Weekly Wrap-up: New Listings Really Slowing Down
With new listings down 21% this week, we “only” wrote one offer this week. It was on a new construction townhouse on Beacon Hill where we were able to negotiate $5k off list price and another $5k in closing costs.
We did hear from an agent friend of a house in Kirkland listed at $719k that had 30 offers. Still lots of buyers out there! Just not many houses being listed as we get closer to the holidays.
- Seattle council approves tax on Airbnb, other short-term rentals
Beginning in 2019, the city will impose taxes of $14 per night for entire homes and $8 per night for rooms and limit you to two short-term rentals.
- Seattle City Council OKs 6-year plan for rate hikes by Seattle Public Utilities
The Seattle City Council on Monday approved a new plan for Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) to raise its rates over six years by an annual average of 5.2 percent.
The six-year plan calls for the typical monthly utilities cost for a house to climb from $181 this year to $248 in 2023 and for the typical cost for an apartment to grow from $107 to $142.
- New plans released for Denny Triangle’s 8 Tower: might be condos.
- Residents fight Seattle rules allowing apartment developers to forgo parking: don’t fight the inevitable. Not everyone drives cars.
- Metro Seattle’s personal income growth slowed in 2016:
The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area turned in fairly strong growth — 4.5 percent — in per-capita personal income for 2015. The same didn’t hold for last year, according to data released today by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. Income advanced only 2.7 percent.
