Great Places

Get Your Neighborhood’s Walk Score

Along with the trends toward higher density and smaller households comes the new word “walkability”. Every urban agent knows that how close a property is located to stores, shops, restaurants, libraries, parks and especially coffee shops has a lot to do with its value, with the highest prize going to the properties that are a pleasant short walk from those amenities.

Now you can get your neighborhood’s walkability by the numbers at Walkscore.com

Update: The buzzword is growing legs…more about walkability here.

Urban Downsizing

Here is an inspirational article from the Seattle Time’s Pacific Northwest Magazine about some very unique and innovative approaches to urban downsizing. Read it here.

Westward Migration Continues

An article in the PI talks about retirees who are following their children’s moves to Seattle, and the trends that lead them here. Many retirees choose to stay where they have lived their lives, others move to resort areas with a better climate for activities they enjoy. Others, whom we have seen more and more of, are moving to where their children, and especially grandchildren, are. The article talks about how our nation’s high degree of mobility has caused families to be geographically far-flung, yet the need that families have to be together is still there.

One of the couples choose to buy a small bungalow in a part of Seattle that reflects their ethnic heritage, and another chose a townhouse in Fremont because of the cultural diversity there.

Walla Walla for Wine, and Retirement

Walla Walla has arrived as the destination for weekend wine touring, and now is perfect for retirement living with over 300 days a year of sunshine, an upscale but still affordable small-town atmosphere, 3 colleges, an airport with daily flights to Seattle, and excellent healthcare.

View current listings in Walla Walla

Money Magazine, Best Places to Retire

Seattle Times article

LA Times article

Poulsbo Place

In this Kitsap Sun article, Steven Garner tells about Poulsbo Place, a re-developed housing project in downtown Polsbo, that has been a huge success, especially for empty nesters. The reasons for it’s success?

• Small lots offer just enough space for detached homes that are just the right size and function for empty-nest homeowners. Many have main-floor master bedrooms, and are around 1500 to 1800sf.
• They are in walking distance to picturesque downtown Polsbo, a minor tourist mecca, with a marina and cultural activites.
• Priced right, most under $400,000.

The article goes on to talk about how other towns can provide a place for down-sizing citizens who want to stay in the same town but have less house without going into a stacked-up condo can get the same thing. Polsbo was fortunate in having an area to re-develop. Other towns closer to Seattle, like Kenmore and Burien have similar opportunities in that the Cities own or have control of large peices of land where an entire neighborhood can be created. Burien’s is under construction, Kenmore’s hopes to start soon. The redevelopment of the south parking lot at Northgate is another good example that is underway now.

Unfortunately, these developments have gone for combinations of buildings of flats, and townhouses, not small houses on small lots. It seems the economics of land value make it difficult to do less intense small-lot development too close-in. An MLS search in this areas reveals lots of small houses on small lots, some even single level, located in the ring of suburbs around Seattle, in addition to some redeveloped areas in South and West Seattle.

In established neighborhoods many cities are experimenting with re-zoning to smaller lots, or allowing infill accessory units to be added to back yards.

Search for Poulsbo Homes Condos and Small Homes

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