Madison Park

Madison Park Real Estate Update, Feb. 2010

New evidence of a real estate market turnaround? The big news in the Madison Park real estate market last month was the report by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS) that the median price of Seattle homes sold in January was actually higher than in the same month a year earlier. For the city as a whole, this represented a 2.63% increase over the past year (houses and combos combined). It is the first time in almost two years that there has been a year-over-year increase in Seattle’s residential property values. The rest of King County did not fare as well, however, with home values continuing their downward trend. But how did prices hold up in our neighborhood? Madison Park itself is a market that’s a bit too small for year-to-year median price comparisons to be meaningful (seven total home sales in January 2009 and only five this year). But for our general area of the City (MLS Area 390, which also includes Capitol Hill, Montlake, Madison Valley, Madrona, and Leschi), the news was pretty good. There was a modest 2.1% increase in value between January last year and this. This improvement, however, perhaps has more to do with a year over year change in the mix of sales... 

Seattle Japanese Gardens 50th Anniversary

Seattle Japanese Garden The Japanese Garden in the Arboretum is about to end its winter hiatus, reopening on Sunday, February 14, for its 50th Anniversary season. Rated by a garden journal as one of the ten favorite Japanese gardens in the country, Seattle’s Japanese Garden was inaugurated in July 1960, after only four months of construction. It’s now ready to celebrate a half century of giving pleasure to visitors seeking sanctuary and a connection to nature. The concept of adding a Japanese Garden to the Arboretum goes back to 1937, but it took another twenty years for the idea to gain enough popular support to enable fundraising to begin for the project (a war against Japan had intervened). In 1959, with funds in hand and the design completed, Juki Iida and Nobumasa Kitamura were hired to build the garden, which originally was scheduled to take up to three years to complete. Using heavy construction equipment, a somewhat scaled-back design, and a capable crew of mostly Japanese-American gardeners, the builders transformed an Arboretum ravine into a colorful and tranquil garden, offset by boulders, water features and formal elements. And they did it all in record time. (That’s... 

Mother’s Day at the Washington Park Arboretum

This year marks the 75th  anniversary of the Washington Park Arboretum.   It was officially established then in a “joint agreement” between the city of Seattle and the University of Washington.  Hardly a month goes by without at Washington Park Arboretum Celebrates Mother's Day least a quick visit for our family as the seasons bring ever changing beauty to this spectacular urban green space.  The Arboretum is located just east of downtown Seattle on the shores of Lake Washington (south of UW).  This lovely area is the home of an internationally recognized “woody plant collection” (trees and stuff like that) which includes maples, hollies, oaks, camellias, and of course the conifers.  (If your visiting friends are always pointing at a tree with needles and saying “what kind is that?” and you never know, here is where you can find out.) What is happening here on Mother’s Day?  I wondered about it as we are still in the formulation stages of our plans (part of life as a real estate agent is that kids learn to fit into the schedule on weekends).  It seems there is an annual Mother’s Day tradition at the Arboretum, the Azalea Walk. ...