Real Estate News

Pioneer Square on the Rise

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:00:00 -0700

THE CLINCHER WAS the night of February 27, 2001. Mardi Gras.

More than one Pioneer Square booster will tell you that’s the moment those who love every red brick of Seattle’s oldest quarter are now fighting to overcome.

The riot made the more infamous WTO uprisings 15 months earlier look like a Shriners parade. Video footage of the Fat Tuesday celebration that spiraled into pandemonium shows men punching women repeatedly in the face, slamming their skulls against metal Dumpsters. A roving band of rioters overturned a car. Bullets whizzed through the crowd, wounding two people. By the time the police tear gas clouds cleared, multiple women had been sexually assaulted—and a man bludgeoned to death.

A decade later, Steve Johnson, director of the city’s Office of Economic Development, speeds past that part of the conversation, a quick transition between talk of early Jimi Hendrix performances and the waterfront streetcar.

Yes, the Mardi Gras riot reinforced the perception that Pioneer Square was a dangerous place, and it hurt an area already struggling to compete economically with the downtown retail core. The neighborhood founded by the Denny Party in 1852 maintains much of its original Romanesque Revival and Victorian architecture, yet dozens of empty storefronts leave the regal buildings looking like toothless smiles. But you’d be hard-pressed to call Pioneer Square dead, Johnson insists. And he’s got the numbers to prove it.

From 2003 to 2008, the neighborhood’s gross receipts grew 126 percent. To compare, Capitol Hill’s grew only 57 percent during the same period. The problem, says Johnson, is perception.

Most of those receipts came from businesses not likely to be found at street level, such as accountants, architects, attorney’s offices, and consultants. Above the empty storefronts, clicking away at keyboards, yammering about stock prices, thinking through the next iPhone app, is one of the most advanced workforces in the city: ING, the world’s largest banking firm; Zynga, creators of the Facebook game FarmVille; Nuance Communications, which built the Dragon mobile-dictation app; and—lured by the announcement that Comcast would be laying down high-speed broadband in the nabe—OneHub, a file-sharing developer from Bellevue.

Fueling all that brainpower is the city’s most buzzed-about sandwich district. Salumi, Delicatus, BuiltBurger, gyro impresario the Berliner, and Tat’s, a philly cheesesteak joint so popular the owners installed a webcam so office dwellers could monitor the length of the line, which, come lunchtime, wraps around the corner of Second and Yesler.

The trick is to keep that crowd around after 6pm, says Jen Kelly, who maintains the New Pioneer Square blog (thenewpioneersquare.com). See, the area bounded by Cherry Street to the north and the stadiums to the south, between Second Ave and the waterfront is hardly residential. Of the only 2,000 inhabitants in Pioneer Square, 80 percent live in homeless missions or subsidized housing. And a new condo development breaking ground this month on the north end of the parking lot of CenturyLink stadium (formerly Qwest Field) will bring a scant 700 additional living spaces.

So Kelly and the Alliance for Pioneer Square—which includes former Seattle Mayor Charles Royer—are pushing to turn weeknights into Pioneer Square nights, capitalizing on the abundant art galleries. They moved a failing Saturday outdoor market to Thursdays, to coincide with the city’s First Thursday art stroll. And they’ve helped reclaim alleys, long the domain of public drug users, and transformed them into public party spaces, with live music and movies projected onto walls.

“Far from being a commercial district in its last gasp, Pioneer Square is a commercial district of both relative economic health and extraordinary economic opportunity,” said Donovan Rypkema, a DC-based economist who specializes in historic preservation districts, in a report commissioned by the city of Seattle. But, added Rypkema, all the stakeholders need to be on board.

That could be yet another challenge. Says Kelly: “There is a guy who owns two condo units, one for him and one for his son. They don’t even live there! It’s just for the parking space on game day and to wait out traffic afterwards. That’s not the kind of ‘resident’ who’s going to be a valuable stakeholder.”

Leasing the Cool Life

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:00:00 -0700

Image: Harbor Properties

A High Note Belltown’s Alto Apartments will be tricked out with music-themed amenities.

Hot 'Hoods

PHINNEY RIDGE

Closed-sale prices continue to slide in most of King County, but spots like Phinney Ridge are bucking the trend. Homes in the perennially desirable nabe were getting 100 percent of asking price in early April.

$549,500
Details 325 N 80th St; 2,280 sq ft, 4 BR, 2¾ baths, built 1926. Selling Points Like kitchens? This pre-WWII Tudor has an updated one on the main level (complete with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances) and another one down below. Listed By Marcia Dunkin, Coldwell Banker Bain.

$525,000
Details 111 N 49th St; 1,730 sq ft, 3 BR, 2 baths, built 1913. Selling Points Just two blocks from the zoo, this restored Craftsman has hardwoods throughout the main floor, full bathrooms on both floors, and a finished basement with a bedroom and office. Listed By Erin Ewing, Windermere.

$499,000
Details 150 NW 73rd St; 2,150 sq ft, 3 BR, 1 bath, built 1927. Selling Points Updates have been made over the years, but character-rich qualities like the hardwood floors, mahogany trim, coved ceilings, and leaded-glass windows remain. Listed By Robin McCue, Redfin.

Photographs courtesy the real estate agencies.

NOTHING’S SET IN STONE yet, but units in Belltown’s under-construction Alto Apartments may come with a free Internet radio subscription. In fact, the building’s developer, Harbor Properties, is hitting the music note hard throughout the project, from a proposed built-in, iPod-compatible stereo system on the rooftop deck to its marketing slogan: “Where your soundtrack comes to life.” Harbor claims that any audio add-ons are a nod to the fact that Alto sits at Third Avenue and Cedar Street, the former site of the Musicians’ Association of Seattle. But in reality, the sonic emphasis may have as much to do with luring the young renters of the future as it does with honoring the past.

According to local apartment-market tracking firm O’Connor Consulting Group, just 13 percent of new Seattle households—college grads, new residents, divorcees, etc.—went rental in 2003 and 2004. Today that number has leapt to 60 percent. “Everybody was a buyer at the beginning of the decade,” says Brian O’Connor, the firm’s president. “Even young kids were getting 100 percent financing on $300,000 condos.”

But what young Seattleites may have lost in ownership opportunities in the last few years, they’re gaining in swanky rental alternatives. “Everyone’s trying to figure out what’s cool,” O’Connor says. “What can you do in an apartment building that would be so cool that everyone would want to live there?” The answer Harbor Properties came up with for Alto started with music-related upgrades, but it went much further. “The Gen Y renter has proved to be much different than the renter that we had even 10 years ago,” says Martha Barkman, who’s overseeing the project. “They want the high-end finishes. But they’re willing—most of them, anyway—to accept a smaller space if it’s done well.”

That was the thinking at the Station at Othello Park, a new 351-unit complex in Beacon Hill, where developer Othello Partners went beyond standard amenities like a fitness room (although it does have one) to include a shared media and gaming room and a 7,500-square-foot rooftop deck that sports everything from barbecue pits and a wet bar to a built-in sound system and hot tub.

The question, though, is whether Gen Y renters can afford to live there. For now, Barkman estimates that rent for one of the 600-square-foot units in Alto could run $1,500 a month. And rents at the Station range from $800 to $2,000, although Othello Partners’ president Steve Rauf points out that he’s not necessarily targeting young renters. Renters may get squeezed further, though. Experts like O’Connor and Tom Cain at Apartment Insights say supply can’t keep up with demand. According to Cain, vacancy rates are only 4.5 percent downtown, yet few new buildings are scheduled to open soon. And that means one thing: Rents will only go up—possibly by 20 percent within five years, says O’Connor: “People are going to be begging for an apartment in two years.”

5 Places to Live Next: Where You’ll Want to Be In 2016

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 05:00:00 -0700

Image: Thomas Northcut

Sammamish
Chosen by Dr. Stan Humphries,  chief economist of Zillow

While Sammamish is technically a suburb, developers are planning to create a city center by placing a town hall, retail, and small-unit homes around a European-inspired centralized plaza to make it a walkable neighborhood void of those impersonal suburban strip malls. By welcoming people who are unwilling to trade commuting time for home price, this midrange to upper-end neighborhood already known for its good schools and easy access to 520 and I-90 is set to become a community perfect for the stroller brigade. “People are looking for that communal sense of neighborhood,” Humphries says, “and Sammamish is creating what people will want in the future.”

Central District
Chosen by Glenn Kelman,  president of Redfin

The Central District is the Little Neighborhood That Could. “Two or three years ago, it had a shot at the title for Seattle’s hot new spot, as artists and gay men gentrified the area,” says Kelman. The CD lost its footing when the real estate bubble burst, but people are beginning to eye the southern edge of Capitol Hill once more. It’s a natural option for young families who want a bigger house and a bigger yard without having to sacrifice access to nightlife, and its proximity to I-5, I-90, and downtown Seattle make this an up-and-comer worth betting on. As soon as the school system improves, nothing will stop the flow of transplants into this ultraconvenient nabe.

South Lake Union
Chosen by Christopher Tanaka,  broker at John L. Scott

For a city to thrive, it needs a dense epicenter with an eclectic and vibrant population. Thanks to Amazon’s recent relocation to South Lake Union, the neighborhood—already an enclave of young professionals—will draw many of the web goliath’s creative task force, spurring development of even more condos and restaurants. As the area fills up, the younger demographic may spill over into Belltown and Capitol Hill, but SLU will remain the focal point for change. “For the most part, you’re going to see families and executives try to stay in SLU,” Tanaka says. “It’s going to be pretty dense down there.”

Columbia City
Chosen by Matthew Gardner,  economist of real estate advisory firm Gardner Economics

Artists helped revitalize Columbia City—now home to a flourishing retail scene reminiscent of an early Ballard—and the light rail has cut commute times from downtown to this South Seattle neighborhood. “Mass transit, which has been woefully inadequate in the past, is improving dramatically,” Gardner says. “This will give young professionals and older people wanting to downsize access to downtown.” Already treated to perks like enticing bakeries, trendy restaurants, and the indie music venue Columbia City Theater, residents have it all (including proximity to Seward Park, Genesee Park, and Rainier Playfield) without having to pay the prices commanded in nearby nabes like Beacon Hill, Seward Park, and Mount Baker.

Hilman City
Chosen by Jennifer Nelson,  broker at Windermere Real Estate

Hillman City—Columbia City’s under-the-radar little brother—is guaranteed to profit as its grown-up sibling’s success begins to spill over. Restaurants and shops are popping up in the diverse neighborhood where the Night Out in Hillman City block party attracts residents from dozens of ethnicities. Seward Park, Genesee Park, and Lake Washington fulfill an outdoor lover’s needs. “You can launch your boat and be cruising around Lake Washington in 20 minutes, easy,” Nelson says. And there are more owners than renters, solidifying the community and making it a first-time buyer’s dream.

Best Places to Live 2011

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 05:00:00 -0700

Image: Thomas Northcut

Balancing Act

• Beacon Hill •

In Beacon Hill, it’s not uncommon for doctors and lawyers to live side by side with neighbors who are receiving subsidies from the city to make improvements to their homes. Economic diversity may be the defining characteristic of the South Seattle neighborhood, and it’s the one that residents are desperate to hold on to. “It’s one of my favorite parts about this place,” says Dylan Ahearn, an environmental consultant who lives in North Beacon Hill. “We’re all out in the street playing together all day long.”

It’s also the characteristic that might be the most endangered. In the slender strip of land just east of I-5, character-rich homes are still affordable—by Seattle standards—the views of the Olympics and the Cascades are virtually unmatched, and commute times to downtown are remarkably manageable even by bike. But now that the area near the new light rail station north of Jefferson Park is attracting commercial developers, it’s just a matter of time before more urban professionals discover what Beacon Hill has to offer—and what it could have in the future.

So now locals are wrestling with how to keep improving their ’hood without destroying its everyone-knows-everyone vibe. “You have to balance new development with trying to keep the character of the community,” Ahearn says. “It’s nice to have more services, but you don’t want to change the neighborhood so much that you drive people out and turn it into just another neighborhood in Seattle.”

Love  Beyond Borders

• Phinney Ridge  and Greenwood •

In case you haven’t heard, Phinney and Greenwood like each other. Like, they like each other. They started blowing kisses at each other years ago. Then they hooked up in July 2008 when Dale Steinke and Doree Armstrong launched the phinneywood.com neighborhood blog. And this summer, well, they want to get hitched.

No really. Members of the Phinney Neighborhood Association and the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce are kicking around the idea of having the communities tie the knot August 12, as their third annual joint street party mobs Greenwood Avenue North. If it happens, it would be a mock civil ceremony to join the platonically involved neighbors; the city doesn’t have any plans to officially merge them. But the sentiment is real. “Our neighborhoods are too small to be promoted by themselves,” says Sheri Hauser, owner of the year-old Phinney-based art gallery and collectible store Tasty. “It would be a real shame not to unite and have a bigger voice.”

The union wouldn’t just be about promoting local businesses, though. It’s a planned public acknowledgment of what residents have felt for years. “If you go from Phinney down into Ballard, you’re leaving a core business area, driving through residential streets, and then hitting another business area,” says Lee Harper, the executive director of the Phinney Neighborhood Association. “But you don’t really feel that when you move from Phinney to Greenwood.” Instead, one business district along Greenwood Avenue blends into the next, flanked on both sides by tree-lined residential streets.

They’ve got their differences—Phinney’s older and more established, and Greenwood’s more affordable and culturally diverse. And they’ve got their issues—specifically encouraging the transient younger population that lives in both neighborhoods’ multifamily housing to feel a part of the community. But if there’s anything a stable couple should be able to weather, it’s the occasional spat and kids.

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Image: Thomas Northcut

Rural by Choice

• Vashon •

Occasionally visitors to Vashon will wander into the Hardware Store restaurant in the heart of the town’s modest commercial center, scratch their heads, and ask owner Melinda Sontgerath what exactly there is to do on the island. “Well,” she’ll reply with a polite, slightly mischievous smile, “you’re doing it.” Vashon, she enjoys telling them, isn’t a bustling burg of diversions and activities. It’s a refuge from city life, the kind of place where your shoulders relax the minute you step off of the ferry. “It’s a quiet, more thoughtful type of tourist who really understands the benefit of coming over to the island,” Sontgerath says.

So rather than sweat the pressures of staying hip and luring more outsiders willing to spend their travel dollars, the native islanders are doing their best to maintain the status quo. In fact, the only truly modern concept they’ve embraced of late is sustainability—and that’s had as much to do with embracing isolation as it has with protecting the environment. They want locally grown food (and there are plenty of farms to provide it), but they want local jobs as well. “Moving to an island is a very conscious decision,” Sontgerath says. “You don’t do it lightly.”

All Quiet on the Western Shore

• Magnolia •

It’s hard to think of Magnolia as a best-kept secret, what with its name recognition, proximity to downtown, and stately homes. But that’s just how its residents think of it—and they like it that way. “It keeps us from being overrun,” says Julie Szmania, co-owner of the eponymous eatery in Magnolia Village.

Magnolians have watched fickle Seattleites hop from one hot neighborhood to another while their own little corner of the city has remained relatively unchanged. And that steady-as-she-goes status has helped the community built on wide streets and anchored by Discovery Park maintain a close-knit, family-friendly feel. Some even jokingly call it Mayberry R.F.D. “I wouldn’t quite go that far,” says Loree Schoonover, editor of the Magnolia Voice blog. “But it  really is a charming small-town atmosphere five minutes from the city.”

The only drawback to all that quiet: It’s almost lulled portions of the commercial core—located on West McGraw Street—to sleep. Stubborn landlords are reluctant to pony up development dough to improve vacant storefronts, and skittish entrepreneurs won’t set up shop in the isolated enclave. The lack of retail action peeves people like Szmania, but not enough to sour them on Magnolia. “We may not be the most exciting neighborhood in town,” she says, “but we have great views, big yards, and it’s safe.”

A Place to Park It

• Mount Baker •

For being a relatively slim sliver of South Seattle, Mount Baker has an impressive amount of park space. There’s Colman Park, Mount Baker Park, and Lake Washington Boulevard, all in one cluster along the water. And that’s not even counting Genesee Park, which lies just outside the southeastern edge of the neighborhood. It’s the kind of place where people can slow down, walk their residential streets—or even walk downtown if they want—and shoot the breeze with their neighbors. “You know everyone and say hi to them on the street,” says 26-year resident Joyce Moty. “It’s not like people drive home from work and into their garage and you never see them.”

Which makes Mount Baker’s business district all the more confounding. Located at the busy intersection of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, it hardly has the walkable vibe you’ll find elsewhere in the community. “That’s what I think is holding us back,” Moty says. “It’s more car oriented.”

Change—or at least suggestions for change—may be on the way, though. How to improve the area surrounding Mount Baker’s new light rail station was the subject of a recent national design competition by the Urban Land Institute. Last winter, teams of graduate students from across the country were challenged to design a more pedestrian-friendly center, and the winner was scheduled to be announced in March. “Who knows,” Moty says. “Maybe the kids have some good ideas that we’ll be able to borrow.”

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Image: Thomas Northcut

Still Funky After All These Years

• Fremont •

“We’re a quirky little lot.”

That’s Jessica Vets, executive director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, reinforcing what you thought you knew about the nabe’s notoriously funky folks. Except she’s not referring to nude bicyclists or guerrilla artists or people who dress up like a gorilla for kicks. She’s talking about the vein of creativity and diversity that runs through the population and the business district. In the last six months alone, Fremont has welcomed a new pie shop (creatively named Pie), a salsa dance studio (Salsa con Todo), and an upscale salon (Adele). Add that to an existing collection of tech titans (Adobe and Google) and creative types (Fremont Fine Arts Foundry), shake it up with a shot of booze (the forthcoming Fremont Mischief Distillery), and you’ve got a potent mix of uniquely Fremontian flavors.

Fans of Fremont’s commercial and artistic eclecticism (this is, after all, the home of the annual Solstice Parade) are so ardently supportive of the community’s current momentum, they’re coming from outside its borders to get involved. “There are a lot of people who call Fremont their home even though they don’t live here or work here,” Vets says. Maybe they’d like to live and work there but can’t afford to; rents and home prices remain high in the desirable section of Seattle just north of the ship canal. But whether they live there or not, they all seem to have the same goal: keeping Fremont weird.

Happily Hidden

• Maple Leaf •

It’s easy to overlook Maple Leaf. Wedged into the upper reaches of North Seattle and bordered to the south by destination nabes like Greenlake and Roosevelt, it tends to fade into the background. Not that that bothers the people who live there; businesses along Roosevelt Way Northeast like Reckless Video and Cloud City Coffee are little gems that regulars would just as soon keep to themselves.

Once the ongoing development of Maple Leaf Park (which includes burying the Maple Leaf Reservoir and adding an off-leash area) wraps up in the next few years, though, it’s only a matter of time before dog walkers and stroller pushers weary of the shoulder-to-shoulder congestion along Green Lake begin to venture north.

Unexpected Diversity

• Laurelhurst •

Laurelhurst has a reputation for being a ritzy, exclusive little burg in Northeast Seattle, and with good reason. The southern tip is all waterfront, and home prices are appropriately high. Many of those homes are, in the words of Laurelhurst Community Club president Jeannie Hale, “majestic and beautiful.” Bill Gates used to live there, and his dad still does, for crying out loud.

But once you’re there, you’re family—even if you aren’t a millionaire. Neighbors look out for each other (they’ve invested in a private security service to patrol the streets), and they’ve consistently supported ballot measures for low-income housing. “I think the perception is that everybody is very wealthy, which is far from the truth,” Hale says. “There’s a much broader mix of people, a broader diversity than many would think.”

Kids Are All Right

• North Admiral •

A message from the residents of North Admiral to the rest of Seattle: We’re not as old and white as you think we are. “When I moved to West Seattle six years ago, people would raise an eyebrow and say, ‘Oh you live in North Admiral,’ says Katy Walum, president of the Admiral Neighborhood Association. “And I’d say, ‘Yeah, but my house is at the more proletariat end of the street.’ There are all kinds of people who live here.”

Walum and the association’s members are trying to blow up the city’s perception of the neighborhood as a stuffy, elitist community, and they launched a free summer concert series three years ago to help get the word out. It’s working: Last summer, local acts like Pearl Django and Caspar Babypants (Chris Ballew of the Presidents of the United States of America) drew crowds from all over the city.

And dispelling the “North Admiral is old” myth has as much to do with promoting the nabe’s kid friendliness as it does with claiming it’s hip. “There are so many families here now,” Walum says. “We’ve got kids coming out of the woodwork.”

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Image: Thomas Northcut

Unity Near the U

• Ravenna •

Even for the people who reside in Ravenna, it’s hard to quantify exactly what makes it such a great place to  live. “It’s just my home,” says 25-year resident Susan Gregory.

Some love the tree-lined residential  streets and their proximity to the University District. Some appreciate the lack of a bustling business center that might congest their otherwise quiet streets. And some are energized by the community involvement; 15-year Ravennan Patti Colescott says residents’ efforts to clean up a rash of graffiti five years ago brought the once-sleepy neighborhood to life. “We had one of those red wagon groups, where the city gives you red wagons and supplies, and then it’s up to the neighborhood to make it happen,” she says. “So once a month, we would meet at Bagel Oasis, and then we would all head out in different directions to work.”

The graffiti disappeared, but that sense of unity remained: Now Ravenna’s fiercely protective community members are gearing up for a fight against a high-rise development tentatively planned for the western edge of the ’hood. They’re worried it might add the wrong “flavor” to the area, Colescott says, but more important, it’s just too big. They like things just the way they are in Ravenna, thank you very much.

A Small Town No Longer

• Kirkland •

A lot of midsize communities like to claim they sport a small-town feel, but Kirkland backs up its big talk. Two years ago, the city canceled its annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Plunge in Lake Washington, citing budget constraints. Instead of letting the seven-year-old tradition die, though, fans of the frigid event staged a (metaphorically) stripped-down version without the city’s involvement. “We thought, ‘It’s a public park. As long as we don’t accept liability, why can’t we tell everyone to meet down at the park and do our own polar plunge?’ ” says Kirkland Weblog founder Janis Rabuchin. “We got the word out, and more than 100 people showed up.”

The question the Eastside waterfront enclave faces now, though, is whether it will be able to hold on to its self-proclaimed small-town designation much longer. This June the long-discussed annexation of the Finn Hill, Kingsgate, and North Juanita neighborhoods becomes official; adding those portions of unincorporated King County will boost Kirkland’s population by 33,000. The city’s design review board approved a controversial redevelopment of the Kirkland Parkplace shopping center in December. And developer Stuart McLeod, who opened Milagro Cantina in downtown Kirkland last winter, plans to expand Hector’s, his bar and grill on Lake Street. “There’s lots of things in the pipeline,” Rabuchin says. “It will be fun to see what we look like 10 years from now.”

Waterfront Destination

• Madison Park •

East Madison used to be the dividing line between wealthy Madison Park and working-class Madison Park; you had your pricey homes to the south and your modest beach houses to the north. But most of those little homes are gone, torn down and replaced by stately manors. “As a result, a lot of areas on the north side of Madison have become like the south side,” says nine-year resident Bryan Tagas. “There’s not that much difference anymore between the two.”

The two sides have a lot more in common than tony homes, though. For one thing, Madison Parkers are a welcoming—and liberal—bunch. (“It’s a very friendly neighborhood to walk around in,” Tagas says.) And for another, they love their comprehensive collection of retail amenities—so much so that it’s hard to pry them out of their perch between the Arboretum and Lake Washington. It’s a destination neighborhood, and one that tends to ensnare anyone who moves there. “I always say that we have everything but a bookstore and a liquor store,” Tagas says with a laugh. “I’m not even kidding when I say that you could live here and never have to leave the neighborhood.”

Driven to Survive

• Montlake •

For being a decidedly quiet residential neighborhood, Montlake is on the verge of a traffic uproar. Parking has always been a problem—particularly during football games at nearby Husky Stadium and the massive annual Greek festival at St. Demetrios Church on Boyer Avenue East. But congestion is what’s on residents’ minds now, as the Washington Department of Transportation ramps up plans to rebuild the 520 bridge to the Eastside. “Everybody’s worried about the bridge and what’s going to happen when cement trucks are rolling through the neighborhood every 10 minutes,” says Julee Neuhart, longtime Montlaker and chair of the local welcoming committee.

Montlake residents have expressed concern about construction at the north end of the neighborhood, where the DOT is also considering building a second bridge that would connect to the University District. But they’re also bracing for the inevitable onslaught of drivers from Madison Park and Madison Valley who will lose direct access to 520 when the Lake Washington Boulevard ramp closes as part of the rebuild. “They’re worried that 24th Avenue, which is a pretty quiet little business district, is going to look more like Aurora,” Neuhart says.

The locals’ outcry over the roadwork will no doubt strengthen their reputation for being shrill nimbyists, but they’ve got good reason to complain. Virtually surrounded by parks and water, Montlake is a little slice of nature in an urban setting. “If you’re a city person,” Neuhart says, “I can’t think of any other neighborhood that beats it.”

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Image: Thomas Northcut

A Tale of Two Communities

• Ballard •

For years, Ballard has maintained multiple personalities. There’s old Ballard, with a rich history of fishing and Scandinavian culture, and new Ballard, with its onslaught of condos and hip restaurants and retail. There’s industrial Ballard, which welcomed creative types in search of affordable living spaces and blue collar workers in search of living-wage jobs, and there’s residential Ballard, which has embraced upper-middle-class outsiders intent on rehabbing its character-rich homes. Progress—and, let’s face it, gentrification—has inevitably favored modern ideals, but even the new generation of Ballardites worry about losing a piece of what used to be. “My grandma grew up here, so I used to hear stories about the old parts of Ballard,” says Kate Bergman, cofounder of the neighborhood blog -myballard.com. “It’s sad to see those things disappear, but on the other hand, it’s great to see Ballard thriving.”

It’s definitely thriving. Groups like Sustainable Ballard and Groundswell NW are focusing their efforts on preserving the community’s resources and parks. And yes, there’s the commercial aspect, too. “With more restaurants opening and more condos being built,” Bergman says, “it’s bringing more people, more money, and more energy to the neighborhood.”

Living Life Out Loud

• Pike/Pine •

The tiny triangle in the southwest corner of Capitol Hill bounded by Broadway, East Madison Street, and East Pine Street—and known as Pike/Pine—is home to 35 restaurants and more than 20 bars. And then there are the 30-odd retail stores, 10 coffee shops, half a dozen grocery and convenience stores and…. In other words, it’s dense. It’s dynamic. And it’s loud. “It’s definitely not a quiet neighborhood,” says longtime Capitol Hill resident and president of the neighborhood’s community council, Norma Straw. “There are parts of Capitol Hill that are quiet, but Pike/Pine is not one of them.”

Like most people who have moved to the area in the last five years, Straw was happy to trade peace for possibilities. Because for every obnoxious burst of noise at 3am, locals have dozens of options for living an active, urban lifestyle. “There are weeks when I go out every single night,” Straw says. “You have the spontaneity of saying, ‘Let’s go bowling at the Garage ,’ or, ‘Let’s go do karaoke at the Rock Box,’ or, ‘Let’s catch a performance at Velocity Dance Center.’ ”

Given that Pike/Pine is the place to live for restless revelers, the shadow of gentrification looms over the nabe. (For its part, Capitol Hill Housing is trying to provide affordable alternatives for lower-income residents.) But for now, the party is still hopping. “You can walk into any bar at happy hour and likely run into someone you know,” says Jason Lajeunesse, a co-owner of music venue Neumos. “It’s like a grown-up Sesame Street.”

Working Together to Live Diversely

• Madrona •

Madrona has a rich history of neighborhood involvement. In the ’70s, concerned parents banded together to save Madrona Elementary from closure. Then in the late ’90s, a new generation of volunteers worked together to rebuild Madrona Playfield, the park that sits next to the school. “The whole thing was run down,” says 18-year resident Marie Doyle. “The school secretaries didn’t even dare walk through it to get to work.” And that spirit of engagement is still energizing Madronans today, as yet another generation of parents continues to put in work at the school, which now serves kindergartners through eighth graders. “They want to be a community,” Doyle says of her neighbors. “They want to get together and build things.”

But more than anything, they want to preserve the racial diversity of the neighborhood that was once home to the Seattle chapter of the Black Panthers. “A lot of people who have moved to Madrona came here because they like the diversity,” Doyle says. “They don’t want to live a homogenized life.”

How We Got That Shot

Last month the weather forecasts were light on sun and full of rain and snow. There were weekdays that seemed to be showing off every season: 9am, winter; 11am, spring; 2pm, winter; 4pm, summer; 8pm, winter…like we need to remind you. So as far as shooting the best neighborhoods in all their glory, we had to be creative.

Three years ago to the month, photographer Thomas Northcut took to the sky. On assignment with Getty, he had been looking for an opportunity to shoot from above the city. “Any chance I can get in a helicopter with no door, I’m on it,” said Northcut. He tried a few different lenses, and what you see on the cover is the result of a tilt-shift lens taken to the extreme. The selective focus produces an optical effect, miniaturizing houses and cars. It’s a charming way to take in your city—like you could pick it up and hold it right your hand.

—André Mora, acting art director

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Crunchy – But in a Good Way

• Wallingford •

When Jordan Schwartz moved to Wallingford from the East Coast in 1993, he found a neighborhood overrun by felines. “You couldn’t walk down the street without seeing cats,” he says. “They were all over.” Nearly 20 years later, he still feels outnumbered by animals, but the predominant species has changed. “What I see now are chickens,” he says with a laugh. “There are like two chicken coops per block.”

You could chalk up the fowl frenzy to the fact that Wallingford is home to the sustainable-gardening nonprofit Seattle Tilth. But it may also say something about the brand of progressive, civic-minded, earth-friendly people who live there. “There’s something very Main Street and homey about Wallingford,” Schwartz says. “There are people out in their front-yard gardens talking to neighbors as they walk by. You’ve got the crunchiness of Fremont without quite the acid twist.”

Falling in Love with Itself All Over Again

• Burien •

Ten years ago, you couldn’t walk a block in Burien without hearing someone mutter, “We need more restaurants. I’m tired of driving to Seattle to eat.” It’s not that West Seattle’s southern neighbors had an aversion to the big city; most would have told you that they loved how easy it was to hop on State Route 509 and scoot down to the Pike Place Market. No, the problem was that they saw potential in their own sleepy downtown and pined for an excuse to stick close to home.

Well, a lot has happened in the last decade, not the least of which was a mini explosion of restaurant and nightlife options along Southwest 152nd Street, Burien’s main drag. Now, instead of trucking up to Seattle because they don’t have a choice, the locals head downtown to take a break from the activity in their own backyard. “The city has fallen back in love with itself,” says Debra George, Discover Burien’s event coordinator.

And in just the last two years, that love affair has been heating up. With the completion of a new mixed-use city center that includes a town hall, a library, and space for a bustling farmers market, B-Town’s residents are feeling downright bullish about their city’s future. “We’re four minutes from the airport, but we don’t hear the planes,” George says. “We have great water views. We have private parks. It’s like this hidden little secret.”

Urban Living in the Heart of Suburbia

• Issaquah Highlands •

You don’t move to the Issaquah Highlands to spread out. You practically need a shoehorn to shimmy between houses, and most lots are the size of a postage stamp. “No one moves there to be isolated,” says five-year resident and Issaquah City Councilmember Mark Mullet. “They move there because they want to interact with their community and they like to have a lot of shared park space instead of big backyards.”

Building a dense, walkable, retail-rich community was developer Port Blakely Communities’ objective when it broke ground on the New Urbanist enclave nearly 15 years ago. And although two recessions have slowed the commercial component of that plan—restaurants and coffee shops have only just begun popping up in the last couple years—buyers searching for an intimate relationship with their neighbors got exactly what they wanted. “Because of the proximity of our homes to each other and the centralized parks, people are encouraged to get out and get to know each other,” says Erick Zimmerman, who moved to the Highlands in 2000 with his wife, Renee.

And when they do get out and interact, it’s at a kidcentric function. Within a month of opening a Zeeks Pizza location in the neighborhood last year, Mullet scrapped Monday karaoke nights in favor of a kids-eat-free promotion. “That’s been like 10 times more successful,” he says with a laugh. “It’s like a breeding colony out here.”

Dues and Don’ts

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:00:00 -0800

Image: John Coulter

YOU GET A LOT of paperwork when you buy a condo. There’s the resale certificate, the bylaws, and the rules and regulations, and, unless you’re into legalese, it’s the kind of reading material that can cure insomnia. But there is one document that can keep you up nights if you bother to read it. Dig deep enough into what’s called the declaration of condominium and you’ll find that your condo association has the authority to foreclose on your unit if you simply fall behind on your monthly homeowner dues. “People always assume that the only person that can foreclose is the bank,” says Valerie Farris Oman, an associate attorney at the Condominium Law Group. “And that’s simply not true.”

Farris Oman says the firm, which represents condo boards in delinquent-payment cases, has watched its caseload triple in the last three years. And just as with bank-initiated actions, the economy is driving the increase. In some cases, owners have lost a job and can’t pay the monthly dues as they struggle to cover the mortgage. In others, underwater owners are walking away, forcing associations to raise dues to unaffordable levels for those who remain.

“The question, though, is, ‘Would they foreclose on you?’ ” asks Rory O’Sullivan, an attorney at the Northwest Justice Project. A number of factors can inform a condo board’s decision to give an owner the boot—including whether it can foreclose without filing a lawsuit first, and whether or not the owner is underwater—so O’Sullivan suggests reading your declaration of condominium closely.

People always assume the only person who can foreclose on a condo is the bank.

That said, Farris Oman is quick to point out that an association has much more to gain by working with a delinquent owner to establish a payment plan, because in most cases the association can recover at least some of the money it’s owed. Earlier this winter she helped broker a deal in which an owner who was more than $2,000 behind agreed to begin paying her condo dues as long as the association would waive late fees for three months. “In general, my loose recommendation to boards is, if there’s a payment plan that allows the owner to get caught up in, say, 12 months, take it,” she says.

That may not be an option for all down-and-out owners. For them, Erin Rearden, a mortgage counselor at Solid Ground, has one piece of—strangely counterintuitive—advice: “It seems like mortgage companies have more payment plans that they’re willing to provide,” she says. “So when people say, ‘I have a limited amount of money; do I pay the condo association, or do I pay the mortgage?’ I tell them to pay the condo association.”

Buy Now, Move In Later

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 04:00:00 -0800

Image: John Coulter

THE FIRST THING Jeff and Liz Stonehill noticed when they toured the 100-year-old duplex on Queen Anne was its condition. “The people who had owned it were meticulous in their upkeep,” Jeff says. “I walked in and said, ‘Man, this is turnkey. I don’t even have to paint.’ ” This was it, the character-rich home they’d been hoping to retire in. They made an offer last June, closed in July, and then promptly rented out both units.

Oh, they still plan to move in, but not until they’re actually ready to retire—in another five years or so. Goosed by plummeting real estate prices and a booming rental market (and in the Stonehills’ case, a sizable inheritance), some aging boomers are getting a jump-start on their retirement plans by buying now and finding someone else to pay the mortgage in the meantime. “Some people have been so worried about the stock market that they’ve been hoarding cash,” says Peter Hedly, a John L. Scott broker who recently helped an Issaquah couple in their late 40s find a beachfront retirement home in Ocean Shores. “And those are the people who are in a great position right now.”

Thinking of going the proactive-purchase route? Consider a few things first: Unless you can afford two mortgages, you’ll have to follow the Stonehills’ lead and rent out your new place. And although interest rates for non-owner-occupied second properties are historically low—in the 5 to 6 percent range—that’s still higher than the 4 percent rates that buyers searching for primary residences were landing late in 2010. It can be harder to qualify for those loans, too.

"When the hot water heater breaks on Christmas Eve, you want to still be happy you bought the place."

But more important, you have to prepare for life as a landlord. “The advice that I give everyone is to not buy something unless you’re passionate about it,” says Jim Brown, the Stonehills’ Windermere broker. “When the hot water heater breaks on Christmas Eve and you have to fix it, you want to still be happy you bought the place.” But don’t get too passionate; you have to accept that your post-retirement refuge will get a little beat up. “No matter how good your renters are, they’re going to do stuff to the house,” says Jeff Stonehill, who’s owned several rental properties in the past. “They just don’t treat a house the same way as they would if they owned it.” By the way, when he said it was turnkey, he meant it was turnkey as a rental—he plans to remodel the bathroom to his and Liz’s taste before moving in.

Agents of Chaos

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 05:00:00 -0700

Image: John Coulter

TWENTY-SEVEN. That’s how many homeowners filed complaints to the Washington State Department of Licensing about Pierce County brokers Michael and Tara Hellickson over the last two years. And these weren’t the misplaced ravings of underwater borrowers beat down by the recession. They were eyebrow-raising accusations from distressed-property owners who had reason to believe they’d been scammed: The Hellicksons allegedly promised to buy homes in 30 to 90 days if they failed to sell them, but then reneged; listed short-sale homes for less than homeowners had agreed to; and even counseled clients to stop making mortgage payments. And on September 2, after almost 18 months of digging into the allegations, the DOL suspended the Hellicksons’ real estate license. A judge was expected to decide whether or not to revoke the brokerage’s license in mid-October.

But according to local brokers who’ve dealt directly with the suspended agents, the Hellicksons’ business practices have been alienating their peers for years. One in particular, who requested anonymity, represented a buyer in an early-2000s transaction in which Michael represented the sellers. Typically a listing agent collects a 6 percent commission and splits it evenly with the buyer’s broker, but in this case Hellickson charged 7 percent and gave only a third of it to the other agent. The lopsided share was by no means illegal, but it soured this agent on ever working with him again. “My philosophy is that real estate agents are your customers and clients, as much as buyers and sellers are,” the agent says. “Agents who treat each other well have much smoother transactions for their clients.”

And that agent’s experience wasn’t an isolated one. The Northwest Multiple Listing Service has fined Hellickson and his brokerage tens of thousands of dollars over the last several years for a host of non-consumer-related infractions, including failing to obtain the proper documents for a price change on a house he’d listed and leaving behind business cards to advertise his services at homes already listed by other agents. Representatives for the NWMLS won’t say how many times it has cited Hellickson or for how much, but all agents have access to its monthly disciplinary reports, and those who’ve read them say he’s received between $50,000 and $70,000 in fines just this year. So why didn’t the organization—as it watched him break rule after rule—nip this in the bud months, if not years, ago? NWMLS CEO Tom Hurdelbrink says it will kick out members for business practices that are “so detrimental [to other members] and so consistent,” but in this case those criteria hadn’t been met.

On the other hand, Marlow Harris had a much easier time meeting those criteria—by trying to out Hellickson. The Coldwell Banker Bain broker was threatened with expulsion from the NWMLS earlier this year for publishing a list of Hellickson’s infractions on her blog, 360digest.com, because, as she was told, “those fines were internal and could be misunderstood by nonmembers.” She removed the list but struck back with the title of her latest post on the topic, dated September 15:

“Told you so.”

The Shorter Short Sale

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 05:00:00 -0700

Image: John Coulter

THE LAST THING Mel and Mark Janecka wanted was to get tied up in a short-sale time suck. After selling their Mill Creek home within three weeks of putting it on the market in April, the couple had to scramble to find a new place. They’d barely begun to scan the listings, and the stress of a distressed-property purchase was more than they could stomach. “We were desperate,” Mel says. “Our house was going to close in four weeks, and we had no idea where we were going to live.”

Well, they did know they wanted to live in the Phinney-Greenwood area. But the only casa they could find in their price range—a two-bedroom studs-out remodel just blocks from Green Lake—was, wait for it, a short sale. “We were like, ‘Really? Crap,’ ” Mel says. They were ready to walk and had resigned themselves to shacking up in an apartment for a few months when the listing agent slipped them a tip: Another couple, exhausted after waiting four months for an anonymous accountant at Chase to consider their offer, had just bailed as the bank was about to seal the deal. If the Janeckas could do a smidge better than the original buyers’ price, they might be able to slide in behind them.

Two years after the bubble burst, a typical short sale can still take three to six months to close as the lien holder ponders the property’s market value. But some savvy Seattle shoppers are navigating the bean-counter bureaucracy in less than 30 days by making offers on homes already under contract and praying the first deal dies. Not every bank will go for it, but, in effect, the backup bidders cash in after the primary buyers—who negotiate with the sellers and slog through the bank’s lengthy appraisal process—do all the work.

“When we went to our lender, he said, ‘You think you’re going to close a short sale in four weeks?’ ”

As John L. Scott broker Kirk Russell points out, though, “knowing the details of the first offer could be a key factor in deciding to make a backup offer.” In particular, successfully swiping a failed short sale hinges on timing. Get in too early, and you’ll be waiting almost as long as the original buyers. Swoop in too long afterward, and the bank may want to start from scratch. In fact, some listing agents advertise homes that have gone through the appraisal process as “pre-approved short sales,” but that’s far from official. “Let’s say three months go by before they get another offer,” says Windermere broker Richard Eastern. “The bank’s going to want to do a whole new value.”

The Janeckas hit the buyers-in-waiting window perfectly. Chase had just kicked the original offer back, demanding $5,000 more than the first buyers’ bid. Mel and Mark were more than happy to oblige, and they moved in a month later—just as they were closing the sale of their Mill Creek home. “When we went to our lender, he said, ‘You think you’re going to close a short sale in four weeks?’ ” Mel says. “He thought we were crazy.” Maybe, but then what part of this market isn’t a little insane?

Free Rage Neighbors

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:00:00 -0700

Image: John Coulter

WHAT CAME FIRST: the rooster or the furious homeowner? When the Seattle Department of Planning and Development recommended changes to urban agriculture laws in June, including a ban on the loud-mouthed fowl, it unwittingly pitted animal-loving locavores against peace-seeking residents in a full-scale cockfight that’s likely to continue raging into September.

Since before the city had a zoning code, chickens have been welcome in Seattle’s backyards, offering wannabe metro farmers a taste of country living in their dense urban enclaves: Not only could they rest easy knowing that their scrambled eggs came from happy hens that roamed free behind the hedges, their feathered pets had a knack for turning some neighbors into friends. “We live in an area with lots of young kids, and I think the parents think it’s nice to have chickens around,” says Fionnuala O’Sullivan, a real estate broker who’s been tending a small flock on her Seward Park property for more than a year. “Anybody is welcome to go out and look at the chickens whenever they come by.”

The city’s chicken-friendly law didn’t distinguish between male and female birds, though, leaving the barn door open to roosters—and a nasty rash of over-the-fence spats. Magnolia native Harry Demers, whose neighbor has raised as many as three roosters over the last year, can’t cage his anger when describing the “evil opera” he endures every day. “You cannot live next door to roosters and have any peace of mind,” he said in mid-July.

Demers should have been relieved by the DPD’s proposal, but his feathers were still ruffled: City Council president Richard Conlin had stripped out the rooster ban before drafting legislation based on the department’s other recommendations (which included raising the limit of chickens allowed in one household from three to eight) because he was “reluctant to propose prohibiting something that was currently allowed.”

But the raging rooster rollercoaster wasn’t done. Despite support from urban-ag advocates like Ballardite Ingella Wanerstrand (“I know some people who love the sound of a rooster,” she says), Conlin caved in the eleventh hour and wrote the ban back into his legislation. “There have been enough complaints”—not a huge amount, he pointed out twice—“that it feels like there’s just not that much to be gained” by leaving the ban out, he said in late July.

The bill was scheduled for a vote in mid-August, and if passed, it will take effect in September. The only hitch for residents who, like Demers, are assailed daily by a cacophony of crowing: Existing roosters will be grandfathered in, so those homeowners will have to hope the chicken farmers on their block are as thoughtful as Wilma Stordahl. When the Ravenna resident and new urban farmer discovered that one of her baby chicks was a boy, she found it a new home. “I want to keep my good neighbor relations that way—good,” she says. “It bothered me to think that I might be a rude neighbor.”

They’re Baaaack!

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:00:00 -0700

Image: John Coulter

THE THREE-BEDROOM daylight rambler in Laurelhurst went on the market on a Friday in April, and by the end of the day Chris and Jessica Fosse had submitted a slightly-less-than-full-price offer. By the end of the weekend, they’d thought better of it and submitted another—for the full price. And they shortened the inspection period. And they shortened their finance approval period.

Wait, what? This is supposed to be a buyer’s market. Why, when investment firm Goldman Sachs is predicting that Seattle home values will decline north of 20 percent over the next two years, would the Fosses raise their bid and start making concessions? Because the seller’s agent gave their broker a heads up that more offers were on the way. “That’s when we thought, ‘Okay, let’s not lose this thing. Let’s offer list,’ ” Chris says.

It’s not exactly the multiple-offer mania of the mid-aughts, but mini bidding wars are breaking out in Seattle again, particularly for exceptional properties in perennially in-demand neighborhoods north of the ship canal. “Greenlake, Wallingford, Bryant, Wedgwood, places like that,” says John L. Scott managing broker Paul Harvey McLaughlin. “That’s where this stuff always starts.” (Bidders are squaring off on the Eastside, too. Teri Herrera, also of John L. Scott, listed a home in Lakemont on a Friday in June, watched slack-jawed as 42 people showed up for an open house that Sunday, and had two offers to present to the sellers by Monday.)

“You could end up with four or five offers on one house, but all of them are under asking price.”

But unlike in the prebubble days when buyers terrified of being permanently priced out of the market were willing to carpet-bomb sellers with bags of money, combatants are much more cautious in this postbubble round of bidding battles. “Back when the market was crazy, you’d never see offers under asking price,” McLaughlin says. “Now, you could end up with four or five on one house, but all of them are under asking price, with escalator clauses.” And the highest bid isn’t always the best. He says sellers are looking at not only how likely the buyers are to being able to close but how much down payment they have.

So what do you do if you find yourself facing off against a handful of other bidders for that just-right rambler in that gotta-live-there locale? You could do like the Fosses and cozy up to the neighbors. As they waited to hear back from the sellers—who had skipped off to Whidbey Island for the weekend—Chris strolled the nearby streets with their two young kids and just happened to run into some locals. A couple friendly handshakes and “How’s it goings” later, and they had a cadre of advocates who pleaded their case to the sellers. And wouldn’t you know it, the Fosses ended up beating out another full-price offer. “I don’t know how big of a factor [the goodwill tour] was, but the seller’s agent mentioned it,” Chris says. “It also crossed my mind that a dad with a couple young kids who happened to be behaving well at the time couldn’t hurt.”

HOT 'HOODS

ISSAQUAH
The Eastside enclave of Issaquah is part of the only MLS-designated area in King County thatdidn’t have a drop in month-over-month sales for the first six months of this year. Here’s what buyers have to shop for.

$1,000,000
Details 1677 30th Ave NE; 4,330 sq ft, 4 BR, 4½ baths, built 2004
Selling Points Located in the well-heeled Issaquah Highlands, this expansive manse is tricked out with a wrought-iron spindle staircase, a fireplace in the master bedroom, and a massive deck out back.
Listed By Matt Jensen, The Cascade Team

$859,000
Details 647 Saddleback Loop Way NW; 3,370 sq ft, 4 BR, 3¼ baths, built 2004
Selling Points With all of the upgrades—granite countertops, cherrywood cabinets, stainless steel appliances—you’d never guess it used to be a model home. Plus, it has a putting green in the backyard.
Listed By Laura White, Windermere

$659,000
Details 415 Everwood Ct NW; 2,690 sq ft, 3 BR, 2½ baths, built 1995
Selling Points Like privacy? Aside from an impressive master suite complete with a jetted tub, this cozy home is tucked into the end of a private court and set on nearly a third of an acre.
Listed By Tiffany Thompson, Coldwell Banker Bain

Photographs courtesy the real estate agencies

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How We Got That Shot

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They’re Baaaack!

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