Seattle Housing Buzz

Spotlight on Queen Anne:

Single-family houses and condominiums in the area that includes Queen Anne had a median price of $483,000 in June, up 13.7 percent over the past year, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

A friend of my regularly rents art work from the Seattle Art Museum, and it seems home sellers and stagers are too:

Museum officials say they’ve seen a spike in their art-rental business thanks in part to home stagers, who redecorate houses in hopes of boosting sales prices and increasing the odds of selling.

The Farm Bureau sponsored property-rights initiative I-933 is going at it alone:

powerful allies from 1995 either are sitting on the fence, decided to remain neutral or have embraced Initiative 933 only half-heartedly

First Methodist Church on 5th Avenue gets a reprive:

Church leaders have turned their focus to another local developer, Nitze-Stagen, which would build a thinner tower leaving room for the 1910 church featuring a red-tiled dome, brick walls and stained glass.

Another ornate church on Capitol Hill is getting a new life as upscale condominium homes.

No sense reinventing the wheel…just head on over to Marlow’s 360 Digest regarding Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman’s recent field trip to hallowed-halls of Washington DC. Kelman spoke at a hearing before the US House of Representative’s Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity on the “Changing Real Estate Market” (ie attacking the privately owned MLS’).

The prepared statments can be found on the subcommittee’s website.