Living 5 Tips to Improve Indoor-Outdoor Flow Wouldn’t you love to double the size of your house for the holidays, or when you’re entertaining a large groups of friends? And when the party is over and all the guests have gone home, have your nice, cozy house back just like that?
More Announcing the Winner of the 2016 Windermere Real Estate Community Service Day Photo Contest! On Friday, June 3, we challenged our offices to share their community service day photos on Windermere’s CSD contest Facebook page, in order to participate in our fourth-annual voter-driven photo contest. More than 40 offices shared photos, and in turn, they each received a $100 donation to the Windermere Foundation charity of their choice.
More Support Your Local Food Banks During the Summer Did you know that June is fresh fruits and vegetables month? That’s great if you can afford them. However, they are a luxury for people who struggle to provide even just the basic necessities for their families. Many families rely on their local food banks as a regular supplemental food source. And of those families, 84 percent of households with children report purchasing the cheapest food...
Buying Join us this Weekend for Windermere’s Washington Waterfront Home Tour We’ve found the perfect way for you to kick off summer this year. On June 11 and 12, Windermere is sponsoring the second annual Washington Waterfront Home Tour. More than 95 homes throughout Washington are available for visitors to tour by boat, bike, or car. Properties are priced from $189,000 to $10.4 million.
Design A Beginner’s Guide to Managing a Remodel Browsing photos and ideas can be a fun part of creating your dream room. But making your designs a reality also takes smart planning and organization. Project management is an essential part of remodeling, and there’s nothing like the feeling of implementing a plan to create something new and beautiful. These tips can help you achieve your desired results.
Market News What is the Case-Schiller Home Price Report and why does it Matter? The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices is a monthly report that analyzes housing data in major metropolitan areas across the U.S. Windermere’s Chief Economist, Matthew Gardner explains what this report is and why we use it to assess the strength of the housing market.
More Windermere’s Annual Community Service Day Is today! Today you may notice your local Windermere office is closed, or it may take a little bit longer for your Windermere agent to get back to you. But we promise it’s for a very good reason: today is Windermere Community Service Day. Since 1984, our agents have taken one day a year off to dig into hands-on community service projects throughout the Western U.S.
Living Weekend Warrior: Quick projects to upgrade your home Memorial Day traditionally represents the kick-off of summer. Kids are getting out of school, families are making summer vacation plans, and backyard barbecues are on everyone’s minds. This is also a great time of the year to get your house in order and ready for the summer season. The following is a handful of ideas and tips to help you with this process.
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Market News How a Federal Interest Rate Hike Impacts Mortgage Rates When the Federal Reserve announces a change in interest rates, it makes headlines. But does the federal interest rate directly impact your mortgage rate? See what Windermere’s Chief Economist, Matthew Gardner has to say.
More Summer camps provide invaluable learning and socialization opportunities for youth Summer camps and summer programs for youth not only keep them occupied while on break from school, it provides them with a safe place to be while their parents are at work, and gives them learning experiences that will help them throughout their lives.
Market News Historically low inventory levels, how we got here, and what to expect in the coming year The housing market is performing remarkably well, with the exception of incredibly low inventory levels in many areas throughout the country. Why is this happening? Windermere’s Chief Economist, Matthew Gardner, explains why and offers his predictions for what we can expect in the future.
Living What Millennials are Looking for in an Apartment or Condo LinkedIn recently told us that 4,279 new apartments were added to Seattle’s local inventory last year, and based on the number of cranes you constantly see around the city, we believe them. With so many choices, Millennials are getting really specific about what they want in a living space and the lifestyle it provides them.
More Community Service Day: Henry’s Story For the past 31 years, Windermere offices have closed their doors to dedicate a day of service to provide support for members of our communities and nonprofit organizations that help our neighbors in need. A few years ago, a group of Windermere agents and owners were hit personally when a boy in their community, Henry, was diagnosed with Birkins Lymphoma at the age of 13...
Market News Nevada Real Estate Market Update After losing over 134,000 jobs during the Great Recession, the Las Vegas metropolitan area has recovered all of those jobs and employment is now at an all-time high of 934,600. Year-over-year, the market added 24,600 new jobs. This is up from the annual pace of 21,300 jobs seen at the end of last year, but below the average annual rate of 32,700 seen through the whole of 2015.
Market News Southern California Real Estate Market Update Southern California continues to add jobs but the rate of increase has started to taper. Through the end of the first quarter of 2016, the counties that make up this report added 71,100 new jobs, and year-over-year, employment is up by 196,100 total jobs for a growth rate of 2.1%. Regional unemployment remains steady or is dropping modestly, and most counties are at or approaching full employment.
Market News Oregon and South West Washington Real Estate Market Update Growth in the Oregon economy is impressive and unlikely to slow down in the foreseeable future. This bodes well for the housing market.
More Join Us This Weekend at the 30th Annual Windermere Cup We hope to see you along the shores of the Montlake Cut on Saturday, May 7 for this free, family-friendly community event. Races start at 10:20 ending with the Windermere Cup around noon, and followed by the Opening Day boat parade. There will also be food vendors, booths to purchase UW and Windermere Cup gear, as well as a bouncy house. More information can be found at www.windermerecup.com.
More #YourStoryIsOurStory: It’s Never too Late to Fall in Love In November 2015, Windermere Real Estate agent, Vivian Peterson met some new friends that would teach her an invaluable lesson. At an open house, Richard approached Vivian about selling his current home. After almost 40 years in his place, a home he shared with his first wife until she passed away, Richard was looking to sell. This is a move uncharacteristic of Richard, but he had recently met...
Living Keeping Up with The Joneses: Seven Yard Tools a First-Time Homeowner Needs Did you know that gardening tools are really expensive? I didn’t. We even priced out what it would cost to have a landscaper come every two weeks just to mow and edge our front and back yard (which would leave us to the weeding, sweeping, etc.) but alas… that is also expensive (about $100 per month). So… Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to Home Depot we go…
Market News An Incoming Tide Raises All Ships: How the Growth in Homeowner Equity Continues to Stabilize the U.S. Housing Market With home prices rising and consumers not taking on additional mortgage debt, equity levels have grown substantially. The country went through a very painful period of negative equity during the housing recession, but the growth started returning in 2012, and we moved back into a period of positive equity again by the summer of 2013. In 2015, equity levels increased by an impressive 10.2 percent