Month: February 2010

Police Chief Search Committee hears concerns

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About two-dozen people turned out for the first of three public meetings devoted to finding Seattle’s next police chief. It took place at the Northgate Community Center on Feb. 10. Not unexpectedly, crime was on the minds of some who spoke.

Tunny Vann, a UW student, cited an event that happened the day before, during which a SWAT team showed up a few blocks north of campus. Vann, chair of a campus committee on student safety, said he learned of it after the fact by friends who questioned why they didn’t receive an alert from the campus police department.

“I called UWPD, [they] transferred me to SPD – SPD transferred me to UWPD,” Vann said. Eventually he spoke with a dispatcher, who told him things were under control. “I feel like there’s a lot of miscommunication going on,” he said.

Jens Gundlach, a professor of physics at the University of Washington, said that his house was burglarized about a month ago and many items were stolen. “We called the police of course and they were very responsive,” Gundlach said, adding that the officers were very friendly, “but that’s where it ended.” Despite leaving repeated phone messages, he has been unable to follow up with police.

Possible ‘double dip’ in home values?

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And now in more (not so) good news on the economic front, Zillow is suggesting that there may be a looming “double-dip” in home values.

At least from Seattle’s perspective, we’re not listed as one of most likely candidates for another drop in value, but data from Zillow’s Home Value Index indicates if you bought anytime in the last few years, your home is probably worth less than when you bought it.

Here’s a chart showing the change in values over the last five years.

Zillow Home Value Index
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According to Zillow, here are some toplevel findings:

  • Decreasing Home Values: Home values changed -5.8% to a Zillow Home Value Index of $300,400. Values also fell in the short-term, changing -0.5% from November to December. The Zillow Home Value Index measures the value of all homes, not just those that sold in a particular period.
  • Homes with Negative equity: 22 percent of all owners of single-family homes with mortgages were underwater at the end of Q4.
  • Foreclosure re-sales: 19.5 percent of all sales in December were foreclosure re-sales (REO sales). Nationally, foreclosure re-sales made up 20.3 percent of all sales.
  • Homes sold for a loss: 18.5% of all homes sold in December sold for a loss.

I’m not a real estate analyst, so I’ll point to the SeattlePI for more information.

Spring has sprung in Ballard

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As the east coast is getting walloped by a winter storm, we’ve been enjoying spring-like weather here in Ballard. Robby emailed us, “I was walking today in Ballard, and I …

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Proposed low-income housing draws mixed reviews

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Housing the homeless is a good idea, right? But what happens when the housing is next door to you?

On Monday night at Ballard High School, the Seattle Department of Planning and Development convened a design review board that consisted of architects from the Weinstein AIU architectural firm. The purpose of the public meeting was to discuss design options (.pdf) for newly approved low-income housing in downtown Ballard.

The housing is being developed by the Compass Center, a longtime fixture in downtown Seattle. It will be 57,000 square feet, seven stories high and house 80 residents. The building site is on Northwest 56th Street between 17th and 20th Avenues Northwest.

The Compass Center Ballard will be a new housing facility that will provide housing for homeless and low-income men and women who have issues that range from mental health to drug and alcohol dependency, according to its website.

Rumi Takahashi, the project’s lead architect, said although the project is in its early design stages, it will move forward and the Compass Center has already purchased the land. “They have now recently secured funding for the project, so financially we’re a go,” Takahashi said. She added that the money comes from a combination of public sources: the state, the county and the city.

Although the meeting was supposed to be about design options, local residents seemed more concerned with how the residents of the Compass Center were going to interact with the community.