Ballard Named One of the Best Places to Live in Seattle Positively Affecting Local Real Estate Values

Seattle, WA

Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood has just been named one of the city’s “Best Places to Live” in 2010 by the Seattle Metropolitan magazine. Leading Ballard Seattle real estate agent Rick Benson sees this as a result of the many new developments in the Ballard real estate market, as well as the community’s high quality of life.

“Ballard has always been the kind of neighborhood that people move into and never want to move out of,” says Benson, a longtime Ballardite. “The fact that Ballard has been receiving all these accolades comes as no surprise to those of us who’ve watched the neighborhood grow over the years. The strong sense of community and affordable housing prices are top attractions to the area; couple that with breathtaking views, especially in Sunset Hill and Blue Ridge, and you have the makings for a community that is priceless,” he says.

Known for its strong maritime heritage and Scandinavian culture, Ballard is situated in northwestern Seattle overlooking the Puget Sound. The neighborhood has seen a great deal of condominium development in recent years, but has managed to keep its established neighborhoods intact. According to Seattle Metropolitan, over 350 homes were sold here in 2009, many more than the combined total of homes sold in Columbia City, East Renton and Maple Leaf.

“Ballard is a great place to live, raise a family and start a business,” says Benson, who was also a local business owner in the community for 30 years. “The real estate market here still has reasonable prices and you’d be pleasantly surprised at the different housing possibilities – anything from Craftsman homes to new Ballard Seattle condos.”

To view some of the Ballard Seattle homes for sale currently available, visit Benson’s website, www.RickBensonRealEstate.com.

June home sales are highest in Seattles King County since Oct. 2007

A new report provides the strongest evidence yet that buyers are starting to return to the local real-estate market.

The number of closed sales of single-family homes in King County in June was up 4 percent over June 2008 — the first year-over-year increase since the market peaked nearly two years ago, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service said Monday.

The county hasn’t recorded that many sales in a month since October 2007.

The statistics also suggest — and agents in the field confirm — that the new buyers aren’t just first-timers searching for homes at the lowest end of the price spectrum.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2009426109_homesales07.html

Recovery

Recovery is creeping its head in a few metros according to The Brookings Institute:
McAllen, Texas is the only metropolitan area that saw growth in both employment and output during the first quarter of 2009.

Employment rose in New Haven, Conn. and Baton Rouge, while output also increased in Seattle, Austin, Virginia Beach, Washington, Richmond, San Jose, and Riverside.

Some 38 of the top 100 metro stopped declining in home prices over the past year. Many of these metros might attribute the stalled declines because of below-average employment declines, and lie in the less-affected parts of Pennsylvania and upstate New York and Sun Belt in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. They also exhibit below-average shares of REOs status due to bank foreclosure.

In other good news, Southern California home sales rose for the 11th consecutive month in May as sales of $500,000-plus homes started to come back.