Owning a Home

If you are looking for a cool thing to do this weekend, and you love historic Seattle bungalows, then check out the 14th Annual Bungalow Fair  happening in Seattle this weekend, September 24-25, 2011.

All of the counties in Washington state operate on an annual cycle for assigning an assessed value to your home and then applying an annual tax rate to that assessed value. If you live in King County, you probably just received an Official Property Value Notice for your home in the mail, listing what last [...]

Do you receive numerous copies of yellow pages and phone books that you don’t open any more? If you live in Seattle, you can put your address in the city’s opt-out registry to prevent delivery of this unwanted paper. Seattle was the first city to pass this sort of opt-out law, and of course the [...]

You just closed on the purchase of your new home and have the keys in your hand. The excitement has barely worn off, and you have already started your move. Other than arranging your move, here is a handy checklist of items that you will need to take care of during the first weeks in [...]

Property taxes in Washington are paid based on the “tax assessed value” of your home. The tax assessed value is supposed to reflect the current market value of your home, and the assessor’s office uses a variety of statistical analysis of sales data combined with the facts about your home that they have in their [...]