As a recent Puget Sound Business Journal article put it, “The Eastside office market has FANGs.” However fitting, they aren’t referencing the region’s sharp teeth; they are talking about a group of tech titans: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google.
Read MoreI was recently holding an open house when a curious neighbor came into the home to check out the new improvements and ask about current market conditions. After showing her the home and added value/improvements made by the seller—and asking her to tell everyone she knew—I briefly explained that we are going through a market correction, which began in mid-May (like a light switch on May 10th), and touched on the probable causes. I went on to say that current market conditions seem to have stabilized: generally, sales have increased and inventory began decreasing around mid-October (I saw it October 18th). I summed it up quickly with, “I believe it’s a great time to buy.” She looked at me and said “yeah, but what would you say to your friend or a family member. How would you advise them?” I shrugged and smiled as I replied, “I just did.”
Read MoreThe World Economic Forum recently released the annual Global Competitiveness Report, naming the United States the number one most competitive economy in the world for the first time since the early 2000s. According to the report, the nature of economic competitiveness is shifting, as economies are “increasingly transformed by new, digital technologies,” which are “creating a new set of challenges for governments and businesses.” The United States is followed by Singapore, Germany, Switzerland and Japan.
Read MoreExciting news came from Google on August 14th, as Puget Sound Business Journal broke the story that the search engine giant is working with Vulcan Inc. to build a fifth office building for the company in the fast-growing South Lake Union neighborhood where it already has four in construction. The new building will stand 12 stories tall and complement the “Lakefront Blocks,” which will top 607,000 square feet of office space with apartments for rent.
Read MoreAs a recent GeekWire feature proclaims, “here’s the 4-minute video you’ve been waiting for to illustrate why a 4-mile drive in Seattle takes 45 minutes.” The film in question? A time lapse recently created by Ricardo Martin Buralla, a VR/AR engineer with Google, who assembled 3 years’ worth of images taken by a webcam that was affixed to the top of the Space Needle. In all, the video is comprised of 2,166 panoramas (about 2 photos per day) that Buralla stabilized using code to create a cohesive piece.
Read MoreAt the end of March, the four most valuable companies in the world (Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon) were all U.S. technology businesses – half of which are Seattle founded and based. Wherever you look, Seattle is changing, growing and evolving and one of the more obvious places this is reflected is in the housing market. Spring is always the busiest time of year for real estate, and this year’s “busy season” is recording higher-than-ever prices due to reduced inventory. The median price for a single-family home in Seattle is $722,250 according to the NWMLS, and new listings have dropped 16.2 percent since last April.
Read More
