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Neighborhood Profile: Beacon Hill
June 28, 2017 /It’s a tough decision: should you live downtown amid the constant bustle of the deliciously funky urban organism that is Seattle? Or, should you live in a quieter neighborhood with better parking and perhaps slightly cheaper housing prices? Luckily, with Beacon Hill, you can enjoy the best of both worlds. The Basics Located south of downtown, between I-5 and Rainier Valley, the up-and-coming Beacon Hill is one of Seattle’s oldest neighborhoods. This large area is known for its relatively affordable housing and its convenient location—residents enjoy easy access to downtown Seattle without having to navigate the freeways (which we all know are not, ahem, Seattle’s best feature). Homes in the northern part of Beacon Hill were mostly built in the early 1900s, and so this area contains many lovely Craftsman bungalows and Seattle box houses. The hill also offers views of downtown, Elliott Bay, Rainier Valley, Mount Rainier, and the Olympic Mountains. Neighborhood Vibe Depending on where you are in the neighborhood, Beacon Hill can be both bustling and quiet. Currently, as well as historically, the neighborhood is home to a diverse population of working-class families. Completed just a few years ago, Beacon Hill’s light rail station has reenergized the…Read more
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Landmarks of Washington State: Mount Rainier
June 16, 2017 /Many of you have been reading Ian Clark’s blog posts for Pickett Street over the past couple of years. Since Ian is now moving on to a PhD program, he kindly passed the blog writing torch to me, his older (and, let’s be honest, wiser) sister. So, if you’re curious as to what it was really like growing up in the Clark household, I can fill you in. Anyway. Like Ian, I grew up in Washington State. Though I now live in the hippy haven of Boulder, Colorado, I look forward to the day when I can move back to the Pacific Northwest, where my heart and my family reside. To start off on a fun, perhaps sentimental note, I’d like to discuss one of my favorite spots in Washington, and, in my humble opinion, what is one of the best mountains in the entire world: Mount Rainier. Don’t get me wrong—Colorado’s Rocky Mountains are truly incredible. However, there’s something special about Mount Rainier. Maybe it’s the fact that, with the surrounding landscape at sea level, the peak with its 14,410 feet dramatically rises out of the clouds like a storybook mountain. I first heard about this mountain when my…Read more
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On Moving, Part 2
June 8, 2017 /Growing up in Washington State, I was convinced my mother and stepfather were ascetic monks disguised as law-abiding citizens. Everything about our house in the woods—its dirt driveway and wood-fired stove, the rickety doors that were forever creaking and driving us all mad—suggested an extension of pioneer society, a devotion to hard work and self-denial accompanied by a general mistrust of modern comforts. My family didn’t seriously invest in electric heating until after I left for college (during winter, I was forever walking around like the little brother in A Christmas Story, wearing roughly 20 sweaters and weeping about not being able to put my arms down), and our shower usually had only 30 seconds of hot water per day. My mother was forever banging on the bathroom door, ordering us to get out of the shower and stop wasting precious natural resources. This lifestyle became especially troublesome once I entered high school. Living in a largely affluent small town, most of my friends enjoyed accordingly cushy lifestyles: palatial homes, unlimited heat, fancy refrigerators that dispensed pompous quantities of ice and filtered water. Such modern conveniences seemed impossibly luxurious to my untutored experience, more akin to the advanced technologies of science…Read more
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Do You Love to Rent?
June 2, 2017 /Three Things to Know Before Agreeing to a Mortgage Because moving and buying a home can be time-consuming and stressful, it can be tempting to rush into a mortgage to get the process over with as quickly as possible. However, a mortgage is an important commitment, and there are a couple key concepts you should understand before signing the dotted line. Luckily, you don’t need to be a mortgage lender to understand your contract, and the most important mortgage concepts are relatively simple once you grasp the basics. Below, we cover the basics of interest rates, adjustable rate mortgages vs. fixed rate mortgages, and points to give you a better idea what to expect when you prepare to agree to your first mortgage. What’s My Interest Rate? Saying your mortgage’s interest rate is pretty important is an understatement, as the interest rate you agree to can dramatically affect the final price tag of your home. It’s surprising, then, that roughly 30% of the country’s homeowners have admitted to not knowing what their interest rate is. Even a slight difference in interest rate levels--say, 4% rather than 4.5%--can save you hundreds of dollars a year and thousands of dollars over your…Read more
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Neighborhood Profile: Queen Anne
May 22, 2017 /Way back in the Stone Age (or thereabouts) Queen Anne was among the least popular parts of Seattle when it came to purchasing property. Much of this unpopularity was a result of the neighborhood’s steep and hilly geography (which, to be fair, would have been much more annoying before the advent of the automobile). Whatever the reason for public distaste when it came to Queen Anne, local developers were desperate to get land off their hands, and even tried to entice potential buyers by offering two plots of land for the price of one. Now, of course, Queen Anne (named after the style of home many original builders constructed in the area) lives up to its regal name and is one of Seattle’s most popular places to live in. However, even characterizing the neighborhood itself can be something of a challenge. The lower end of the region is close to downtown attractions like the Key Arena and the Space Needle, while other parts of the neighborhood are comfortably residential. And let’s not forget that, with the presence of Seattle Pacific University in the north end, some of the area has a distinctly collegiate atmosphere. In short, there’s a little bit…Read more
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The Space Needle
May 22, 2017 /Like most things in Seattle, the Space Needle began with a cup of coffee. To be fair, there was a napkin involved, too. It was the end of the 1950s, and Edward E. Carlson was relaxing in a coffee shop, idly doodling on a serviette. It’s impossible to say for sure whether or not the impending World’s Fair was on his mind when he originally sketched the city’s sci-fi pinnacle (for all we know, Carlson might have been dreaming about his dry cleaning whilst scribbling). What we can say is that Carlson’s design, etched onto scrap paper amidst a peppering of coffee stains, served as the inspiration for one of the Northwest’s most important monuments. It wasn’t completely Carlson’s brainchild, however. Left to his own devices, he would have designed a building resembling either a massive balloon tethered to the earth or an equally large balloon perched on top of a column (the man liked his balloons, it seems). It took architect John Graham and his dedicated team to translate Carlson’s initial inspiration into the flying saucer structure we have today. After successfully building the first suburban shopping mall in the country (which just so happens to be Seattle’s Northgate…Read more
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Do You Like Low Interest Rates?
May 9, 2017 /Interest Rates Unchanged After The Fed's Wednesday Meeting After its meeting this Wednesday, the Fed voted to leave interest rates unchanged, keeping its benchmark rates at 0.75-1.00%. The decision was a response to the economy’s slow .7% growth in the year’s first quarter. Much of this slowing growth can be attributed to the transition period following the presidential election, so the Fed remains optimistic for future economic growth. In that case, two more rate increases are expected by the end of the year. The next rate hike is expected to occur in June as long as the economy continues to grow, while many experts expect a second increase to occur in September. Overall, the decision seems to have had a very slight indirect effect on mortgage rates. As of Thursday, the average 30-year FRM was down about 1 basis point, hovering around 4.02%, while the average 15-year ARM and remained around 3.27%. And, though rates are always changing, many experts don’t expect them to increase dramatically between now until the end of the year. Many economists expect the 30-year FRM to fall between 4.2-4.5% at the end of 2017. For some, these rates might seem to be way too high.…Read more
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Rain, rain, (Don’t) Go Away
April 28, 2017 /I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Seattle’s had quite a lot of rain recently. For the second year in a row, Seattle has broken a century-plus record for rainfall, enduring almost 50 inches of rain since the beginning of October. Usually, the city gets just over 30 inches by this time, so it would be an understatement to suggest that it’s been moist lately. In fact, the whole of Western Washington seems to have been caught in the deluge. Quillayute in Clallam County, for instance, has received more than 100 inches of rain since the beginning of October, or more than 10 feet. To put that number in perspective, if you were to clone me (because why not?) and perch my double on top of my shoulders, our combined height would be only slightly taller than the amount of rain that’s fallen in Quillayute. Some of you (all the transplants from California, I expect) might balk at this veritable monsoon. However, I’ll take the opportunity to be bold and suggest that life in Seattle is at its finest when experienced under a constant curtain of drizzle. I’ve already written about how much I love rain in Seattle, so I…Read more
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Pike Place Market
April 21, 2017 /For a long time, I only went to Pike Place Market when my extended family from the East Coast visited Seattle, which might be the reason I’ve since avoided it for much of my adult life. Don’t get me wrong: I love my family, and I never felt any ill-will toward the Market. If anything, I essentially forgot about Pike Place’s existence, writing it off as a tourist novelty that didn’t warrant attention from a Puget Sound native. Never mind that I was actually from New Jersey, and probably would have spent my life there if my parents hadn’t decided to relocate to the Emerald City (I imagine one of them randomly looking up from the newspaper and saying something like, “Hey, wouldn’t it be swell if we moved to the rainiest corner of the country?”); no, in my mind I was already a true Seattleite, and I couldn’t be bothered by tourist attractions. Of course, whenever my uncles, aunts, grandparents, and cousins gathered in the Northwest for reunions, Pike Place was always their destination of choice. On one memorable family outing, everyone insisted on visiting Pike Place’s Starbucks, famous for being the business’ original location. It’s also…Read more
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Spring Has Sprung!
April 14, 2017 /Why Spring is the Best Time to Sell your Home Spring has sprung, and Americans around the country are emerging from winter sluggishness and preparing for a season of renewed vigor and activity. While this idealistic portrait might not totally fit reality (if you’re like me, it takes a few months and several strong cups of coffee to fully shake off winter hibernation), spring is still the perfect time to resume productivity after a long break. Unsurprisingly, spring is also one of the best times to sell your home. If you’re trying to sell your home this spring, Pickett Street’s talented team can help. However, before you go on the market, it helps to know exactly why selling your home while the garden blossoms is a winning move. Capital Curb Appeal Winter’s dreary procession of cold weather rarely improves a home’s curb appeal. Mounds of snow kill grass, torrents of rain flood the yard, and that chronic lack of sun isn’t doing your flowers any favors. As such, a house just doesn’t look as appealing from the outside, and so buyers are going to be much less motivated to explore it. That’s bad news for an owner trying to sell…Read more
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Neighborhood Profile: Capitol Hill
March 17, 2017 /For some, going home means retiring to a quiet corner to enjoy a predictable evening away from the city’s stressors. For others, going home means embarking on an eclectic adventure full of new surprises and opportunities. If you’re a member of the latter camp, then Seattle’s Capitol Hill might be the perfect place to call home. Capitol Hill is indisputably one of the Emerald City’s most important cultural hubs, and residents of the hip urban neighborhood can enjoy a vast and diverse assortment of restaurants, bars, and art galleries. In fact, there’s so much to do in Capitol Hill, even longtime natives of the area are still likely to enjoy new experiences and fresh surprises. If you’re looking for some of Seattle’s best restaurants, Capitol Hill is certainly the place to start. The neighborhood serves up many different kinds of cuisine, so even the pickiest eater can find something to munch on. Stateside uses seasonal ingredients to serve traditional Vietnamese cuisine with an innovative French twist. If you’re looking for something a little more traditional, Poquitos boasts some of the best Mexican food in the city, while Bateau offers delicious farm-to-table ingredients fresh from their farm on Whidbey Island. Or,…Read more
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How I Got The Gumption: The FHA 203K Loan
March 3, 2017 /Sometimes, renovations can cause even the mildest mannered homeowner to panic. After all, home improvements can be costly and stressful. However, when Pickett Street’s very own Margaret Smith, Director of Operations, decided to purchase a vacant, bank owned fixer-upper, the FHA 203K Loan presented her with an opportunity that turned the process into a dream come true. Margaret bought her duplex in south Everett near Paine Field in August 2014. It was a bank owned property, meaning nobody had been living there for over a year. The previous owners had gone into foreclosure, so the home sat there vacant, lacking love and attention. The upstairs unit was a 3 bed, 1 bath layout that Margaret planned to rent out. It needed a new bathroom, new washer and dryer, a fresh coat of paint on the laundry room walls, and an all-around thorough scrubbing. The bottom unit was a 2 bed, 1 bath layout that was perfect for Margaret and a roommate. That 2 bed unit also needed a new bathroom, new kitchen and new vinyl wood flooring (which also needed to be leveled). The bottom half of the duplex’s exterior required a new paint job, and some general TLC. The…Read more
