Seattle Housing Market Update

by Louis Howard

Seattle continues to be hotter than a habanero pepper with housing records continuing to fall month. below is an example of the latest.

The Seattle Area Market
Following up on a record-breaking spring, the county’s real-estate market had its hottest month of July since such monthly records began in 2000, with prices rising 18.6 percent from a year ago.

The new median price is $658,000, or $103,000 more than last July, according to monthly data released Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Just a down payment on the median house costs about $20,000 more than a year ago. So first-time buyers who didn’t save up that much in the past year are further from buying a house today than they were a year ago.

Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff isn’t worried about the threat of newly-public Redfin — but he thinks the rest of the real estate industry should be. He made that clear during a conference call associated with Zillow’s second-quarter earnings Tuesday in which he went so far as to say that Redfin is a “threat” to the traditional real estate industry.

“Undoubtedly, one of Redfin’s goals is to obviate the buyer’s agent,” Rascoff said on the call. “I think they have stated, quite publicly, that they aim to acquire more listings inventory in given markets, and then have no buyers’ agents on the other side of those listings. And that is a threat to organized real estate, and that’s one of the many reasons why brokerages are so t was interesting to hear Rascoff rise up as the defender of traditional real estate agents, since Zillow at one time was perceived as the villain in many real estate circles. It was also noteworthy that Rascoff took such direct aim at Redfin, which raised $138 million in its IPO last week.

N. Korea Retracts its Intent to Attack

Winning: North Korea Backs Down from Guam Threat

North Korea backed down Monday from a threat to fire missiles at the U.S. territory of Guam, according to a North Korean state media report cited by the Wall Street Journal.

Dictator Kim Jong-un had decided against the missile attack, according to the report, after making preparations to launch it. He warned that North Korea was still ready to attack Guam if the U.S. continued to make “arrogant provocations” and “unilateral demands.”

“If the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean Peninsula and in its vicinity, testing the self-restraint of the DPRK, the [North] will make an important decision as it already declared,” he said.

North Korea’s decision to back down is a major victory for the United States, as it was achieved — apparently — with no concessions to the regime, and after a sustained “Twitter war” of words with President Donald Trump.

Jury Rules In Taylor Swift’s Favor

According to recent story from the New York post singer Taylor Swifts wins lawsuit against DJ. read full story below

Pop star Taylor Swift won $1 and long-awaited vindication as a Denver jury Monday decided that a radio host groped her during a pre-concert photo-op four years ago.

After a week-long trial over dueling lawsuits, jurors determined in less than five hours of deliberations that fired Denver DJ David Mueller assaulted the “I Knew You Were Trouble” singer by grabbing her backside as his photo with the star was being taken.

The six-woman, two-man jury also found that Swift’s mother and radio liaison were within their rights to contact Mueller’s bosses.

Mueller sued the Swifts and their radio handler, Frank Bell, seeking up to $3 million for his ruined career.

The “Shake It Off” singer broke down in tears earlier Monday as Mueller’s lawyer used a now-infamous photo from the 2013 meet-and-greet to refute her allegations.

“Look at Ms. Swift’s face and ask yourself, ‘Is that the face of a person who just had a strange man grab her butt?’ ” attorney Gabe McFarland told jurors during closing arguments.

“That’s the face of someone who is taking a nice photograph.”

The pic shows a red-lipped Swift smiling alongside a blond woman and Mueller, whose right hand is hidden behind the pop star’s black skirt.

“Not a single witness who was there gave any indication that they saw Mr. Mueller bend over or lean down to get low enough to get under Ms. Swift’s skirt,” McFarland said. “He’s not lifting up the skirt . . . It’s not disturbed, it’s perfectly aligned.”

Mueller, 55, sued the singer, her mother Andrea Finlay and her radio liaison Frank Bell in 2015, claiming he was fired from his $150,000-a-year job at KYGO over the allegations.

My Insights On Adoptions

The blog is near and dear to my heart as an an adopted child with multiple mother and father figures throughout my early life adoption had a direct impact on how my journey began. It does not however,  have an impact on how my journey will but being adopted had an impact on my psyche, self esteem and sense of acceptance. To anyone  who has been adopted I share the journey which you have taken. My goal is to share light on this aspect of our culture.

What is Adoption:

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person’s biological or legal parent or parents, and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from the biological parent or parents.

 

  • One out of every 25 U.S. families with children have an adopted child. …
  • Roughly 40% of adoptions are from the U.S. foster care system.
  • There are 107,918 foster children eligible for and waiting to be adopted. …
  • 81.5 million Americans have considered adoption.

 

Adoption became an official legal process (and not just an informal practice) in the 1850s. And over the last 150 years, the institution has evolved and changed along with society. Today, about 135,000 children are adopted in America every year — from the foster care system, private domestic agencies, family members, and other countries.

Celebrities like Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis, and Katherine Heigl have increased its visibility. Movements like feminism, Civil Rights, and LGBT equality have transformed ideas about who can and should adopt.

“Up to at least the 1970s, adoption was only for babies and only by married couples who could not produce children biologically,” explains Gloria Hochman, director of communications at the National Adoption Center. “And people adopted children who looked like them.”

The number of single women placing babies for adoption has dropped dramatically — from 9% of all births to 1% — as unwed motherhood loses its stigma. And our attitudes change.”

One major factor is the rise of foster care and international adoption, which he says really started after the Korean War: There was a movement to adopt the war orphans, many of whom were mixed-race children of American

Only 2% of children who age out of foster care will go on to get a college education, and 80% of the prison population comprises adults who were in the foster care system at some point on their childhood.

In fact, the U.S. adopts more children than the rest of the world combined, internationally as well as domestically,

The U.K. also adopts a large number of children, he adds, though mostly from their public foster care system. Italy, Spain and France were the other most adoptive countries in 2013. Why so much here? “We have a culture of immigration, of diverse families, of interracial marriage, of people looking different,” he says. “Unlike countries where bloodlines are a part of the culture, we were willing to have families that were different, with children who did not necessarily look like their parents.”

Local resources and agencies

 

  • Christianfamilyservices.org
  • Northwest adoption exchange

 

 

Seahawk Takes To The Skies for Seafair

Seahawks’ Jimmy Graham takes flight over Seattle with legendary aerobatic pilot

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While most Seahawks likely spent their day off Wednesday relaxing, or perhaps cooling off at a pool to wash off the layer of grime from Seattle’s haze, Jimmy Graham took to the skies.

Graham, who earned his pilot’s license in 2012, has been into all things planes since his college days at Florida, when he took a ride in a prop plane with a friend. Now, he owns two planes — a restored 1957 de Havilland Beaver floatplane, which he occasionally flies to practice at the VMAC, and an Extra 300L prop plane he keeps in Florida.

On Wednesday, Graham got to realize a dream for many pilots: Meeting and flying with one of the aerobatic plane industry’s biggest stars: Sean Tucker.

Tucker is revered among aerobatic pilots, including the Blue Angel pilots who will be flying in the Seafair Air Show this weekend alongside Tucker’s bright red Extra 300L Team Oracle plane.  Tucker took Graham up for a spin around Seattle in the plane he’s dazzled Seafair crowds with for years.

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