Madison Park Times RE 03-01-22

Seattle real estate still a seller’s market, for now

Greater

Seattle continues to experience a very active real estate market with a shortage of inventory plaguing the region.

Continued low interest rates and a strong job market drive our housing market with new hires coming in from out of state for high tech, medical and other industries. Additional pressure on the market is expected as reportedly Amazon is more than doubling its maximum base pay to $350,000 for some corporate and tech employees. This will give them $1 million in more buying power, which will

likely feed increasing prices in our region.

Unprecedented low inventory has led to fewer home sales and increased prices. However, with the sunset of the pandemic upon us, we expect to see more inventory coming to market this spring. In addition, as more companies announce their return-to-work strategies, buyers and sellers may make decisions about where they can/want to live depending on their employer’s work-from-home policy. Many new listings coming on the market will be snatched up by the backlog of buyers, but overall it

will be bring welcome opportunities.

Here’s a snapshot of the recent housing market stats in our area:

For Denny Blaine, Broadmoor, Washington/Madison Park

Jan. 1, 2022 through Feb. 15, 2022: 10 sold homes

Average Sales Price: $2,556,300

Average Days on Market: 89 (there was one that was 440 days, which makes this misleading)

Average Price Per Square Foot: $821.10

Lowest Sales Price: $1,400,000

Highest Sales Price: $4,450,000 Selling at 98.11 percent of last listed price

Jan. 1, 2021 through Feb. 15, 2021:

SEE PROPERTY, PAGE 3

Pruning your life in the garden

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Garden writer

Toni Gattone, tonigattone. com, who specializes in inspiring people to enjoy gardening at every age, wrote an inspiring blog post recently. In it, she eschews well-meant but often ineffective “fix it” New Year’s resolutions in favor of taking the gift of winter’s slower pace to assess how to make your life — and garden — grow with ease and beauty.

She asked a question that hit me like a ton of bricks: “What are you willing to prune out of your garden and your life?”

While the act of pruning a green branch may feel cruel to a novice gardener, when done thoughtfully, it boosts the plant’s health rather than decreases it. There’s even a type called “renewal pruning” done in stages over three years to encourage fresh growth.

The idea of “pruning your life” can feel much the same, as anyone who has “Marie Kondo’d” their indoor clutter can attest.

Case in point: our overgrown four-variety tiered apple espalier, which has not sparked joy in a while. It’s hardly earning its keep since the lower tiers, which are naturally bland yellow apples, are taking over the others. Spokes of waterspouts are shooting in all directions because I forgot to prune again this summer.

The idea was great, but in execution, not so much.

I wondered what I could replace it with that I (and probably passers-by) would enjoy more. Star jasmine or southern magnolia for evergreen winter interest? That would prune away the work of pruning, bagging each apple to prevent coddling moth and cleaning up rotting leftovers from the ground — and my annual guilt at forgetting to prune.

SEE PRUNING, PAGE 4

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17 sold homes

Average Sales Price: $2,238,561

Average Days on Market: 73

Average Price Per Square Foot:

$709.20

Lowest Sales Price: $440,000

Highest Sales Price: $4,625,000

Selling at 97.07 percent of last listed price

For 98112

Jan. 1, 2022 through Feb. 15, 2022: 37 sold homes

Average Sales Price: $1,483,541

Average Days on Market: 50

Average Price Per Square Foot: $710

Lowest Sales Price: $448,000

Highest Sales Price: $4,450,000

Selling at 103 percent of original listed price

Worth note: 24 of these are $1 million+, and the average market time over $1 million is 51 days (without the 440 DOM sale, the average is 30 days but the vast majority are selling in 10 days or less)

Jan. 1, 2021 through Feb. 15, 2021: 43 sold homes

Average Sales Price: $1,438,245

Average Days on Market: 56

Average Price Per Square Foot: $630.88

Lowest Sales Price: $400,000

Highest Sales Price: $4,625,000

Selling at 101.2 percent of original listed price

My takeaways:

Year-over-year real estate activity in 98112 remains strong and steady with sales up, prices up and days on market down.

“Over and over again we see buyers are seeking homes that are move-in ready. Many of these buyers need a home immediately; if they can envision simply moving into your home, you will see that reflected in the sales price."

In 98112, January 2022 vs. January 2021 shows a 33 percent increase in average sales price for homes price over $1 million.

Important things to note about the current housing market:

Essentially, the housing market in our area is sold out, and we have many homebuyers waiting in the wings. Many buyers are anxious to get into a home before the expected rise in interest rates. It should be emphasized that interest rates are still at historic lows, giving buyers a huge advantage in purchasing power.

This is an unprecedented market for many of us real estate veterans. Homes continue to sell with multiple offers and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars over list price.

Over and over again we see buyers are seeking homes that are move-in ready. Many of these buyers need a home immediately; if they can envision simply moving into your home, you will see that reflected in the sales price. If your house doesn’t present well and isn’t staged property, the home for sale down the street will likely sell for more. Work with an agent who will advise

you about the best updates and listing prep for the biggest return on your investment.

If you need help preparing your home for sale we have a Compass Concierge program. Compass fronts the money for certain improvements (flooring, tile, painting, etc.) and you pay the money back at closing. Many buyers are requesting short closings; having your home fully prepped for market makes it much easier to make your move.

In this market, broker-to-broker relationships are key. Select an agent who has an excellent reputation amongst their colleagues; it will definitely help you stand out in a multiple offer situation and at the negotiating table.

As of press time, there are five homes for sale over $2.5 million in Madison Park, Washington Park, Broadmoor and Denny Blaine.

One of the residences is a condominium, and the highest priced singlefamily home for sale is a restored Tudor on the ninth hole in Broadmoor.

My advice to buyers: Work with an experienced agent and get into the market sooner, rather than later, as we expect prices will continue to rise. Do not miss out on what are still incredibly low interest rates.

For sellers: If you have considered making a move, this is a seller’s market like no other.

Our Compass experts have a long history in Madison Park and are ready to help you navigate this unusual time with the latest technology, top-notch marketing and proven pricing strategies.

Evan Wyman Broker/Partner

The Wyman Group @ COMPASS

Library, United Way offering free tax prep service

The Seattle Public Library and United Way of King County are collaborating to offer free, in-person tax preparation service through the end of tax season at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Seattle.

Find out more at spl.org/TaxHelp.

Trained volunteers will answer questions and help prepare personal tax returns.

The service is not available for business tax returns.

Residents should visit spl.org/TaxHelp to see the list of required documents they will need to bring to get tax help.

FREE

TAX HELP

No appointment is necessary. Help is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The last client will be taken 30-45 minutes before the end of tax help hours. Hours are:

Monday: 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Tuesday: 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Wednesday: 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Thursday: 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Friday: no Tax Help

Saturday: 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Sunday : 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

SOCIAL DISTANCING & SAFETY

All UWKC volunteer tax preparers and Library staff are vaccinated.

Tax help pairs will be distanced from each other.

Fewer “waiting area” seats will be set out, and seats will be distanced from one another.

Patrons waiting for service can leave their phone number.

For more information, visit https://www. spl.org/TaxHelp, contact the Library’s Ask Us service at 206-386-4636 or chat at www.spl.org/ Ask.

For ADA accommodations, contact: leap@spl. org.

2022 FORECAST REPORT

The year has already started out with record-low inventory, but what can we expect next? This newly released forecast report attempts to answer that complex and multifaceted question, with experts in their fields weighing in on topics including supply chain issues, inflation, and of course, the next "it" markets, so you can keep your finger on the pulse of everything happening in our market.

What My Clients Are Saying...

“It's very easy to write a rave review for the agent that helps you find your dream home but what about the agent that LISTS your dream home? While divorce may line the pockets of many an agent, it has to have them reaching for the jumbo bottle of Maalox. In our case, the only thing my former spouse and I could agree on was using Laura Halliday as our agent. We have known Laura both professionally and socially for over 20 years. Her reputation as a top agent is hard-won and well deserved. Meticulous in her approach, she is knowledgeable, consultative, and respectful. Our house was listed and closed in 6 weeks. We are so grateful. Laura's ability to get everyone singing from the same hymnal in a very acrimonious situation was invaluable. We recommend Laura without reservation." - Shelly & Janet Jones

Connect with me if you'd like me to email or handdeliver a hard copy of

A CONTINUED

Realogics Sotheby's International Realty ranks amongst the largest, most productive, and fastest-growing real estate companies in Washington with access to 25,000 brokers in 79 countries and territories generating global sales of $204 billion annually.

SOTHEBY’S AUCTIONS

(Women) Artists, a celebration of female artists across 400 years that will feature a selection of captivating and imaginative pieces designed to offer perspective and dialogue.

Just like an overflowing closet or bookcase stacked from floor to ceiling (ask me how I know), clutter in the garden is just as troublesome.

When negative becomes positive

Negative space is soothing because our brains don’t have to analyze or process it — they just sail on to the next thing to notice. One hallmark of compelling design is that it “reads” easily — or at least some main elements do. Think of rolling hills punctuated by a handful of fir trees, or a curated wall of plants on Instagram — the hills highlight the trees, as the wall space does the pothos and philodendron.

Negative space needn’t be empty — it just needs to be made up of one thing, whether that’s a sea of sedges, sunflowers or paving.

Please skip the lawn, however. While used effectively in parks and golf courses, a grass lawn is my least favorite version of negative space. A green blanket is not worth the cost in soil health, time and maintenance.

It’s worth considering what tasks you enjoy the most — would you rather spend your summer arranging flowers from a cutting garden or eating home-grown salads? Shaping a topiary or mowing a wildflower meadow?

Conversely, which tasks do you compulsively avoid? Prune them away as best you can. If you have had it with weeding,

“It’s worth considering what tasks you enjoy the most — would you rather spend your summer arranging flowers from a cutting garden or eating home-grown salads? Shaping a topiary or mowing a wildflower meadow.”

plant a good ground cover that can play nicely with your plants. Streamlining your efforts down to what you love to see and take care of will reap benefits for years to come in your body, which will have fewer aches, in your mind, which will have a shorter to-do list, and in your garden, which will be more beautiful and peaceful. Casting around our yard, I see we need some negative space, more repetition, as well as more winter interest.

Years of cramming plants in where they mostly fit and usually grow has led to a Jackson Pollockstyle landscape rather than an intentional one. There are numerous examples of plants that are hogging sun and nutrients from their neighbors or just adding visual chaos. There could be a lot of digging in my near future, but imagining the calm to come will keep me going.

What in your life could use some pruning attention?

Sound Transit announces service changes in March

Changes including reductions on some ST Express routes; Sounder S Line service will add four new trips

Service changes for Sound Transit service will take effect this month. The changes include additional reductions as well as extending reductions that were implemented at the end of 2021 on certain Sound Transit Express routes due to operator shortages. The reductions will affect frequency of service on weekdays only.

The March service change will also include four new trips on the Sounder S Line, providing additional travel options for riders impacted by service reductions on ST Express.

The service change dates are as follows:

Saturday, March 19, Link light rail and King County Metro-operated ST Express

• Sunday, March 20, Community Transitoperated and Pierce Transit-operated ST Express.

Monday, March 21, Sounder

Changes on ST Express service include:

• 510: Frequency reductions due to operator shortages.

• 511: Frequency reductions due to operator shortages.

• 512:  Schedule adjustments; Frequency reductions on weekdays due to operator shortages. On Sundays, late-night trips after midnight will begin at Stadium Station and serve 4th/Jackson (International District/ Chinatown Station), Downtown Seattle on 4thAvenue, I-5/NE 45th Street Freeway Station, and Northgate prior to all regular 512 stops.

• 513: Schedule adjustments reflect current traffic.

• 522: Schedule adjustments. The NE 65th/ Oswego stop (Green Lake P&R) will no longer be served after Roosevelt Station.

• 532: Schedule adjustments to reflect current traffic conditions. Frequency reductions due to operator shortages.

535: Schedule adjustments to reflect current traffic conditions. Frequency reductions due to operator shortages.

• 545: Schedule adjustments to reflect current traffic conditions; frequency reductions due to operator shortages.

• 550: Schedule adjustments to reflect current traffic conditions. Frequency reductions due to operator shortages. Hours of service leaving Downtown Seattle to Bellevue will be extended past midnight.

• 566: Service will be operated by King County Metro, effective Monday, March 21, 2022. Minor schedule adjustments to align better with the Sounder S Line schedule.

• 554: Schedule adjustments to reflect current traffic conditions.

• 578: Schedule adjustments to reflect current traffic conditions.

• 580: Eliminate the 6:37 a.m. trip from the South Hill P&R; riders can take PT Route 400 as an alternative. Lakewood--South Hill segment remains suspended until further notice.

• 590: Additional trips will be extended from Tacoma Dome Station to 10th/Commerce in the afternoon.

Routes 577, 578, 590, 592, and 594 will continue to operate at the reduced levels implemented on Nov. 7, 2021, until further notice.

The following trips are restored on the S Line: 501 (6:05 a.m. from Seattle)

• 509 (3:15 p.m. from Seattle)

• 514 (7:20 a.m. from Tacoma)

• 1522 (4:30 p.m. from Tacoma)

There are no changes to N Line service. There are no changes to Link or Tacoma Link service.

Additional service change information can be found at on the service change page of the Sound Transit website.

For trip planning assistance or other questions, contact Customer Service at 888-889-6368, TTY Relay 711, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Northwest Flower & Garden Festival returns in the wake of omicron

By Erica Browne Grivas Contributing writer

For the first time since its inception in 1998, the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival was missing in 2021. The secondlargest horticultural show in the country, the show marks the unofficial end of winter and a vision of gardens to come.

This year the festival returned to the Washington State Convention Center from Feb. 9 through Feb. 15 — to appreciative crowds.

Some familiar ingredients — like display gardens, seminars and the lively marketplace — welcomed them like old friends. Elandan Gardens Ltd, http://

www.elandangardens.com/, of Bremerton created a display garden weaving together ancient bonsai, stonework and driftwood.

Ugandan-born batik artist Paul Nzalamba, https://www. nzalamba-artworks.com/, from Los Angeles, California, was back in his booth sharing the poignant stories behind each scene.

Area garden columnist Marianne Binetti, http://www.binettigarden.com/, was emceeing the raucous “Container Wars” event that pitted designers against each other and the clock to create the best potted arrangement.

There was no escaping this was a different show this year, however. Vaccinations and test results

were checked before tickets could be taken, and attendees were required to wear masks. The festival offered tests on the street level of the convention center.

Leading up to the show, fear of the highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19 took its toll on the numbers of vendors, exhibitors and speakers, as well as visitors attending. Ticket sales were down from previous years by 30 percent. With five fewer large display gardens than in 2020, the entire City Living display — usually packing the Skybridge — was brought over to fill a wall in the main display area. Tour buses canceled, speakers bowed out and longtime vendors like Swansons Nursery, https://www.swansonsnursery.com/, and Butchart Gardens, https://www.butchartgardens.com/, begged off.

But resilience rang through the event in the spirit that has gotten designers to build mountains and waterfalls in days for decades now. Experienced speakers with multiple topics in their repertoire stepped up to do two or three talks if needed, so the 90 seminars promised would still go on.

Garden designer Sue Goetz of Gig Harbor, www.thecreativegardener.com, was asked to add an extra lecture in January because another speaker couldn’t make it. She had reservations at first and intended to go only when scheduled and leave if areas became too crowded.

“I think as much as could have been was done to be able to have the show and meet in person — it worked.”

Ravenna Gardens, www. ravennagardens.com, was offered Butchart Gardens’ usual booth space, allowing a generous flow with wider aisles, which was helpful with a crowd-spooked populace.

The scheduling of the show had distinct impacts. With the show ending a day before Valentine’s Day, some florists skipped this year to maximize the industry’s big day. It also meant there were fewer flowers and plants available for sales, display gardens and floral sculptures.

One of the more impressive floral achievements given the situation was the Northwest Orchid Society’s http://www.nwos.org/ display garden — designed, built and planted by volunteers with orchids loaned from home gardener members.

This year’s design was a tropical vision — a large greenhouse from Hartley Botanic, bursting with orchids on every plane. Outside, orchids of indescribable variety were crammed into garden beds looking like a flower farm on Maui.

The intricate floral creations from Fleurs de Villes, https:// www.fleursdevilles.com/, were back after their 2020 debut, but

At this year’s Northwest Flower & Garden Festival, the floral creations from Fleurs de Villes, like this one made of lunaria, all had a Rosé theme that supported breast cancer survivors.

this year in the all-glass Skybridge. With a “Rosé” theme supporting breast cancer survivors, these life-sized mannequins wearing nothing but biomass wowed the crowds with flower power and artistry. One strutted in go-go boots, one defiantly dangled a bra.

One display garden, by Farmer Frog, https://farmerfrog.org/, detailed the effects of the pandemic, from nurturing nature to a memorial made of masks visitors inscribed with loved ones’ names.

The display garden by Redwood Builders, http://www.redwoodbuilderslandscaping.com/, in Maple Valley and designer Tony Fajarillo, https://bonsaiko.com/, swept three awards — the “Best in Show” Founders’ Cup, Best Use of Color and Best Use of Horticulture.

Titled “Shinrin Yoku,” the Japanese term for forest bathing — nature walks for wellness — it incorporated a massive enkianthus tree, large cedars, a bridge crossing a river fed by waterfall and bonsai.

On Facebook, Fajarillo thanked, among others, Kent East Hill Nursery for loans of plant material, Lake Washington Tech School

Environmental Horticulture for helping hands, the Pacific Bonsai Museum and the festival staff who have “worked so hard to make this happen through COVID.”

Overall, the lighter crowds made for a relaxed experience without long lines to get into a display garden or grab coffee. Talks were well-attended but not at capacity.

The show runners said they were pleased with the event’s performance under some challenging circumstances and are optimistic about next year.

“The return of the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival after a one-year hiatus proved to all of us that the show still has a huge following and brings the joy of spring to life in February,” manager Jeff Swenson said. “Despite attendance being down 30 percent, the pent-up demand for plants and garden accessories was evident over the five days of the festival. Many of the exhibitors had all-time sales and were out of product early in the weekend. We are thrilled with the results given the circumstance and look forward to 2023.”