Early Tolling….  Right or Wrong??

  I am all for the new 520/Evergreen Floating Bridge, but I have a problem with paying a toll 3 years before it’s built.  Christine Gregoire proposed this “Early Tolling” concept.  Creative, but not fair for users.  There will be hundreds, if not thousands, of people who will use the current 520 bridge daily and pay the toll & never use the new bridge.  To me it’s the same as requiring consumers to pay for a new technology on your cable service, years before it will be available for use.   Sure, users can go with a Satellite TV provider, just like drivers can use the I-90 bridge or drive around the lake. But, for many these are their best options.   What do you think.  Leave me a comment

   With the new tolls expected to start this Spring and the high gas prices, many commuters that cross the lake will have to consider a move. Check out the links below.

 Commute Calculator (for question #6 add your expected toll charge to this section. Example: parking = $10 and tolls + $3.50 X 2  total $17) .

Search Eastside Homes                Search Westside Homes

Estimated monthly & yearly cost to use the 520 Floating Bridge for a 30 mile round trip

Click here to search eastside homes.

Click here to search westside homes

   If you have an opinion I would love to hear it.

Is it a good time to sell now? This is a follow-up posting to my January ’08 post.  The following still applies today

 Well if you are a regular reader of my blog you probably saw the posting “Should I sell my home now?” back in January of ’08. Well, the market has changed since then. The good news is this makes it a great time to sell for certain sellers.  Home values in most of Western WA have dropped since the beginning of the year.  In some areas the drop has hit the double digit percentage. How could it be good to sell when your home may be worth $50,000 less then last year?

  Here’s how… 

For move up sellers. Seller who plan to move up to a more valuable home.

Last year your homes market value was around $500,000. For the ease of calculation I will use 10% in this example. This year your homes market value dropped by 10% ($50,000)  and now is valued at $450,000 . Your plan is to buy a $900,000 home. The home you choose also had a drop of 10%. That $900,000 home last year had a market value of $1 million a difference of $100,000. You would actually save $50,000 by buying up.

  How did I get that #? $100,000 (the drop in value for the home valued at $1 million last year) - $50,000 (the drop in value for the home valued at $500k last year) = $50,000 savings.

  Who shouldn’t sell now?

 Sellers who are freaked out by the market and have no plans to “buy up”, should NOT sell. Think of.. buy low, sell high.

Don’t forget, in order to sell your house the price has to be better than all of the comparable homes. If it’s not, expect the potential buyers to move on to the better priced home. Inventory is up.  Buyers know this and will move on to the next house if the price isn’t right.

 For more info about your homes market value & selling your home please contact me @ 206-465-7257.

To search for homes/real estate in the Seattle & Bellevue areas click here.

Visit www.GregRBenson.com for more info about buying and selling a home or condo

See The Best Real Estate Deals In Bothell WA. Bank Owned & REO Homes For Sale.

Click on the image below to view an updated list of all Bank Owned and REO homes in Bothell Washington.

The city of Bothell is half in King County and half in Snohomish County.  Located just North of Kirkland and about a 20 min commute to Bellevue  & Redmond.  Bothell had a new construction boom in the mid 2000′s in many of it’s outlying areas.  Now there are many of these homes back on the market as Short Sales or bank owned/REO homes. This means great deals for buyers. interest rates are near record lows and home values are like they were in 2005-06.   I am confident we will not experience affordability like this again in our lifetimes.

  See an updated list of all of the best real estate deals in Bothell, WA.

Search for Condos & Townhomes on O-Condo.com

Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah & the rest of the eastside has a site specifically for the condo and townhomes buyers and sellers. 

O-Condo.com is a Condo & Townhouse specific site created for buyers and sellers in and around the Bellevue area. You can search condos and Townhomes for sale and/or get the market value of a condo or Townhouse. 

  There is also a quick condo/Townhouse search page set up for those looking for condos in a specific area and price range. 

  Check it out. It’s pretty cool!  

 Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah & the rest of the eastside has a site specifically for the condo and townhomes buyers and sellers.