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Category: Industry News
Industry News
Fully vaccinated? Don’t toss the mask and start partying yet
For the fortunate number of people who have had their last dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, AARP’s health experts and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (COD) have published 10 specific guidelines to follow, keeping in mind the majority of Americans have yet to be vaccinated. “Precautions continue [..]
Industry News
Issues & Impacts: April 2021
Issues & Impacts is a quarterly publication produced by the SEATTLE KingCounty REALTORS® to inform members about current issues and successes within your Governmental Affairs Department. SEATTLE KingCounty REALTORS® (SKCR) is ensuring that public policies support homeownership and your business’s bottom line. View the full publication
Industry News
News In Brief: April 2021
Longview and the Anacortes-Mount Vernon area are two of 144 cities that the federal government is proposing to downgrade from the metropolitan statistical area designation, and it could be more than just a matter of semantics. Officials in some of the affected cities worry that the change could have adverse [..]
Industry News
Second homes account for 15% of new home sales
Second homes are disproportionately represented in new single-family sales compared to their share in the existing housing stock, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). An analysis by the builders’ group found an estimated 15% of new home sales are classified as second homes. The findings were based [..]
Industry News
NWMLS spring meeting covers service, system and legal updates
In opening comments at the spring general membership meeting of member-brokers (held virtually), Northwest Multiple Listing Service President and CEO Tom Hurdelbrink noted the date coincided with the one-year anniversary of Governor Inslee’s first stay-home directives to curb the spread of COVID-19. Those mandates led to a series of frequently [..]
Industry News
Gap between home sales and starts reaches historic level
Homebuilders can’t keep pace with demand – and that gap reached historic levels during 2020, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Home building staged a dramatic rebound during spring 2020, which NAHB officials attribute to “low mortgage rates, an evolving geography of housing preferences, and favorable demographic [..]
Industry News
NAR devises plans to boost homeownership for Black Americans, other minorities
Minority homeownership lags the rate for non-Hispanic white Americans, with Black Americans experiencing the largest gap — nearly 30% — according to “Snapshot of Race & Home Buying in America,“ a report from the National Association of Realtors®. Using data from the 2019 American Community Survey and the 2020 Profile [..]
Industry News
News In Brief: March 2021
A new study ranks Seattle as the second-healthiest city in the nation. The study, by personal finance website WalletHub, compared more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities across 44 key metrics, from the cost of medical visits to fruit and vegetable consumption to fitness clubs per capita. San Francisco ranked [..]
Industry News
NWMLS revises, clarifies various forms
Northwest Multiple Listing Service revised several forms and unveiled various new forms on March 3. In some cases, MLS officials said there are significant revisions, while in other cases the revisions include minor clarifications and updates to outdated vernacular. Documents with significant revisions include the Purchase and Sale Agreements, the [..]