Going off the grid

An innovative sustainable energy project is taking shape between Seattle's City Light, Parks Deptartment and Seattleites. Community Solar intends to green up the Emerald City and begin taking energy production off the grid.

The first of such projects is slated for Beacon Hill's Jefferson Park. There picnic shelters will be covered with solar panels, generating an estimated 24,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean, renewable electricity each year - enough to run three households or brew 146,000 pots of coffee.

Participants who invest in the program will receive annual credits for electricity generated by their portion of the project, annual production credits from the Washington State Renewable Energy Production Incentive Program and their name (or the name of a friend or family member) permanently displayed at the Community Solar project.

For more information, visit www.seattle.gov/light/Solar/community.asp

Freedom to purchase - Buying a home with little capital or no capital gains

In the spirit of freedom this July, the following are a few financing options, requiring little (or no) money down as well as one that sidesteps captial gains:

House Key Plus - House Key is a program provided by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. The commission's purpose is to help low-to-moderate income individuals and households achive homeownership. This is especially challenging in the expensive Greater Seattle market. However, House Key Plus provides between $10,000-$45,000 in downpayment assistance for qualified borrowers. Income limitations apply. For more information, visit www.wshfc.org

Key Community Program - This is another 100%/zero down 30-year-fixed mortgage loan offered by Key Bank with no private mortgage insurance (PMI). The property must be located in a low to moderate income census tract and the borrower's income must be lower than $68,480 in King & Snohomis Counties. For more information, visit www.keybank.com

BECU Home Loan Payment Relief (HLPR) - If you have 3.0% to put down and make no more than $81,000 annually (in King, Pierce or Snohomish Counties) this 30-year-fixed mortgage may be a good option for you. There's no PMI. For more information, visit www.becu.org

Self-Directed Retirement Plan Non-Recourse Loan - If you have 50% down payment tied up in a self-directed IRA, you can get a non-recourse mortgage for any type of property anywhere in the world. Down the road when you resell the property, you can avoid capital gains. For more information, visit www.paccrest.com

This information is true and accurate as of July 2011. Lending guidelines have a tendancy to change over time. For complete information, speak with a loan professional. If you would like recommendations for loan professionals, contact us.

Seattle housing market recovery in progress

Despite what the national media report about the U.S. housing market as a whole, our regional market seems to be performing well. In fact, some areas of our local real estate market appear to be trending toward favoring sellers.

Vital to measuring the pulse of any housing market is to gauge the months of inventory. This figure is determined by dividing the current number of active listings (by community, area or price range) by the number of pending sales within a specific timeframe. This figure is a guide to how many months it will take to sell off all current inventory.

The following graph shows the months of inventory for Seattle single family homes between 1,000-4,000 square feet in size on a monthly basis from March 2010 through May 2011:

The amount of inventory which indicates a balanced market between buyers and sellers is six months. Below six months of inventory, the market favors sellers. Above six months, the market favors buyers.

For more information about how your neighborhood housing market is performing, give us a call (866) 766-7325.