Sunday, November 15, 2015

Snoqualmie Pass Real Estate - Snoqualmie Pass Living - Why is Paint such a Problem?

Snoqualmie Pass Real Estate, Snoqualmie Pass Properties, Snoqualmie Pass Homes, Snoqualmie Pass Lots, North Bend Real Estate, Snoqualmie Real Estate, Carnation Real Estate, Suncadia Real Estate, Easton Real Estate, ThomasWolter.com, http://www.snoqualmiepassliving.com

The Washington State Department of Transportation admits it's difficult to sometimes see the lane markings on I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass.

According to WSDOT, the pavement markings are made with glass beads, making them bright in headlights. But the rain reduces reflectivity so the lines are not as bright and visible.

Tell us about what's slowing you down

WSDOT also installed Raised Recessed Pavement Markers on I-90 from North Bend to Cle Elum. Unfortunately, those markers are less visible when the slots fill with rain or snow.

In 2014, WSDOT installed over 4,600 LED pavement markers along a 7-mile stretch near the summit in both directions. Since they are solar powered, the lights may not last throughout the night.

"We have tried many alternative striping products that are very expensive and or time consuming to apply. If we find something new, we are willing to test it, but we have not found a product durable enough to withstand the traffic and snow removal equipment."

Until the best, most cost-effective solution is found, WSDOT will reapply paint at least twice a year and when needed as conditions allow.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Snoqualmie Pass Real Estate - Snoqualmie Pass Living - Seattle is 4th Richest City

In this East Coast vs. West Coast battle, it looks like the West Coast is winning.

According to a review of data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bloombergfound that the tech boom is shifting the richest cities in America to the West Coast. Three out of the top five land here with San Jose topping the charts.

Bridgeport, Conn., an ultra-wealthy suburb outside New York City where many in finance live, comes in No. 2, but San Francisco and Seattle follow, with Boston rounding out the top five.

Bloomberg looked at the nation’s 100 largest metro areas to crunch the numbers to see which city had the “highest output per resident” in 2014.

Apparently, tech is the new gold rush, with the gross metropolitan product, or GMP per capita in Silicon Valley at $105,482 — which Bloomberg cites is “more than double the national average.”

Seattle’s GMP came in at $75,874, but our neighbor to the south, Portland, is also seeing a large jump.

See the map of U.S. cities below:

Photo via Bloomberg/U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

“Tech cities outside the Bay Area have also benefited from the industry’s boom. Helped by not only Amazon Inc. but also newer Internet companies like Zulily Inc., Seattle’s GMP per capita grew by a cumulative 7.9 percent since 2009, when the economic recovery began,” Bloomberg noted.

“That helped the Washington city catapult to No. 4 from its No. 6 spot in 2008 through 2011,” the report continues. “Biotech hotbed Boston also jumped two places since 2008, while Portland, Oregon (sometimes called Silicon Forest) climbed six spots.”

The Bloomberg report also states that these areas have “some of the densest concentrations of educated workers,” which helps drive GMP.

Of course, like yin and yang, here’s the bad news that comes with the good — “These emerging tech hubs will probably expand even more in coming years…Sky-high rents in northern California force workers and businesses to look elsewhere.”

Look forward to more traffic, and rising housing and commercial real estate costs to go along with that boom.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Snoqualmie Pass Real Estate - Snoqualmie Pass Living - Speed Retirement by Kicking the Kids Out Sooner!

Young adults should be moving up, but in many cases they're only moving back in. And it's threatening the retirement of their parents — both financially and psychologically.

The job market for young adults has improved steadily since 2010, yet the number of millennials living with their parents has continued to climb. As of the beginning of 2015, 26% of millennials (defined as those currently age 18 to 34) lived with their parents, according to the Pew Research Center.

For 25-year-olds in particular, the trend is even more pronounced. A Federal Reserve Bank of New York report in September 2015 found 30% to 50% of 25-year-olds were living with their parents in 2013, depending on the state. All 48 contiguous states saw a rise in this "co-residence" between 2003 and 2013, with a median increase of 13.8 percentage points. The Northeast and West Coast had the biggest increases. (Alaska had a slight decline.)

For parents, the financial burden of letting an adult child move back can mean delaying retirement. Consider this: 52% of Boomer households that have children but don't support them are retired, according to a March 2015 study by Hearts & Wallets, an investment and retirement research firm. Among Boomers who do support adult children, only 21% are fully retire.

Boomers who support adult children are also 25% more likely (at 38%) than otherBboomers to say they have moderate to high financial anxiety, according to the Hearts & Wallets survey.

How can you avoid being one of these stressed-out parents who can't afford to retire? Two words, says certified financial planner Jeff Rose: "Tough love."

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Snoqualmie Pass Real Estate - Snoqualmie Pass Living - Better Cellular Coverage

Verizon wants to add a new communications facility at Snoqualmie Pass to boost coverage in the area, according to a conditional use permit application submitted to Kittitas County.

Cascadia PM/Verizon submitted an application for a telecommunication facility at Snoqualmie Pass. The operation would be on land zoned forest and range. The SEA Hyak site will provide coverage on I-90 between Exit 54 eastbound and the far east end of Keechelus Lake, along with ski lodges in the area, according to the proposal. The project would involve installing 12 antennas, equipment and the supporting base station at the top of the east peak chair lift at Snoqualmie Pass.

Verizon Wireless sites in the immediate vicinity are at or near capacity due to trying to provide service to customers in a poor coverage area, the proposal said.

Fiber optic project

In a separate application, Zayo Group is seeking a permit for an unmanned, concrete communications shelter east of Kittitas at 12800 Vantage Highway. The operation is located on a parcel zoned agricultural 20. The project will support an adjacent fiber-optic utility owned by Zayo, according to materials submitted to the county.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Snoqualmie Pass Real Estate - Snoqualmie Pass Living - Specialty Pizza Shop!

www.snoqualmiepassliving.com

Specialty pizza shop at Pass in business

Nov 6, 2015 at 8:00AM

Pie For the People NW located inside Lee’s Summit Grocery in Snoqualmie Pass, is the sister shop to Pie for the People SW, located in Joshua Tree, Calif.

Open since February 2015, Craig Austin and family, who run the shop, make their dough by hand, from a secret recipe. Each pie is hand-tossed and topped with local ingredients.

Pie for the People NW is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., closing at 8 p.m. Sundays. Find Pie for the People NW on Facebook.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Snoqualmie Pass Real Estate - Snoqualmie Pass Living - El Nino Ski Year?

Snoqualmie Pass Real Estate, Snoqualmie Pass Properties, Snoqualmie Pass Homes, Snoqualmie Pass Lots, North Bend Real Estate, Snoqualmie Real Estate, Carnation Real Estate, Suncadia Real Estate, Easton Real Estate, ThomasWolter.com, http://www.snoqualmiepassliving.com

'Godzilla' El Nino not really a death sentence for local ski resorts

By Scott Sistek Published: Nov 5, 2015 at 3:40 AM PST Last Updated: Nov 5, 2015 at 1:44 PM PST

News sites (and weather blogs) have been filled with stories about how the raging El Niño in the South-Central Pacific Ocean is set to rival, if not surpass the strongest event on record in 1997 and have accompanied daunting forecasts of what could happen in El Niño years.

For the Pacific Northwest, El Niño years have typically meant warmer and drier winters with less than average mountain snowpacks, and the long range forecastshave been consistently trending that way. So much so that it's become somewhat of a tradition in this weather blog to have cute "Emergency Kitten" video therapy for snow lovers who happen upon the forecast.

And as you might imagine, after the worst ski season on record (by far!) at some of the Washington ski resorts last winter, skiers are understandably gloomy about this season's prospects and in turn, the ski resorts themselves have to feel a bit gloomy about that.

But does Super Godzilla / Bruce Lee El Niño really a death sentence for local ski resorts to have a second year of bare ski runs and shuttered lifts?

Not necessarily.

First, let's talk about just how bad last season was. Snoqualmie Pass had a total of 104 inches of snow for the entire 2014-15 winter season (as measured by the WSDOT at the base of the ski resort/top of the I-90 pass.) Some seasons up there, 104" is called "three weeks in January."

That was almost half of the previous record low of 191 inches in 1976-77! Or put another way, about 24 percent of normal. The resort had to close three times, losing 40 of their 100 guaranteed snow days.

The conditions set forth to bring such low totals was a confluence of very rare events not seen in at least several decades -- a super warm pool of ocean waters offshore (known affectionately as "The Blob") combined with a very persistent ridge of high pressure. It kept temperatures much warmer than normal -- December, February and March were all the warmest on record in Seattle, and January was No. 5.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Snoqualmie Pass Real Estate - U.S Home Values and Rents

Snoqualmie Pass Real Estate, Snoqualmie Pass Properties, Snoqualmie Pass Homes, Snoqualmie Pass Lots, North Bend Real Estate, Snoqualmie Real Estate, Carnation Real Estate, Suncadia Real Estate, Easton Real Estate, ThomasWolter.com, http://www.snoqualmiepassliving.com

US home values and rents steadily rising in a resilient housing market

FILE - In this July 22, 2015 file photo, a "sold" sign is posted outside a Harbor Beach neighborhood home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Standard & Poor’s releases its 20-city home price index for August on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

Associated PressOct. 27, 2015 | 12:20 p.m. EDT+ More

By JOSH BOAK and CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. housing appears to be insulated so far from the cooling global economy.

Home values and rental prices are steadily rising, fueled by strong demand and a tight supply of available properties, a pair of reports Tuesday showed. The solid demand drove sales growth early this year and spurred additional construction.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index climbed 5.1 percent in the 12 months that ended in August — a level many economists view as more sustainable than the sharp double-digit gains at the start of 2014.

And in September, median rents nationwide rose a seasonally adjusted 3.7 percent from a year ago, according to real estate data firm Zillow. As with home prices, the pace of rent increases appears more stable than the sharper increases earlier this year.

Still, while three years of solid hiring and low mortgage rates have bolstered real estate, further gains will likely require better pay for workers. Increases in home values continue to exceed average annual earnings, which have risen just 2.2 percent from a year ago.

For now, homes in tech hubs with a high concentration of good-paying jobs appear to be the main beneficiaries of rising prices. S&P reported that San Francisco and Denver both enjoyed a 10.7 percent year-over-year jump in home values, the largest of any city. Portland, Oregon's annual gain of 9.4 percent was the third-largest.

"Prices are rising the fastest in markets where job growth and net migration are the strongest and inventories are the tightest," said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities. "Portland is an excellent example."

Those same metro areas were among the leaders in the rental increases tracked by Zillow. At the same time, those high rental prices sparked some new construction, which has created more apartments and tempered the rental-price appreciation in recent months.

The median rent in San Francisco was $3,348 last month, a yearly increase of 13.3 percent. The year-over-year increase in August was even higher — 14.2 percent.

The housing market's overall gains are defying the impact of a sluggish global economy. Falling commodity prices, weakened growth in China, a struggling Europe and tumult in emerging economies such as Brazil have hampered a world that is still battling its way out of the 2008 financial crisis.

Not every area of the United States is benefiting. Rental price growth has slowed in areas at the epicenter of the oil and natural gas industry, according to Zillow. Average oil prices have nearly halved in the past year to $44 a barrel. Houston's rental costs are up 5.8 percent over the past 12 months, down from annual growth above 6 percent. Price appreciation has also slipped in Dallas and Tulsa.

But the S&P index shows that home values have advanced a solid 8.9 percent in Dallas over the past year, a sign of resilience in the heart of Texas.

Overall in the United States, the housing sector has expanded for much of 2015. Sales of existing homes jumped 4.7 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.55 million, the National Association of Realtors said last week.

The pace of home construction rose in September and is up 12 percent so far this year compared with 2014. But the bulk of the growth has been fueled by condominiums and apartment buildings. Single-family-home construction — the heart of the housing market — was flat in September.

That reflects a greater preference for renting rather than home-buying since the Great Recession, which has reduced the percentage of Americans who own homes to nearly a 48-year low of 63.7 percent.

Home values are rising largely because few properties are being listed for sale. The number of existing homes for sale has fallen 3.1 percent in the past 12 months. In September, the number of available homes was equal to just 4.8 months' of sales, below the six months' supply that is typical of a balanced market.