You may have noticed that you received a piece of mail this month from the U.S. Department of Commerce.  It has a big, can’t ignore it, sign on the front of the envelope that says “Your response is required by law”.  If you’re concerned about privacy issues you can check out their website for more information.  www.census.gov/2010census

For the housing industry it helps the government track how many people live in rental housing or owner-occupied housing.  These statistics have been followed closely for several decades now because the housing industry impacts so much of our national economy – which has become even more evident as the USA sorts itself out through this recent financial crisis.  Property taxes and excise taxes (paid when homes are sold/change hands) having gone down drastically over the past couple of years which has definitely impacted local economies from cities, to counties, and states who rely on those funds to fill the majority of their general funds, paying for all manner of services.

So, do your civic duty and fill out your census!

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Kidtastic Sale 

For ONE WEEK ONLY, We have slashed our prices on ALL BABY and KIDS items.  With savings up to 40% off, now is the time to stock up on eco-friendly gifts or buy a special treat for the little one in your life. Sale runs March 15th- March 21st, 2010.  Start shopping today at Tread Light Gifts  

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WR Urges Call to Action on Proposed Tax Increase
Please send a message immediately to State House members to stop taxes on real estate. The Senate’s budget increases the B&O .25% on real estate professionals, as well as shifts the real estate excise tax onto the buyer of a foreclosed home. The Senate’s budget passed the Senate and is now being considered in the House.

The message above was sent out to real estate agents who are members of the local multiple listing service along with a link to the site where we could send a message to our representatives.  For the general public, I realize that you may not care if real estate professionals are hit with a higher Business & Occupation (B&O) tax, but know that we have the highest rate of such a tax in this state. 

The more important issue to the home buying public is the shift of moving the excise tax payment burden from the seller to a buyer of a foreclosed home.  All this does is help lessen the costs of banks when selling their foreclosed inventory and it puts a higher cost burden on the buyers, who in many cases for first time buyers are just barely qualifying for the amounts that they’re purchasing in.  If excise tax, which runs 1.78% here, is now put on them as a closing cost fee, then that buyer ends up paying the tax twice because they’ll have to pay it again later when they sell the home at whatever that new value will be at that time.  Also, it will lessen the amount of home purchasing power that they’ll have, at least when it comes to buying bank owned homes because that will likely be part of the qualifying factors for the lender when they do their underwriting review.  If a buyer is qualified at $200k for a traditional purchase but now 1.78% ($3,560 in this case) must be considered, then a buyer may not be able to buy a $199k home because the excise tax payment requirement puts them just out of reach if they originally only needed $7,000 for down payment via FHA (3.5%), PMI payment of roughly the same amount (possibly wrapped into financing) still increasing cost of loan and impacting qualifying factors, and reducing what they might have in their “reserve” accounts which are also factored in for qualifying because most banks want 3-6 months worth of funds available at closing.

If you are in support of not having the excise tax payment shift made to buyers, please contact your State representative immediately!

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Richard Conlin has a newsletter that goes out monthly that I peruse regularly to keep abreast of changes going on in Seattle.  In today’s letter is a link to information on actions that Seattle City Council is taking to do additional research into best options for the west side interchange of what will eventually need to be a new 520 bridge crossing across Lake Washington.  Check it out for more details.

For homeowners on either side of the bridge, the eventual work will have an impact on traffic for a while but the final choice for the interchange will also impact quality of life depending on who you are.  If traffic can be improved, then it will give more options for homeowners to decide which “side” of the lake they want to be and make commuting to work more reasonable. If a short term view is taken then we’ll be fighting about this for 20 more years when more improvements need to be made because capacity and flow becomes an issue again.

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