The Pirate’s Booty Seafair Milk Carton Derby
Located in Green Lake, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the 41st annual Milk Carton Derby will be featuring over 100 contestant boats, made of milk cartons, competing on the lake for prizes!  There are both shows and racing, and the boats are built of milk cartons by children but there are also events for adults.  And hear this, there are over $10,000 of prizes being offered to the lucky (or skillful, or both) winners.  There are all kinds of Seafair celebs expected to be there, including the Seafair Princess, and rumor has it opportunities to pet pigs will abound.  It sounds like a lot of fun and will certainly give the Sounders game some competition for the most entertaining event in Seattle tomorrow… but wait, there’s more…

 White Center Jubilee Days, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
This neighborhood event has been happening in White Center for 88 years!  During the days of the festival there’s a Spring Fling, a Pinewood Derby, a Rollerskating Party, Carnival is 3 to 10 p.m. at Steve Cox Memorial Park, Fireworks start at dusk.  There is also a Garden Tour, Gala Auction, and a Car Show.  On the 16th the event is a Street Fair.

Kirkland Uncorked  11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
A tasting garden with grilling demonstrations, wine sipping, live music!  But don’t miss the dog modeling contest, the boat show, the artist showrooms… and don’t miss the alluring lakeside Kirkland downtown area, absorbing on any regular weekend but all dressed up and ready to party this Saturday.  The Annual Grill Off takes place 5 to 6 p.m.  check the website for more details.

Covington Days Festival 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The festival happens all day, but get there early so you don’t miss the parade, which is starting at 10 a.m.  There’s an art show, a watermellon eating contest, live music, arts and crafts, vendor booths, kids’ activities, Carnival, and a DJ!  Here is the website if you are going to be in the area!

Bon Odori 4p.m. to 10 p.m. (and Sunday 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.)
I still remember the smoky night air in the hot sticky Japan summer.  Around a bonfire the village people (in these times neighborhoods qualify) in cotton summer kimonos called Yukata dance the old village dances.  This festival happens in July or August and honors the ancestors.  There will be craft exhibits, performances, wonderful yakitori (skewered chicken) roast corn, and other summer festival food, and of course the dancing.  It’s not so hard, join in and learn the steps as you go, the drums and shrill flutes are mesmerizing and you will feel summer in your bones.  Here is the website for this year’s festival.

Best Real Estate Deals in Seattle

One of the most frequently asked questions I get are “where can I find the best real estate deals in Seattle?” and “what’s the hottest area in Seattle?”   Honestly, there is value in every market and in every neighborhood.  I know that sounds like a cliché, but that is the truth.  That statement is more evident in the current real estate market and buyers are taking advantage.

I did a very general search today for homes, non-condo under 300k in Queen Anne, Magnolia, Belltown, Downtown, Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford, and Green Lake and came up with OVER 100 listings! 

Read the Full Story

Seattle Real Estate

One of the most delightful things about Seattle is the abundance of nature surrounding us.  Although this is a large metropolitan city, I appreciate the fact that you can escape to nature at any time.  Big or large, we have parks situated in every neighborhood and convenient access to rivers, lakes, and vast ocean.  However, with the rapid development and higher cost of real estate, many Seattleites resorted to condos and townhomes that did not leave much space for those with green thumbs.  So, when I noticed community gardens or patches popping up everywhere, I wasn’t surprised at all.

Community gardens are simply a piece of land gardened by a group of people.  The neat thing about them is that not only it provides a mean for people to garden and produce fresh produce, it also promotes sense of community, healthier urban environment, and pride of ownership.  People can experience both the joy of growing and being in touch with the source of their food.

In Seattle, the city began the non-profit organization P-Patch Trust 35 years ago.  According to the City of Seattle website, the organization acquires, builds and protects community gardens in Seattle.  Most of the supplies are provided at the sites, such as water and tools.  Your responsibility as a community gardener is to care for your plot.

Interesting facts about P-Patch:

- The “P” originally stood for “Picardo”, after the family who owned Picardo Farm, part of which became the original P-Patch.

-The P-Patch program only allows organic farming techniques to be used on these plots.

-The P-Patch community gardeners give back to the city by supplying 7 to 10 tons of produce to Seattle food banks each year.

-You are not allowed to sell what you grow, only share it or donate it.

As the broadening interest in organic food source and gardening increases, you will see the demand for community gardens increase.  The city currently has 55 patches in the city but most of them do have a waiting list.  If you are interested in starting your own Community Patch or for more information, check out City of Seattle website!

Community Patch in Seattle Neighborhoods

I just have to mention that they use Cafe Vita coffee, which is my new Seattle roasted favorite (see Cafe Vita Phinney Ridge blog).  Other wildly good goodies available depending when you visit are the blueberry muffins, ginger molasses cookies, mini chocolate chip cupcakes, and breakfast and lunch choices abound, for example the “eggle” a bagle with egg, or spicy chicken chilli or quiche.

It’s quiet, warm, welcoming, friendly, all in all, highly recommended!  Check out the Menu.

Now owned and operated by the third generation of Greggs, the cycle shop has expanded from it’s first incarnation at Green Lake to include a location in Bellevue and one at Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood.  Stan Gregg, a lifelong Seattle resident, has been competing in the cycling pro world since 1986.  He has won many medals including, according to the hisotry, 15 national and 9 international medals!  Wow.

When you enter the store (“shop” makes it sound a lot smaller than it is) you will probably appreciate that it’s divided up into five or six distinct spaces.  There is an accessories wing, a small showroom with attentive clerks, a pro shop (for bikes over about $3000), a huge barn-like showroom with bikes lined up on floors walls, and ceiling, and then some other sections like for shoes and helmets.

While I was there I saw numerous cyclists with their bikes in tow come in the doors for help on an adjustment or to get some necessity.  Green Lake is a center for all kinds of sports and fitness activity, as well as the enjoyment of the fresh air in just walking the lake and taking in the sun, so it’s kind of a no brainer that a cycle shop would make it’s home here.  What makes Gregg’s special is the long and devoted history to cycling and to the community too.

Something to know about this local favorite with six locations is that they use fresh and natural ingredients.  How often have you wondered what kind of water or beef they used to make your soup or sandwich?  With Duke’s, wonder no more.  The website and the menus explain pretty clearly that all their ingredients are fresh, and 100% natural.  In fact, it explains that this clam chowder is the only 100% natural in the world, with no flavor enhancers, no color enhancers, chemicals or preservatives.  They don’t have Atlantic or farmed salmon.  They cook with oil that has no trans fat.  They use wild Alaskan seafood.  They use beef  and chicken that is free of hormones, drugs, and antibiotics.  The list goes on!  For me, it is just the best tasting clam chowder ever… so much for flavor “enhancers”.

Or perhaps you are going out for drinks with your friends or your sweetheart?  Then if I were you I would try hard to make it to Happy Hour, which is 3-6 and 9-close (they close at 12 Friday and Saturday and 11 the other nights, dinner ends an hour before closing).  They have great cocktails including a famous “bloody bloody Mary”, a Blueberry Lemon Drop, some great Mojitos including Cucumber (woa?!) and their Grapefruit Nirvanna was voted “most refreshing cocktail in Seattle” in 2011.

Last year Dave and I were sitting with Maura and Keith on the deck of the West Seattle Duke’s (on Alki overlooking the beach) and had what I am pretty sure was the best happy hour in history, pretty much reminding me most of those late Sunday mornings in SF for brunch at Mission Bay Cafe, watching the little boats pull up to the pier and people climb up for breakfast on the deck over the auto body shop.  Thanks, Dukes.  Don’t ever stop doing what you do!

Townhouses in Green Lake
Want to live as close as possible to Duke’s in Green Lake?  I just checked on what townhouses are active on the market between $200,000 and $300,000, and here is a list of all of them.  Then I got ambitious and checked to see all the townhouses in Green Lake that are on the market right now between $300,000 and $400,000 and here is that list.  Tell me what else you might want to see and I will send it to you (edy@seattlecentric.com).

*please note, as I understand it, these links will auto-update so the ones that are not active go off and new ones are added as they come on the market, and the link will be good for 30 days   I’ll check back but if anything changes just write me.

But enough of this, let’s talk about a great place to eat in … er… Green Lake.  The Greenlake Bar & Grill.  If you click on their logo on the Neighborhood Grills website (this is one of a group of restaurants which also include Eastlake Bar & Grill (one of our favorites), Lake Forest Park Bar & Grill (great eats, service only so so) Lunchbox Laboratory (recently I blogged on it) in South Lake Union, and two I have not tried, Crossroads Bar and Grill and Bremmerton Bar and Grill).  ANYway, if you click on the Greenlake logo, you will get a cool video of the venue and nearby Green Lake too.

The food is great, plentiful, and deservedly talked about with real pleasure by the regulars!  They do a breakfast daily from 9 to 11 with such favorites as Buttermilk Pancakes, various scrambles, Breakfast Tacos, Veggie Fritatta, Shirmp and Potato Cakes…brunch is Saturdays and Sundays 9-2 with a grilled steak and blue cheese salad, fish and chips, burgers, angus prime dip, Piggy Mac n Cheese topped with grilled chicken, and more.  The menus are on their website along with lunch, dinner, and happy hour (finger foods like smokey cheddar fries and so much more, salads, burgers, well drinks, beers, all at very happy prices) menus too.

The same dishes do show up throughout all the menus as appropriate for time of day, but they do have daily specials as well.  Yesterday these included, for lunch on the $7.99 Big Deal Lunch, a Chicken Rice Bowl, Patty Melt done up right, Asian BBQ Salmon Sandwich, combos, for rotating drafts Elysian Perseus Porter, Pyramid Curveball Blonde, Sierra Nevada pale Ale, and Sam Adams Summer Ale (well, it WAS pretty sunny after all) and cocktails that included an Orange Mojito, Acai Cosmo, and Whipped Caramel Cocoa with two kinds of vodka.

For me though, it’s as much the atmosphere that makes it a good choice, the light from the park slanting in the windows, the architectural spaces and privacy created by the inspired layout, the mood lighting and fast, friendly and efficient service.  Try it and let me know what you think!  And don’t forget to grab a latte and walk around the lake when you’re done with your meal.

While we’re on the subject, Green Lake is a place people love to live, and come to from surrounding areas and actually all over, to play and relax.  It is known as a center of physical fitness activity for one, a serene getaway in the midst of the city, a place with great eateries and a few good shops too, and all the sports and play opportunities that the Green Lake Park itself offers. It is a wonderful little pocket of lifestyle in the heart (well, northern heart) of Seattle, Green Lake real estate is always in demand simply because of what the lake provides, as well as the proximity to the downtown area making it a “dream commute” and easy to get to I-520 or I-90 to get to the Eastside too.  It is also one of the smaller neighborhoods space wise, creating more demand than the housing that exists, which keeps value high.  In recent years (but before the slow down in the market) there were many nice townhouse projects executed to the north and west of the central Green Lake area which brought more affordable housing into the highly desirable area.

Here is a link you can click to see all the homes in this category (interactive with photos) and then I’ll list them below one by one so you can check them out without going to that link.  The price points here are from a tempting $274,900 (you’d better believe I’m going to go see that one, it’s an REO) to a modest $945,000 for a 3,000 square foot classic Cape Cod built in 1904, and right on the lake.

CLICK ME to see the listings!

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 193622 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 217813 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 211812 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 106845 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 213272 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 186913 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 198375 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 219799 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 204343 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 219169 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 100459 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 199894 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 193316 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 192718 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 208367 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 172800 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 189581 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 189635 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 208778 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 212271 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 219362 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 218123 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 168702 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 218966 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 128050 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

Green Lake is a neighborhood, a park, a playground, a community center, a library, a scattering of coffee shops and eateries, a rollerblading, running, stroller wheeling kind of place.  There is a boat rental (and summer kayaking lessons for kids), seasonal inline skate and windsurfer rentals.  What is it like in May?  We’ve had an unusually high number of rainy days this spring and when the sun came out yesterday people were literally overjoyed.

I stopped by Green Lake on my way home from an inspection to take in some rays while strolling along one of the two 3 mile paths that circle the lake, see who was out and what they were up to, and get the vibes of the lake in May.  I saw a pick up basket ball game, joggers, mommies and daddies with strollers, bicycle enthusiasts bringing their bikes into Gregg’s Cycles (one of the largest cycle shops in the city and here at Green Lake since 1937), sunning and sipping at the Starbucks on the corner, dining at Green Lake Grill and other eateries situated just across the lake on the north end, running, sunning, sitting on benches talking to each other, lying on blankets on the grass, kids feeding squirrels and playing on the huge playground, someone fishing.  While there were no boats out on the water, I expect if it’s sunny this weekend you will definitely be able to see some of those as well!

Here’s a fun fact, how many people knew that Green Lake, while at present only about 15 feet deep at its deepest, is (along with Haller Lake and Bitter Lake in North Seattle) the remains of what was once a gigantic Ice Age lake!  This body of water during the Ice Age stretched from Olympia north to where the city of Everett is now located.

The trolly line used to take well-heeled Seattle residents up from the city to their summer residences a half hour north at Green Lake.  Now some of those grand old Victorians facing the lake, true Seattle collectables, are understandable as they were the summer homes in past days of some of the city’s most prominent residents.  And of course in these days of the automobile a location in Green Lake is highly prized as one of the most accessible residential areas to downtown.

If you are the parent of a college kid,  you might want to take a minute to think about real estate investing.  You’re already spending a ton of money sending the kid to school, “investing” in his or her future, so why not hedge your bets on an investment that might actually pay you back someday?  Think about it- you’ve got at least four years of living expenses to pay for on top of the tuition. You can either throw it away paying for a tiny, overpriced dorm or some dumpy, overpriced rental, OR you can take that money and put it toward something that has a future. Like real estate.  Let me explain…

I went to Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, so I will use that area as an example, though the numbers would likely look quite similar in just about any college town. Rates per person at Western’s dorms run roughly $500 (3 kids in a room) to $800+ (single occupancy) per month, NOT including food expenses.  Rental rates anywhere near campus run about $400-600 a month per room, depending on the number of rooms.  Studios and 1-bedrooms are commonly $700-900/month, whereas you might find a decent  3-bedroom for $1400.   Let’s be conservative and say it’s about $600/month on average, per room. Over 4 years (48 months) that’s almost $30,000(!) that you will NEVER get back.  As Everett Dirksen famously said,“ A billion here, a billion there…pretty soon you’re talking about real money!”

Consider this:  Right now, you can buy a 1-bedroom, 600 square foot condo, built in 2006, less than a half-mile from Western Washington University, for $120k.  With 20% down at 6% interest, the monthly payment, which includes taxes, insurance, and HOA dues (W/S/G) comes to about $825, leaving only electricity and cable for expenses.  Sounds like kind of a lot, doesn’t it? Let’s take a closer look.

• Similar units in this building are currently renting for between $725 and $800.

• You can write off some (maybe  all) of your interest payments , giving you roughly 25% back at tax time, depending on your bracket, making the effective monthly expense closer to $600. Make sure to talk to your accountant about this and other creative write-offs you might find…

• As an owner, your monthly expenses remain fixed over time.  According to a colleague who studies rent growth in the area, rents near Western have increased at an average of about 6% per year, over the past 5 years.  Assuming that trend were to continue, the monthly rent on that same unit would go up  to almost $900-$1000 by the 4th year of your student’s education. Over 4 years, that would cost you between $38000-$42000 in rent! Gone, flushed….never to be seen again…

• Don’t forget about appreciation! Even in these tough times, most analysts are expecting the market to have corrected itself in the next couple of years, meaning there is a good chance the value of your investment will begin to increase during the 4-5 years that your student will live there. That’s right, you might even MAKE money on this thing! Worst case, you can always hang onto it to make sure the kid doesn’t try to move back in with you after college…

This is just one example, of course.  There  are several other condo opportunities I can point you toward.  There are also houses and duplexes, etc… The numbers can look even better if you buy something with more rooms. Then, you can collect $500-$700/month of OTHER PEOPLE’S money! That ‘s the best kind of money, after all…

If you’d like to look more seriously at this type of investment, keep in mind that there are all kinds of different programs available, requiring anywhere from 3.5% to 20% down.  You can buy as an investment property, as a second home for yourself, or possibly as a first home for the kid. Each of these options has it’s own credit and income requirements, as well as unique tax implications.  Again, I would suggest consulting your accountant, as well as a mortgage professional, to make sure you understand clearly these particular details. You can talk to me if you want to know where to find these properties.

Thanks for reading! Please leave comments or suggestions below, e-mail me at rob.leroy@exprealty.com, or call me at 206.883.6668 …and yes, you CAN hire me as your real estate agent!

Rob LeRoy is a Seattle real estate agent and social media marketing coach with eXp Realty.