Madison Park Times Real Estate 06-01-21

Real Estate Madison Park Times

How to take advantage of our sellers market

The year got off to a hot start, and as we approach summer, the market is still expected to favor home sellers, though there may be some welcomed relief for home buyers. While there doesn’t appear to be a drastic cooldown on the horizon, there are advantages for both buyers and sellers to jump into the market sooner rather than later.

Where we’ve been Anemic inventory has been a problem across the nation — and Seattle was no exception. While the first quarter of the year in Seattle typically starts slow and gains momentum as the season

progresses, the homes being listed to market couldn’t keep up with demand. In the first quarter, there were 15 percent fewer homes listed for sale than in first quarter 2020. Fueled by low interest rates and the additional lifestyle and economic factors stemming from the pandemic, buyers entered the market en masse to try and find their dream home.

The homeowners that listed during this time were often rewarded with multiple offers within a few days. Overall, single-family homes were on the market on average only 26 days, compared with 36 and 47 days

in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Median sales prices continued their upward trajectory, up 8.28 percent from this time last year, hovering at $850,000. With a scant .8 months of inventory, it was certainly a sellers market.

These conditions won’t last forever Already, we’ve seen more

inventory available in the second quarter, and following the trend lines from year to year, that’s to be expected.

Spring and summer are popular times to list a home for sale, and proposed capital gains taxes are causing some to sell now. There has been discussion of a potential 7 percent tax on gains over $250,000 for Washington state

and, with property values soaring, many residences throughout our region would fall subject to the tax.

With slightly more inventory available, multiple offer situations may be less likely, or, if multiple offers do occur, it may be in fewer numbers, with less-aggressive

True colors: Navigating the garden’s color wheel

“Everyone knows that red reads in-yourface — and that is a very good place for it.”

— Nori Pope

“… the segregation of blue flowers is a mistake. They, more than any others, need the flash of scarlet, the cloud of white, the drift of apricot or buff to kindle them into life.” — Louise Beebe Wilder

“I never met a color I didn’t like.” — Dale Chihuly

As you plan for your garden and its containers this year, it helps to take a breath amid the spring frenzy of planting and think about color. Our response to color is highly personal, not to mention cultural. There are a million associations you might have to colors; does blue and gold remind you of the gym shorts you had to wear in high school, a sunlit beach or a Provencal platter?

Accordingly, choosing colors for your garden can definitely be overwhelming, as anyone who has faced off with an interior paint deck knows. The good news is there are ways to pare down your choices, and, if you can’t make up your mind, like me, ways to ex-

pand your options.

The first decision is pretty easy: warm or cool?

Warm colors invigorate; cool tones soothe. You can combine the two, but your combo should clearly favor one over the other, say a 70/30 percent split.

Nothing could be simpler than monochromatic themes. White gardens that shine even at night are having a moment, but you can pick your favorite color and add complementary foliage accents, for instance, blue with chartreuse or silver foliage. Unless you are a color virtuoso, you will get the best effect with simpler combinations of two or three colors plus green. Green is a color. Think of a spring forest exploding in countless shades, a French-style topiary-fest, or a Zen moss garden. With one color, the texture becomes the star. Sticking to a palette is hard, but the results will look so professional you will amaze yourself. Guess what? You don’t have to make the whole garden a single palette. Separated into sections, you can offer several combinations without it turning into a free-forall.

Containers are the Etch-aSketch of gardens — you can redo them as often as you like, from every few years to seasonally, and indulge in a new palette each time.

For a starting point, look at the colors of your house and the surrounding elements, like your neighbor’s purple house. Build off those. The color wheel can help. There is even a gardener’s color wheel made by the Color Wheel

Company, https://colorwheelco. com/buy-now/product/gardenerscolor-wheel-instruction-book/, which shows more natural plantbased colors.

Colors opposite each other on the wheel offer the boldest, most exciting contrasts. To make that purple sing, throw in some yellow — purple’s complement directly opposite on the wheel — against it. Or if you’d rather play down the eggplant-colored house, go with analogous colors next to purple on the wheel or dark neutrals like brown or burgundy.

Don’t forget the changeable supporting cast; with a paint can or a new tablecloth, your patio set and accessories can sport a whole new vibe in a day.

When looking for your plants, your eye is the best judge. If the color really matters, don’t rely on names, descriptions or online photos alone — even plant tags photos can mislead, based on the print quality.

Whatever the plant marketers may say, there are precious few true blues in the plant world, such as the finicky Himalayan blue poppy. Like the adjective “dwarf” for a 12-foot-tall apple tree, calling a plant blue may be relative. For example, the breeders are saying this is as blue as we can find

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A CONTINUED LEGACY

Realogics Sotheby's International Realty ranks amongst the largest most productive and fastest-growing real estate companies in Washington with access to 24,000 brokers in 75 countries and territories generating global sales of $150 billion annually.

WHAT CLIENTS ARE SAYING

Despite Laura's intimidatinglyfancy dress in the photo, she is actually pretty normal once you meet her. Well not exactly. We had already found the house, but brought Laura in to help represent the buyside of our deal. She is an expert in Broadmoor and came recommended by a friend of mine who already had been living there. I'd say her mean response time by phone is 3 seconds. Text 45 seconds and email about 3.5 minutes. At all hours. She may have a small crew managing her devices in India while the west coast is sleeping. I've bought and sold more than 15 houses in my adult life, having done fixers and rentals. Laura is the most professional real estate broker that I have ever met.

Photo by Jessica Keller

Bilingual Books Inc. owner Kristine Kershul sits next to a desk featuring various language products she has developed with her team over the last 40 years, including audio cd programs and easy-to-carry language maps.

Seattle book publishing company reaches milestone

Bilingual Books Inc., Kershul celebrate 40 years in business

By Jessica Keller

Park Times editor

Kristine Kershul was in her late 20s when she became an author and accidental business owner.

She was teaching German to undergraduate students at the University of Washington when a colleague suggested she write her own foreign language book. The idea surprised her, although she was intrigued.

“I said, ‘I’m an academician. I don’t do commercial,’ ” Kershul said.

Told to give it a year before deciding for good, Kershul said she put together a team of colleagues, and, to her surprise, in that first year they published five books – in German, Spanish, Italian, French and Chinese.

“Now, we couldn’t do that many in a year if I wanted to,” Kershul said.

That was in 1981.

“I was 29, and I didn’t know

COLOR, FROM PAGE 2

without dyeing it. “Veichenblau” rose, known as “The Blue Rose,” is a lovely and mutable dusky violet. I love geranium “Calliope Orange,” but next to the orange Ranunculus that miraculously overwintered in my window box, it looks cherry red. The best situation is to compare it next to your other plants before planting, at the nursery or at home because colors reflect on each other. The eye searches out

anything about publishing, but I knew a lot about teaching,” she said.

With her first five books out of the way, Kershul soon became immersed in the world of foreign language book publishing.

The premise of her books, Kershul said, is that, with a little commitment, everybody has 10 minutes a day to learn a new language.

“There are wonderful stories of people who are truly fluent in so many languages,” she said.

Early on, Kershul decided her strategy would be to produce introductory foreign language books and products that were useful, entertaining and easy to use and understand. She also decided each book would stop with the first.

Kershul said she had her students from UW in mind when deciding on her intended audience and planning the learning materials. Her UW students, she said, were learning for personal

differences, so pairing a cool red and a warm one, like a pale pink cherry tree next to a fuchsia azalea makes you wince.

Also, somehow looking at a color makes you see its complement, so placing blue next to a warm yellow will turn the yellow orange and the blue bluer. I have brought a zipper bag of leaves of the main players with me to the nursery, just like swatches from throw pillows.

There are as many “rules” as there are opinionated gardeners. If

price escalations and reduced terms that tend to favor sellers.

Buyer fatigue is also a concern right now — as many buyers found themselves on the losing end of many multiple-offer situations during the spring. That said, many buyers are feeling recharged with the start of a new season and are choosing to stay engaged.

PROPERTY, FROM PAGE 1 “While there doesn’t appear to be a drastic cool-down on the horizon, there are advantages for both buyers and sellers to jump into the market sooner rather than later.”

Why you want to take advantage now

Low interest rates: They have certainly been a driver for buyers to enter the market since the beginning of the pandemic. While there was a slight uptick in rates in the early part of the year, they soon went back down to the near 3 percent.

Concerns over inflation are on the horizon, however, and if the Fed sees it as a real threat, those interest rates will start ticking back up quicker than industry analysts previously speculated.

For buyers, entering the market now will mean securing a low rate.

For sellers, capturing this active audience, before they burn out and before interest rates start to tick up, puts you at an ideal advantage when it comes to listing your home.

—

John Madrid Managing Broker Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty, Madison Park

enrichment, but the traditional coursework was not teaching them what they wanted to learn.

Her books, which start with key words like “when, how much and where” are purposefully arranged like a children’s book, include stickers to learn vocabulary and incorporate verbal recitation, as well as written exercises.

“They’re academically solid, but they’re designed for the casual user,” Kershul said, adding they are introductory books intended for people who are traveling to a different country and want to learn the basics before going, people with a significant other from a different country with whom they want to speak the language, or people who just want to learn a new language on their own.

Kershul said what she hadn’t foreseen is the books being picked up by people traveling for work, homeschool students, adult classes, gifted children, some high school classes and the military, which routinely purchases German, Italian and Japanese books, and for whom she has created

SEE BOOKS, PAGE 7

you can manage to keep it simple and repeat strong color themes, it will look great. I’m a fan of using long waves of color, repeating the same color or plant to create rhythm.

If you absolutely must have a riot of color, there is a way to do that, too. Pick one plant, like tulips, dahlias or cosmos, in a circus of hues, and corral them in a neat evergreen border. When all else fails, if it looks flat, add lime — it makes everything look better.

Home Starts Here

some of her word maps in the past.

Now, including the five original books she published, Kershul’s Bilingual Books, Inc. empire has since grown to include seven more languages in the 10 Minutes a Day series: Arabic, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew and an English book for Spanish speakers. There are also four audio cd programs for Spanish, French, German and Italian. The language maps, which feature key words and phrases in a foldable, easy-to-carry booklet, come in 20 languages, including Swahili, Vietnamese, Pashto, Polish, Dari and Farsi.

Kershul said, if she were to take on more languages, she might add Finnish, Dutch, Thai or Korean, but that is unlikely.

“The demand for those four languages is just too minimal,” she said. “It just makes no business sense to do it.”

Tourism, she said, makes up only one sector to which her books cater, with the military and education the other top sectors.

While most school districts offer a few language courses, very few, if any, offer Thai or Korean.

As well, while other languages range in popularity, Kershul said Spanish, French, German and Italian are always the most sought after among tourists and in classrooms.

Kershul said her education

has grown through the years, as well. She is fluent in German and proficient in Italian, French and Latin, but she has picked up enough of the languages to understand and get by after each project, she said.

“After we put out our first Russian book, I could knock your socks off with what I could say, but then you move on to something else,” Kershul said.

As with every industry, the coronavirus pandemic did hurt Bilingual Books, with COVID-19 grinding everything to a halt and fewer people traveling, Kershul said, but things are slowly picking back up with the distribution of vaccines and people ready to travel after being confined for so long.

“We’re still here, and all our employees are still here,” Kershul said.

Looking back on the last 40 years, Kershul said she is proud of what she has done: established herself as a book author and publisher in a mostly maledominated industry and created a company that leads in foreign language publishing. She said her interactions with customers each week, answering their questions, directing them to more advanced learning materials and hearing their stories, keep her invested and interested in continuing.

“Helping someone learn a foreign language only has a good outcome,” Kershul said.

To learn more Bilingual Books, or to purchase materials, go to bbks.com.

Climate Pledge Arena on schedule

Photo courtesy Climate Pledge Arena

Another major milestone was marked in May at Climate Pledge Arena as the concrete slab for the ice rink was poured. The arena is on schedule for its October 2021 opening. The Seattle Kraken are currently getting ready expansion draft on July 21 and are set to play their inaugural season in the fall. Climate Pledge Arena and the Seattle Kraken also announced last month the launch of “One Roof Foundation,” a new 501c3 organization that will leverage the collective resources and shared values of Climate Pledge Arena and the Seattle Kraken to advance meaningful social change, according to a press release. The foundation envisions a more equitable society and a healthy planet where everyone can realize a brighter future. The foundation will focus on three primary pillars: youth homelessness, youth access to hockey and environmental justice. To learn more about One Roof Foundation, visit onerooffoundation.org and follow along on social media.