Sound [..]
Industry News
REALTORS® to convene October 27 for environmental stewardship project
On October 27, whether sunny or rainy, members of Seattle King County REALTORS® and its Affiliate Council will convene at Soos Creek Trail, just south of Gary Grant Park in Kent. Not only will they help with an environmental stewardship project, but they will be honoring beloved colleague Dahni Malgarini-Logar, [..]
Industry News
New In Brief: October 2023
Education research firm Scholaroo found Washington state has some of the worst teacher-to-student ratios in the country. In their 2023 report, Washington is one of the states in the bottom 25% of teacher shortages. Numbers from Scholaroo show there are 60 teachers per 1,000 enrolled students. Washington sees a particular need for early childhood [..]
Industry News
New In Brief: September 2023
Despite the cooling housing market, Seattle-area buyers now need to earn more money than a year ago to afford a starter home — typically priced in the low to mid-$500,000s according to the Seattle Times. Seattle-area householdsneed to make nearly $142,000 a year to afford a typical first home in [..]