Go figure. Thanks to sophisticated derivative products tied to home mortgages, the credit markets are still frozen, except for home mortgages, where money is plentiful and cheap.

Meanwhile, mega-corporations who have routinely relied on short-term credit rollovers are finding that they can't borrow for love nor, well, you get the idea.

240,000 jobs were lost last month, which is a bad thing. The global stock markets seem to have trimmed dozens of trillions of value off the books; American retirement accounts, I suppose, are down 40% or so this year. American homeowners are out a few trillion in equity, $40,000-$60,000 per household.

It is said that the darkest hour is just before the dawn. It may not yet be the darkest hour, but ya gotta hope that it's well past midnight, don'tcha?

Meanwhile, people are still buying homes, investors are still buying real estate, although neither are doing as much as they used to. The stock market's volume is about the same as last year, which probably doesn't mean a darned thing.

And the trend for the stock market is down. Straight down. Think it'll hit zero?

In a couple of previous posts I introduced an interesting problem with a new condo development. The developer stopped paying the contractor on a 90 plus unit development about the time the units were occupied by the new owners.

A few weeks after moving in, the home owners were given lien notices on their homes. Things were even more upsetting after these owners were given foreclosure notice by the contractor a few months later. It was hard to believe they were being sued.

Here is an update. It turns out the liens by the contractor were valid which put them as a first mortgage on the property. (Washington State Law) Mortgage Companies require title insurance be written to protect them, and thereby the homeowner, in such lien situations.

To the relief of all homeowners, the Title Insurance Company has stepped forward and hired an attorney to represent the policy holders. This attorney is at the expense of the Title Company and should the suit be completed and the contractor wins, the Title Policy will pay the contractors debt that was over 1.5 million at one point.

I don't know how many times I have heard people complain about title insurance premiums. I can assure you there are a bunch of condo owners in Issaquah that will complain nevermore.

Yes folks, Title Insurance Works.

The previous posts are Warning for Condominium Buyers

and

God Bless America and Title Insurance

As we move through some extremely difficult economic challenges, we sometimes get away from the focus of planning for the long term growth of our Puget Sound region.

I've just read a 70- page report put together by ULI, Urban Land Use Institute and the Quality Growth Alliance regarding an event called
Reality Check 2008.

It's about an unusual collaboration of 250 key leaders from important groups in four Counties:

-- business
-- political
-- environmental
-- community
-- non-profit

The four Counties are King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap. The first sentence of this report crystallizes the purpose of the collaboration: Change is coming to the Puget Sound region.

We all are part of these groups in one way or another, and we certainly know that these groups have often been at loggerheads over goals and planning. This report indicates some good participation from each group in working towards the mutual goals of thinking together, and working together (successfully). The purpose of this collaboration was to have all 250 participants work together to frame a vision for how to accommodate the addition of 1.7 million new residents, and 1.2 million new jobs in our Puget Sound region by 2040.

Yes, I said 1.7 MILLION new residents, and 1.2 MILLION new jobs.
Want a visualization of that?

Think the entire metro area of Portland, OR.

Add it here.

This collaboration has resulted in the Quality Growth Alliance: A Framework for Sound Action to:

-- Raise greater awareness of land use, transportation and climate change
-- Provide expertise to key communities
-- Research compact development policy and best practices
-- Highlight regional successes

To see the Quality Growth Alliance video, click here: When this opens, you'll need to click the arrow on the left side of the screen, it will take awhile to load, and it's initially going to look like the page is missing content, just click the arrow on the left and be patient.

Here are some quotes by some of the participants.

"There are two very special characteristics of the Puget Sound region. One, it's just beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful, and we all have a responsibility to maintain that beauty. Number two, the economic engine in the Puget Sound Region is truly extraordinary. We've outpaced job growth for 30 years over national averages. So we can have both. We can have prosperity and we can have beauty, but we can't keep them both without planning effectively." --Patrick Callahan, Reality Check Co-Chair, CEO of Urban Renaissance Group

"Transportation, open space, affordable housing, climate change – all those things really boil down to land use. It's the common thread." -- Greg Johnson, President, Wright Runstad & Company, ULI Seattle Chair, Reality Check Partner

"To meet the region's long-term need for housing and environmental responsibility, we must ensure that our essential workforce has innovative and affordable housing choices near where they work." --Sam Anderson, President, Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, Reality Check Partner

"Over the last couple of decades we have made remarkable progress in coming together to think as one region. We have powerful tools to achieve our growth management, environmental, economic, and transportation goals. But it will take a lot of hard work and committed leadership at all levels -- public and private--to make it happen. --Bob Drewel, Executive Director, Puget Sound Regional Council, Reality Check Partner

"Every day we come to work and mark our time hour by hour, day by day, week by week. This is a time to mark it decade by decade, to confront reality as we know it, and truly predict it, and adjust for it. Too often we let it happen to us. This is our chance to take control of reality." --Emory Thomas, Publisher, Puget Sound Business Journal

"It's worth taking a day . . . to think, to debate, and to dream a little bit." --Doris Koo, President and CEO, Enterprise Community Partners, Reality Check Partner

"This region is incredibly beautiful. But it is also incredibly fragile. And the actual buildable land is very constrained." --Stephen Norman, Director, King County Housing Authority

"The people are here, but the jobs are over there. We don't have enough transportation available, either roads or rail or ferry or whatever. So you really get a clear picture of where the bottlenecks are." --Tom Kilbane, Member, Kitsap Community Foundation

"Many of the issues we are confronting are usually considered in isolation, in their own separate planning initiatives. By combining climate change with land use decisions, zoning and transportation infrastructure and looking at it together, that allows us to solve things in a more effective manner." --Patrick Callahan, Reality Check Co-Chair, CEO of Urban Renaissance Group

"What comes out of this will be a big second wave and possibly a new approach to how we look at growth management in the region." --Jay Kipp, Graduate Student, UW College of Architecture and Urban Planning

"Our goals must include the creation of highly livable, compact, complete, connected urban neighborhoods--beautiful ones--that will help us grow cooler." --Bert Gregory, President and CEO, Mithun

"The elected officials in the room and others who we all vote for and support have got one heck of a burden on their shoulders. They are going to have to reinvent zoning. They are going to have to reinvent processes. They are going to have to speed the works because we've got until 2040 when the equivalent of the metropolitan Portland population is here in our region." --Bill Kreager, Reality Check Co-Chair, Principal, Mithun

"From today we're starting to see the beginning of a consensus that we can build on to fundamentally improve this region. --Gene Duvernoy, Reality Check Co-Chair, President, Cascade Land Conservancy

"RealityCheck today, April 30, is the start of two years of implementation work. We have to take all of the great ideas that come out of today--all of the energy, all of the vision, all of the inspiration and excitement, and this time we have to make it work. We have to take our principles and achieve quality growth." --John Hempelmann, Reality Check Co-Chair, Chairman, Cairncross And Hempelmann, P.S..

"Where these 1.7 million new residents live and work will affect everyone and have a dramatic impact on quality of life throughout the region," said Greg Johnson, chairman of the Urban Land Institute's (ULI) Seattle District Council. "Residents will either live in walkable, thriving transit-oriented communities near job centers, or in spread-out, auto-centric areas that many of our current planning policies encourage. We can take a new approach to address today's problems, or we can continue responding with decades-old strategies. The choice is ours and now is the time to decide."

For the 87 page final report, click here. Change is coming to the Puget Sound Region.

Aubrey wrote a piece on this a few weeks ago, that got little attention. And I have to wonder why.

Google Street View is an excellent tool for those interested in real estate. Type an address into Google Maps, and if it's in an area they've covered, you can click on the street view link and see a picture of the property. From there you can pan around and even go up and down the street.

Alternatively, if you're in Google Maps, click on the Street View box at the top left of the map area, and all the streets within the view that are covered will appear in blue. Click on one and you can look around at that point.

This is a great tool. No longer do you have to drive out to a property just to discover that the house next door is in disrepair, or that the neighbor across the street has two junker cars in their front yard.

Google has now covered most of the greater Seattle area, and parts of Bremerton. Undoubtedly they used a lot of gas creating that coverage, but not that it's done, it should save a lot of gas being used by agents and others.

I post this article in honor of our little mortgage company of 5 loan officers. We buried it yesterday.

We thought it would be easier to manage than the 100 plus we had in the previous company. It was. Even with a few skilled and experienced professionals it had to go.

Please note as I list these 10 reasons that my strong opinion still is that the consumer is best served by a mortgage broker over a bank. Just large mortgage companies. I have worked for banks and respect their strong points. But rare is the bank that will let its loan officer use loan products that aren't their own. Banks usually take a big piece of the fees which makes it difficult for a loan officer to make a living without charging more than a broker. The higher the rate the higher the loans profit or fees. The higher the fees the more that goes to the loan originators.

The following list addresses the point of the article.

If a mortgage provider is not an FHA lender they are borderline negligent in my mind. The first 3 reasons are FHA related. Consider that FHA rates are generally competitive with conventional rates.

FHA Reason # 1 - Loan to value available with FHA. You need 3% down for a purchase. FHA offers 90% cash out and 97% no cash out refinances. With the difficulty in appraised values these days a consumer in need may have only 1 solution - FHA.

FHA Reason # 2 - Oops you messed up. You had a credit problem, even a bankruptcy. Was it was your fault? Did you have no control over the situation? No matter, for you FHA underwriting has a one time forgiveness approach. Where a conventional lender may say sorry bye bye, FHA is often a solution.

FHA Reason # 3 - Remember this is about why the little mortgage company is a dying breed. FHA is not easy to qualify for. The mortgage company must have a sizable net worth. It must provide an annual FHA audit. These aren't cheap. There are additional costs to be FHA approved.

A small mortgage company cannot afford the costs to be an FHA lender.

How about a four Big Bank reasons.

Reason # 4 - Big banks want less competition. Many such as B of A and the former WaMu just stopped wholesaling loans to all brokers.

Reason # 5 - Big banks have to be more cost conscious now. Providing support to a mortgage broker community is costly. Banks are dropping the small broker. We were dropped by Countrywide. One day we needed one of their niche products. I couldn't argue the fact we didn't close one loan with them and yet the should have kept us active. There are times that you need a loan from a bank you were dropped from. Not good.

Reason # 6 - Big banks lock their loans now. Yet small mortgage companies may not deliver all the loans they lock. Locks cost big banks money if not honored. Bigger mortgage companies have an easier time with delivery ratios. One loan not delivered out of 1 is a 0% delivery ration. One out of 100 is 99%. Big banks cut off mortgage companies that have poor delivery ratios.

Reason # 7 - Big banks can't afford to take a loan back for fraud or bad underwriting reasons. Some how they have the proof that mortgage companies write more of the bad stuff than do their own staff. I have trouble with this one - but it must be true. They say it is.

How about three general reasons now.

Reason # 8 - Keeping up with the rules and laws. Last week two important issues governing Washington State loan officers were ruled on. Violating them is serious and costly when discovered. Small companies cannot afford to employ a full time compliance officer. Without a full time compliance officer, serious about their relationship with the law the mortgage company is doomed.

Reason # 9 - The costs go up as the revenue goes down. Practically every part of operating a mortgage company has risen. Insurance and bond premiums. Errors and omissions insurance. No one cares if your volume is down - you are a risk - the premiums need to rise.

Reason # 10 - The aging process. It is now a proven fact: those that own mortgage companies age at twice the rate their loan officers do. Loan officers age at 4 times the rate as the rest of the population. That is except for real estate agents, they have stopped aging. They have all died.

Neighborhoods are sprouting up all over the Puget Sound area that support the principles of cohousing. Cohousing, is a marriage of two hot issues of today, sustainable living and a social networks, with the added benefit of providing an opportunity to age-in-place. It's the late sixties rising again, but morphing from hippie communes to community living called cohousing.

Cohousing communities tend to be smaller, new communities with a small carbon footprint. Homes are on small lots and open space is dedicated to the whole community. Many of the communities are built with sustainable products and more sustainable living in mind. The inhabitants of the community work together, something like in a condominium association, to solve any of the neighborhood issues. But the working together ethic takes on a much larger role in a cohousing community. People not only work together, but they support each other well beyond what one finds in most neighborhoods. It's a new extended family.

There's a fair this Saturday for people to learn more about cohousing:

Puget Sound Cohousing Fair featuring 12 Communities
Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008: 4-6pm, followed by Potluck Dinner
Duwamish Cohousing
6000 17th Ave SW Seattle, Washington 98106

Come to this FREE Event if you:
• are curious about Cohousing
• want to see and learn about some Cohousing homes for sale
• want to lean about Forming Groups creating new housing
• want to meet people from Cohousing Communities
• want to visit Duwamish Cohousing, in West Seattle

If you click on the link to Puget Sound Cohousing's website, you can check out more details about this fair. This link will take you to the websites for the cohousing communities in the Puget Sound area. I checked out one of the sites, for the Jackson Place neighborhood in South Seattle. Their vision statement identifies most of the themes found in cohousing neighborhoods: community, caring, respect for each other, working together and helping each other, respecting privacy while protecting community. The Jackson Place site shows photos of the residents, a pretty friendly looking group.

Cohousing is not for everyone, but it may be worth a look. Housing styles, sizes, and amenities will change over the next decade as people head towards cities, transportation and economic hubs and look to have a smaller carbon footprint. As our population ages, people will think more about alternative lifestyles and aging-in-place, staying in their home as they age. The American Dream of home ownership will be changing to accommodate different styles of living.

What are your thoughts about cohousing?

Mr. Seller, your house is listed for sale. You NEED to sell. You are approaching 90 days on the market and you are frustrated because you get maybe two showings per month. Your agent is holding open houses every other week, but nobody is showing up to those, either. After 40 days into your listing, your agent suggested that you should lower your price. Reluctantly you did, but it didn't help much. Now your agent is asking you again for a price reduction. You want to keep some "bargaining room" and let's face it -- you think your house is worth the price.

What DO you do?

Mr. Seller, I have a few of questions for you.

"How often and how good is the information that you are receiving from your agent?"

"Is your agent communicating with you in a direct manner backed by market data and information?"

"Is your agent buying into YOUR logic and emotions?" (In other words, are you a better salesperson than your agent? Does your agent allow you to live within YOUR comfort zone?)

It is time to get honest with these questions. It's time to get real.

Here are some things to consider to get your house sold:

1. Your agent must have the ability to speak candidly, and at times quite bluntly with you. You MUST give your agent the permission to do so. (I actually ask my client for permission to have a candid conversation that I know they may not be comfortable with).

2. Your agent must update you at least WEEKLY by phone and by email with the latest market information. This information should include:

a. Every NEW LISTING that has come on to the market.
b. Every PRICE REDUCTION during the week.
c. The homes that EXPIRED or CANCELLED during the week.
c. Every new SALE for the week.
e. Original list price / List price / Sale price percentage off and ratios.
d. Rate of Sale information for the week (Weeks of available inventory) in your area and your price range.
e. Monthly statistics including median price information.
f. Quantifiable results from marketing efforts (showings, showing feedback, marketing placements, web page hits, etc.)

3. You and your agent must understand the dynamics of "chasing the market down" In early June, I wrote this piece on the subject of "chasing the market down".

If you WANT to sell your house and aren't really all that motivated, my best advice to you is to LEAVE THE MARKET IMMEDIATELY!

If you NEED to sell your house, you want an agent who can skillfully and compassionately "push" you. You want agent that won't allow you to mire in your own "comfort zone". You want an agent who disseminates correct information and who has the ability to articulate to you what it means. You want an agent who communicates regularly -- at least weekly. Compassionate confrontation (sometimes called "tough love") at times is needed to achieve success.

Because remember, IF you need to sell, it doesn't matter a whit what YOU think your house is worth. It's irrelevant to the SELLING process. What's relevant to the SELLING process you ask? It's that infrequent BUYER you're looking for who is comparing you. It matters what that BUYER thinks your house is worth.

I was just looking at the DJIA numbers, and they're really pretty sad.

The peak for the Dow was about 14,000 in October, 2007. By the end of April it had lost about 10% (roughly 12,600). The the end of May, another 10% (roughly 11,400). The next four months were relatively good, with it only dripping to about 10,850 at the end of September. October it lost more than 10% (roughly 9,350). And today it's down 10% from there (roughly 8,300). All in all it lost about 40% from its highs, and taken us back to 2002 levels.

Local houses (King County SFR) has fared a bit better. The median peaked at $481,000 back in July, 2007. In October 2007 is was down just under 10% from the peak ($443,950). The April and May, 2008 numbers were almost equal to October, 2007, at $448,500 and $440,000. But by September it had dropped to $415,000, and October to $392,000, so roughly another 10% from May. All in all it lost about 20% from its high, and taken us back to February, 2006 levels. Coincidentally, the same percentage drop would be true of the mean.

Oil is off about 60% from its highs. I don't follow gold, but I think it's off 30-40%. And despite the claims of many that the fed rate cuts would kill the dollar, I think those investing in foreign currencies have done rather poorly, because the world wide nature of the crisis has helped the dollar.

Which gets me to one investment that beat all of them handily. I have an account I opened in September, 2007 to move some money around. Since the beginning of October, 2007, more than a year, it hasn't had enough money in the account to earn interest. So it's lost 0%. I suspect my investment strategy in that account (procrastination) has outperformed 95% of the money managers on Wall Street.

For those who want similar results, but don't trust the banks, I'd suggest the mattress or a tin can buried in the back yard.

My reporting of the Brown v. Household Realty Corp case grew out of a discussion of non-judicial foreclosures of deeds of trust over at Rain City. In addition to Brown, there was another case in the same advance sheet that I should have reported on first, because it's probably of more interest to agents.

That other case is Home Realty v. Walsh, 146 Wn.App. 231. That case involved a purchase and sale agreement which did not close due to financing issues, and which provided for a $50,000 earnest money deposit. When the parties could not agree as to the disposition of the earnest money, the escrow deposited the funds into the court registry as part of an interpleader action.

While the deal fell apart over financing, the case did not turn on the language of the financing contingency. Instead it turned on whether there was a proper legal description. This particular agreement had language which allowed one of the agents to "attach" the legal description to the offer at a later date. The testimony was that a statutory warranty deed was faxed back and forth with some of the agreement documents, but the record was incomplete in that regard. In addition to the faxing, one of the brokers testified that he considered the warranty deed "attached" when it was placed in the same file.

The court, applying Washington's very strict statute of frauds, rejected all these arguments. That was because the only evidence connecting the warranty deed to the purchase and sale agreement was the oral testimony of two parties. The court specifically noted that the broker's file was not part of the record, and that there was no fax coversheet or other evidence of physical attachment. Accordingly, the seller was not able to keep the $50,000 earnest money.

This is a very interesting case in a number of regards. First, Washington law is not entirely consistent on allowing an earnest money to be attached later, but the court had no problem with that. Instead the problem was over proof of the attachment. That proof seemingly had to be something physical. In most cases that seemingly is done by having the parties initial and date the attachment. Often, however, the seller's initials pre-date the purchase and sale agreement because the listing agent uses the NWMLS's "attached documents" feature. I'd suggest that the better practice, even where the selling agent attaches a legal, would be to have the sellers re-initial and re-date the attachment at the same time they sign and date the rest of the purchase and sale. Assuming an offer without a legal was accepted, faxing a 20 page offer back with a cover page that indicated the legal was attached and that the fax transmission was 21 pages (not counting cover page) would probably be pretty good proof of attachment. Note, however, that the standard state-wide purchase and sale agreement has no language indicating that the legal description may be attached at a later time. That does certainly seems to be what the court was looking for where there is a clause allowing attachment. It's been my practice when the legal description is missing to attach it to a counter-offer form, and expressly provide in the counter-offer that the legal description is attached. But the best practice is for listing agents to use attached documents, and for selling agents to use them!

There's a second part of the decision which is also of interest. The sellers went on to argue that despite the missing legal description , it didn't matter because of an exception to the statute of frauds where the seller is "ready, willing and able to perform as agreed." The basis for this is that the statute of frauds is designed to protect sellers, and that the buyer shouldn't be able to take advantage of it where the seller remains "ready, willing and able." While the court accepted that argument, it found nothing in the record that the sellers were "ready, willing and able." The court also did not say what it would have required, but in a prior case the sellers "tendered" performance. I'm just guessing, without reading the prior case, that placing a deed and other documents in escrow would present such a record. The point is though, when a deal starts to fall apart, that's when the sellers should contact an attorney for directions as to how to proceed.

Finally, the standard caveat. This is not intended to be legal advice. Any time the standard practices are not followed (e.g. an offer does not contain a legal), you have a non-optional situation. What you do to fix that may or may not be adequate depending on the situation, and if it comes to litigation, the judge. Act on the advice of your own broker/attorney/agent and/or at your own peril.

Distressed homeowners got sucker punched by the legislature and executive branch when the Distressed Property law was enacted. Now it turns out the judicial branch wanted in on some of that fun too! This last summer, Division 1 of the Court of Appeals decided Brown v. Household Realty, 146 Wn.App. 157.

The holding of that case is simple, and potentially very broad. If a homeowner doesn't enjoin a foreclosure sale that they have notice of, claims against the lender for consumer protection and truth in lending act violations disappear. I find this case shocking. Although I admittedly have not fully researched the issue, if there is support for such a result under Washington law, the Brown court failed to point that out its decision.

Non-judicial foreclosures are an expedited process that do not involve court action. The applicable statutes do expressly provide that if you don't bring an action to object to the sale and enjoin it, that you waive any such objection to the sale. RCW 61.24.040 and 61.24.130. The debtor is expressly warned of that in the required notice. RCW 61.24.040. Neither the statute nor the notice go beyond that, and state that any underlying cause of action is waived. And the Plein v. Lackey or the Marriage of Kaseburg decisions relied upon by the Brown court support such a holding either. Unfortunately I no longer have the tools necessary to completely research this issue, nor do I have the inclination to do so. But when reading the statutes and the applicable state law decisions gives me no basis whatsoever to conclude a decision was right, I have problems with it.

There are other areas of the law where failing to raise claims will result in them disappearing. Waiting too long can result in the statute of limitations period expiring. If there's actual litigation, failing to bring counterclaims can make them disappear. The thing is, in all of those situations there's a statute or court rule that says the claim will disappear. In this case there's only a statute that says you can no longer challenge the sale.

In my opinion, this decision is simply not fair or right. It's very possible that the debtor might have no reason or basis to enjoin a foreclosure sale. For example, perhaps they're clearly in default in payments and have no ability to make the payments going forward. That doesn't mean that they have not been damaged. Failing to do what they cannot do, enjoin the sale, should not preclude them from bringing their cause of action before a court.

The decision is being appealed, and hopefully the Supreme Court will reach a different conclusion. There also may be hope for relief from the legislature. But until that time we're left with some very bad law that prevents people that have been damaged from bringing their claims to a court. That is wrong.

OK, so it's been about 4 1/2 months since the law changed to make it difficult for real estate agents and investors (anyone, actually) to buy from many people who have to sell - yes, those in distress.

If you want some more background, check out these two posts from this Blog earlier this year:

A Fiduciary as a Solution for Everything???

Don't Buy a Property In Foreclosure Without Consulting an Attorney

Well, I did some quick statistical analysis for King county to answer the question: "Did the law affect how many people were able to avoid foreclosure?"

Here are the stats.

For the period 1/1/2007 through 10/31/2007

3134 Notices of Trustee Sale filed
641 Trustee Deed issued
====
20.45% went to auction

For the period 1/1/2008 through 10/31/2008

5618 Notices of Trustee Sale filed
1,644 Trustee Deeds issued
====
29.26% went to auction

The law went into effect on June 12. So I did a quick comparison...

Before June 12, 2008
2,670 Notices
648 Deeds
====
24.27%

After June 12, 2008 (through tonight's online search)
2,992 Notices
1,032 Deeds
====
34.49%

OK, so a trustee deed is given for a number of reasons, but if we assume that people are dying at the same rate and trustee-transfers of property for other reasons remain relatively static, we're looking at a 10% increase in the rate of homes going all the way to auction in King county alone.

...so it would appear that the fear that the legislature intended to put into the investor community (and the realtors who might have assisted by listing the distressed homes) has indeed made it difficult for distressed homeowners to solve their problems and avoid the dreaded foreclosure...

Side note: We all know that the current economic crisis is all about how much money is out there to be lent. But did you know that a bank, once it owns these homes, cannot lend out an amount that is a multiple of the value of the asset? So every home in a bank's REO department may kill a bank's ability to lend on many other homes... talk about a liquidity crisis!

Let us all move forward toward a better America, shall we?

A few years back, I went to hear Al Franken talk in downtown Seattle. At the end of his talk, he asked for questions from the audience members. It's no big surprise that politics came up, since Mr. Franken is widely known for his political views. One audience member asked about the state of the presidency and the country after George II "won" the election. This talk took place not too long after the 2000 election. The man in the audience questioned why no one "good" ever got elected. Mr. Franken asked the man if he had voted. The man said he had never voted. Mr. Franken shared his "colorful" thoughts with the entire audience. He was furious with the man for not voting and he was not at all shy about it.

There's no need for me to belabor the fact that this could be amongst the most important elections of our life time. Everyone everywhere has been saying this for months. It's time to take some action, rather than just bemoan the sad state of affairs in this country and the world. Elections can be very close, as this decade has taught us. Don't be the one to let yourself or the candidate or issue of your choice down. Take some responsibility for our state of affairs, do something about it tomorrow and vote. And, if you don't vote, don't complain!

As many of you may know, Mr. Franken is running for the US Senate in Minnesota. I wish him well tomorrow. Personally, I would be glad to refer to him as Senator Franken.

This week the New York Times real estate section had a feature story about real estate blogs, View From the Blogs.

One of the websites mentioned was a blog about the real estate scene in Sullivan County, NY, written by a broker at Catskills Buyer Agency, David Knudsen.

I clicked on David's blog, and about 3 posts into the blog, found Rat Race Break, which caught my attention.

Here's his first paragraph:
"A really unexpected response to the economic "crisis" (or whatever you want to call the turmoil of the past 5 weeks) have been a number of calls from folks in high pressure jobs in the city thinking about taking a break from it all and moving to the country with their families for a year or two. I've talked with 4 or 5 different people who've outlined very similar scenarios. None have lost their jobs, but they're thinking that in the next year they might. Instead of being a downer to dread, they're looking at it almost as a release and a chance to realign their lives and priorities. All of them have young children, and a common refrain is wanting to watch their children grow."

I've been having those conversations with past clients for several years, but this month I talked to two more sets of people who are seriously thinking of leaving their own rat race, and both of them are thinking of a few year break, not a permanent break. Interesting.

I work King/Snohomish/Island Counties in my real estate business. I go back and forth from Seattle to Whidbey Island frequently, and find that many of my long term clients are following me back to Whidbey. I keep looking in my rear view mirror, and there they are!! ... maybe they aren't really following me, but they are making a move that fits their dreams.

As of June 2008, a commuters dream finally came true: Sound Transit has a commuter train five days a week, 4 times in the morning, 4 times in the late afternoon/early evening direct to the waterfront of downtown Edmonds and King Street Station in downtown Seattle. $4 cost, less if you've got a Puget Pass. 50 minutes to downtown Seattle, free wi-fi, gorgeous scenery. I wrote about the commuter train and Whidbey here.

Here is a little background about my dreamers:

About 3 years ago, a young couple with 2 children that I had helped buy a home in Seattle emailed me and said they wanted to sell the Seattle home, and move to Whidbey. They had had a job change, and felt the time was ripe to change lifestyles. We found them a home on South Whidbey for less than half the price of their Seattle home, they made a very large down payment, and are able to live comfortably today on just one income. A few weeks ago, I got a new baby announcement, child number 3 has arrived. Where they live is a great neighborhood, with beach rights to a wonderful saltwater beach. The husbands' parents owned a waterfront lot in the same neighborhood for 20+ years, and have finally built their dream home there too. My client helped design and work on parents new home.

A family from Bellevue is looking towards early retirement, or at least scaling down the work volume in a few years. They have 2 children, and spend time in their second home in Langley as often as possible. The trip from Bellevue to Whidbey is about an hour & half, depending on traffic on the mainland side. If there is a ferry line, they can park the car in the fee lot, walk onto the ferry, and ride the bus to the Langley home. We don't use the word 'telecommute' too much now, since it's really more of an 'internet commute'. Imagine working from home, with a great view of Puget Sound, the Cascade Mountains, boats and more. The price might surprise you.

An old roommate of mine chose a great home on a very private lot. She's in the same neighborhood as the family with the new baby, and enjoys the indoor swimming pool the community has, as well as the constant stream of wildlife thru her backyard. She works full time in Bellevue, and has a tiny apartment in town. Price range for her home on Whidbey? Under $250,000. Try to do that in Seattle or Bellevue …

A young family currently living in Oregon. Several years ago I met a couple with no kids who wanted to buy a home in Greenlake. We found a great one, they lived there and fixed it up, and sold it to go on a one year sailing trip around the world. They made that goal, or at least most of it, ending up in Mexico when she gave birth to their first child. Two kids later, they are living in Oregon, making plans to come back to the Pacific NW. They'll be looking for a home on acreage.

A retired grandmother. A good friend of mine is phasing out of her work life, and plans to move to Whidbey waterfront. She's looking for a cabin fixer, on a good beach. When she's ready, we'll sell her Kirkland home of 30 years, and find her dream home, where she'll spend her time remodeling, gardening and playing with grandchildren.

Sometimes looking at your situation differently leads to a new direction.

For the first time in years, the demographics of 'who' is buying homes is changing. We're seeing a majority of sales featuring larger than 20% down payments, and not because lenders are requiring that. Quite frankly, a lot of conservative people have owned homes for many years, and have strong equity to use towards their next home. These people are a high percentage of the buyers of today. Being conservative and sensible pays off.

People buy and sell for many reasons. Today we're seeing a 'back to basics' trend, where most people buy for lifestyle reasons, not speculation. Yes, there are still speculators out there, looking for outright bargains, but what I'm discussing here, are the bread & butter transactions that make homeownership one of the strengths our society was built on. We have always been a country dedicated to the freedom of speech, and the freedom to own property.

Today is back to vanilla if you will. The stable, vanilla folks are leading the market today, because they are able to afford where they have been, as well as realistic about affording where they will go next.