Archives for 2013

How to Pick Your Important Kitchen Appliances

March 8, 2013 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Find the ideal oven, refrigerator, range and more without going nutty — these resources help you sort through your the appliance options

Kitchen appliances are investments, so it’s important to shop with caution. You may have your heart set on a massive stainless steel range, but be prepared for an equally massive price tag to go with it. Decide on your budget beforehand and then research which appliance shapes, sizes, styles and setups will work for your kitchen. These Houzz kitchen appliance guides will help you sort it all out.

Ranges This classic oven-cooktop combination suits most kitchens in both style and function. Determine your budget, available space and style ahead of time to help you decide between a standard slide-in freestanding range, a stainless steel commercial-style range, a vintage cast iron range and more.

by Eck | MacNeely Architects inc.

Ovens If you’ve opted out of the standard range arrangement, you’ll need to find a separate oven and cooktop for your kitchen. This can be a great thing for wannabe chefs, since it opens up a world of possibilities: Double ovens, wall ovens, warming drawers and steam ovens can all potentially find a spot in your kitchen.

by Glenvale Kitchens

Cooktops Having a separate cooktop allows for more flexibility in design and cooking. If you love wall ovens or just want to keep your baking and cooking space separate, you’ll want to find an individual electric or gas range.

by Fivecat Studio | Architecture

Refrigerators Refrigerators can take up a lot of visual space. Think carefully about how much room you’ll actually need for storing food before you start shopping. Houzz’s refrigerator guide can help you decide between counter-depth, full-depth and built-in refrigerator models.

by Clark Harris

Microwaves Once you finally have the kitchen of your dreams, you want to make sure that every little thing looks right — including the microwave. While it’s not the most glamorous appliance, it’s a necessity for most. Some like to up the ante with built-in models, while others are content with countertop versions. Check out our guide to learn which version is right for you.

by Tracey Stephens Interior Design Inc

Universally Designed Appliances Even if your kitchen isn’t in your “forever home,” it’s important to take different mobility needs into account. Elderly visitors, young children or others with limited mobility should feel comfortable in your kitchen. Part of that means choosing appliances that everyone can use and be safe around.

by Camber Construction

Ecofriendly Appliances So many kitchen appliances today come with some sort of ecofriendly or sustainability guarantee slapped to the front of the box. But what actually makes a difference to the environment and your energy bill? Paying close attention to the size and energy output before buying a new appliance can help you save money in the long run.

Filed Under: Appliances, Blog

Home Prices Expected to Rise at least 3.3 Percent Annually through 2017

March 8, 2013 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

The housing recovery is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 0.6 percent through the third quarter of this year, then gain momentum and prices are projected to grow 3.7 percent between the third quarters of 2013 and 2014 until settling down to 3.3 percent annual increases over the next three years according to Fiserv, a financial services technology provider using data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

Both home prices and home sales volumes increased steadily last year, making 2012 the first positive year for both prices and sales since the housing market crash, excluding gains induced by the home buyer tax credits in 2009 and 2010.

“Although some recent real estate activity has been speculative, it seems as if buyers have more realistic expectations about housing market returns after having lived through the largest housing market crash in U.S. history,” says David Stiff, chief economist, Fiserv.

“2012 was the first year since 1997 that the housing market has resembled something recognizable as normal. For the past 15 years, home price changes and sales volumes have either been boosted by a bubble mentality or crushed by crash psychology,” continues Stiff.

“Back in 1997, housing prices grew 3 percent, just below the 5 percent long-term average rate of appreciation. From 1998 to 2006, prices appreciated at levels above 5 percent, with double-digit price increases in many of those years. Then, after 2006, the market collapsed as euphoria turned to panic. It took until the end of 2011 before housing markets finally started to stabilize. The latest Case-Shiller results show a return to a historically normal pace of price appreciation in the last year.”

The recovery in home prices has been solid and broad-based. At the end of the 2012 third quarter, prices were rising in approximately 62 percent of all U.S. metro areas, compared to 12.5 percent in the same period a year ago. Average U.S. home prices increased 3.6 percent from the third quarter of 2011 to the comparable period of 2012. Many of the metro areas that suffered the most severe declines during the housing market crash enjoyed the highest price increases in that period.

Fiserv Case-Shiller projects that by the end of 2013, home prices will be rising in nearly every metro area in the U.S. Some markets may experience short-term double-digit price jumps that could be partially reversed by price declines as large tranches of bank-owned inventory (REO) are liquidated. In other markets, price appreciation will slowly return to normal rates as home buyers regain confidence that the market has found its footing.

Stiff cautions that the parallels to previous years should not be overstated. Unlike in 1997, there are millions of homes with delinquent mortgages, in the foreclosure process, or in REO inventories listed for sale or waiting to be sold. But many trends are positive. With both prices and mortgage payments at historic lows relative to income, Fiserv Case-Shiller expects stronger demand for housing, and the sector once again having a positive impact on the economy.

“The number of new housing units being built per household is near a record low. As momentum in the housing market builds, we will see the residential real estate sector once again make large contributions to the economic recovery. If residential investment – which encompasses all direct spending on residential real estate construction and activity – returns to its 1997 level over the next two years, then housing will boost overall economic growth by 0.5 percentage points in 2013 and 2014,” Stiff continues.

“In all of the bubble-crash markets, foreclosures will have a persistent but diminishing drag on price appreciation. Since the timing of the disposition of foreclosed properties can be highly uncertain, we will witness choppy price movements as individual metro markets stabilize. For example, in late 2011, prices in Atlanta dropped sharply because of a substantial jump in REO sales, and it is possible that we will see similar, temporary price declines in other markets as subsiding waves of foreclosed properties buffet these markets. In other markets, investor demand is quickly absorbing listed REO properties, and as a result, foreclosures are no longer pulling home prices downward,” Stiff says.

The Fiserv Case-Shiller Indexes, which include data covering thousands of zip codes, counties, metro areas and state markets, are owned and generated by Fiserv. The historical and forecast home price trend information in this report is calculated with the Fiserv proprietary Case-Shiller indexes, supplemented with data from the FHFA. The historical home price trends highlighted in this release are for the 12-month period that ended September 30, 2012. One-year forecasts are for the 12 months ending on September 30, 2013. The Fiserv Case-Shiller home price forecasts are produced by Fiserv and Moody’s Analytics.

For more information, visit www.realestateeconomywatch.com

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Housing Market, real estate financing

Homeownership of Generation X & Y [INFOGRAPHIC]

March 7, 2013 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

via: KCM

Filed Under: Blog, Housing Market, real estate financing, Real Estate Updates

Are Dining Rooms Dead? 5 Ways to Reuse That Space

March 6, 2013 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

How many times did your family use your dining room in 2012?

If you can count the meals at the table on one hand, then you may want to consider repurposing that room. It can be hard to let go of the dining-room dream, but let’s be realistic. A room that only gets used during holidays isn’t worth keeping.

If you’re willing to break out of the traditional dining-room mold, the possibilities can go a lot further than three-course meals and dress shoes.

Here are five ways to get more from your dining room:

Use small furniture.

Instead of squandering every square inch of the room with an oak table that sits eight, place a couple of small café style tables in the room.

Small tables are more inviting when you’re enjoying a cup of coffee, reading the paper or even opening the mail.

Plus, smaller tables are easy to move around and join together (just in case a dinner party of eight does actually happen).

Convert it into a home office.

Picture your large dining room table. Now picture that same dining room table with one chair. Boom! You now have the home office you’ve always wanted.

Let your china cabinet double as office supply storage and use this space as an office for 360 days a year.

For the 5 days that you host large dinners, simply clear off your office supplies and add the extra chairs back to the table!

Keep it as the party room.

If you love entertaining people but hate the idea of hosting a formal dinner, turn your dining room into hang-out central.

Replace your dining room table with a pool table and install a bar along one wall for finger food and cocktails.

The dining room will quickly become the most popular room in the house!

Turn it into a guest room.

If your extended family treats your house as their free hotel, consider installing a Murphy bed in your dining room.

Most of the time it will simply look like a shelf and you can use the room for whatever your heart desires.

Then, when guests arrive, it instantly turns into an impromptu guest bedroom.

Make it playtime central.

If you spend a lot of time in the kitchen and love the idea of your kids playing close by, then turn your dining room into their playroom.

Ditch the fancy table and replace it with a craft table and add toy bins or book shelves. We also recommend adding a comfy rug for optimal toy enjoyment.

source: BrightNest is a free site that provides tools and tips to homeowners to help them save money, get organized and keep their home in great shape.

Filed Under: Blog, Home Care, Home Remodel

Another Big Leap for Home Prices

March 6, 2013 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Another home price index is showing home prices surging: CoreLogic’s home price index shows that home prices nationwide in January rose 9.7 percent year-over-year, posting their largest percentage increase since April 2006.

It was the 11th consecutive month of month-over-month increases in existing-home sales, according to CoreLogic’s index.

“Home prices continued to gather steam across a broad swath of the country in January, continuing the positive trend we saw during most of 2012,” says Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Many states across the western U.S. and along the East Coast saw average price gains of more than 6 percent, which is likely to boost home sale activity into the first half of 2013.”

The states seeing the biggest year-over-year rises in home prices in January were Arizona (20.1%), Nevada (17.4%), Idaho (14.9%), and California (14.1%), according to CoreLogic’s index. The only states not seeing year-over-year price increases were Delaware (-0.1%) and Illinois (-0.4%).

Source: “Home Prices Take Biggest Leap in 7 Years,” Inman News

Filed Under: Blog, Housing Market, real estate financing, Real Estate Updates Tagged With: bellevue homes, seattle homes

8 ways to prepare for downsizing

March 5, 2013 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Moving to a smaller house makes a lot of sense after the kids have flown the coop or you’ve simply realized downsizing makes sense financially.

Though the idea might be a good one, putting the plan into action is where things can get hard, especially when it comes to letting a lot go in terms of possessions.

Chaya at Care2 has eight suggestions to clear the way toward a smaller dwelling that will hopefully ease some of the stress.

1. Measure twice, cut once. Before you do anything, measure the dimensions of your new house exactly. When you are approaching anything involving spacial arrangement, accurate measurements will be your absolute ally. If you are deciding what furniture to keep and what to give away, start by making an accurately scaled floor plan of your new home.

2. Go room by room. Looking at the process of downsizing to a new home can be so intimidating. Don’t look at it as a whole; go room by room.

3. Pack and move only what you need and love. Parting with possessions can be very difficult. If you need to hire an expert to help you to move, then do it. Compassionate cleanout companies exist to help people move with less stress and difficulty.

4. Go vertical. When it’s time to set up in your new house, plan to use as much vertical space as you can. That means installing book shelves, floating shelves, and utility shelves. You can store more than books on bookshelves, and if you have a large book collection, the books themselves can be arranged artfully in-lieu of wall art.

Full story at Care2.

Filed Under: Blog, Home Care, Random Thoughts Tagged With: downsizing

Future House Values? Simple as Supply and Demand

March 4, 2013 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

For some time now, we have attempted to shed light on the fact that pricing in today’s real estate market, as it is in the markets for every other saleable item, will be determined by the concept of ‘supply and demand’.

According to dictionary.com:

“The relationship between supply and demand determines the price of a commodity. This relationship is thought to be the driving force in a free market.”

In real estate, supply and demand is represented as the current month’s supply of homes for sale (the number of homes for sale divided by the number of homes sold in the previous month).

While there is no steadfast rule that will apply to pricing in every category of housing, here is a great guideline:

1-4 months supply creates a sellers’ market where there are not enough homes to satisfy buyer demand. Appreciation is guaranteed.
5-6 months supply creates a balanced market. Historically home values appreciate at a rate a little greater than inflation.
7-8 months supply creates a buyers’ market where the number of homes for sale exceeds the demand. Depreciation follows.

What is happening across the country right now?

In most parts of the country, home values are rising. This is for two reasons:

According to NAR’s latest Existing Homes Sales Report, raw unsold inventory is at the lowest level since December 1999 when there were 1.71 million homes on the market.
According to this month’s Pending Sales Report from NAR, houses going into contract reached levels last seen in April 2010 which was the month the Home Buyers’ Tax Credit expired.

This has resulted in a 4.2-month supply at the current sales pace which is the lowest housing supply since April 2005 when it was also 4.2 months.

Presently in King County, we are at 1.6 months of supply based on Pending sales.

Based on the table above, we can see that the supply/demand ratio is leaning toward a sellers’ market where prices will appreciate. That has created positive movement in housing values in most parts of the country.