Snow Day! And Rates Fall!

Wow, we woke up and the world was coverd with white fluffy stuff. There is no school, it's an official Snow Day. Sorry, grownup world, but this is wonderful...and as a grownup, I have to go to the airport to pick up a guest from Japan so I will take my camera and see what the city looks like. Meanwhile, got a message from one of my most trusted loan officers, Jack de Cook which gave the following information (Thank you Jack!!!!):

Last Week in the News

Following a plunge in global financial markets, the Federal Reserve slashed the federal funds rate on January 22 by three-quarters of a percentage point to 3.5%, the biggest interest rate cut in 18 years. The federal funds rate is the interest that banks charge one another on overnight loans.

On the same day, the Fed also lowered its discount rate to 4% from 4.75%. The discount rate is the rate at which banks can borrow directly from the Federal Reserve. The Fed's twin cuts are designed to keep financial institutions lending money to businesses and consumers, rather than fuel an economic downturn by limiting credit.

For the week ending January 17, rates on 30-year fixed-rates fell to their lowest level since July 2005, Freddie Mac reported January 24.

Falling mortgage rates helped boost mortgage application volume by 8.3% over the same week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said January 24. Applications were 63.7% higher than during the same week in 2007. Refinancing accounted for 66% of mortgage applications compared to 62.7% a week earlier.

The news was tonic to a housing market that saw existing home sales fall 2.2% in December, closing out a year in which sales of single-family homes swooned 13%, the largest amount in 25 years, the National Association of REALTORS® said January 24. The median price for a single-family home dropped 1.8% to $217,000, the first annual price decline dating to 1968 records.

This week look for updates on new home sales on January 28.

Economic data compiled from government reports and news services msnbc.com, cnbc.com, cnn.money.com and Yahoo Economic Calendar.


Hey, Jack, thanks for all the good info, we appreciate you!!

Edy Kizaki, Realtor

Happy New Year in Seattle

Here are the photos of the Fireworks at the Space Needle on New Year's Eve at Midnight! These are a bit blurry, taken in the middle of the night, but hopefully you'll get the (ooooo! ahhhhhhh!) sense of it.

I will never forget New Year's Eve on the Mound in Gasworks Park, watching the fireworks. Last night around 11:30 p.m. we arrived at Gasworks Park. There were cars everywhere parked nearby, but turning toward the water we discovered the whole parking lot behind the park was empty. But we boldly parked there anyway, and 10 minutes later so did about 15 other people, it just took one car and the whole place filled up!

Gasworks Park is just at the north end of Lake Union. It is right down the street from our office and famous for a great kite-flying location (there is even a kite shop just down the street from us!) but there is also a great view of the Space Needle and downtown, and there were, I would say, over 1,000 people sitting on the hillside facing the Lake and the Space Needle. We only got there 15 minutes before midnight, but was my rear ever cold in those 15 minutes. Next time remind me to bring a blanket or at least a square of cardboard to sit on!! But it was wonderful, a bright black night with lighted boats crusing the lake and the space needle with it's little pointed Christmas tree on top standing up right across the lake from us.

The people around us were in high spirits laughing and joking and calling out to the crowd, and one guy kept saying, if they don't do the fireworks pretty soon, then definitely the aliens are going to arrive...it really did look like the scenes in movies where people gather at the top of a mountain and raise up their arms to the sky waiting for the aliens to show up. My son started calling out "We come in peace!" My camera, not on a tripod, did not get any real crisp photos of the fireworks, so what I have to share here are some blurry, impresionistic images of the lake, night, the lights on Queen Anne Hill and the Space Needle spouting fire and glory

It was definitely the place to be and the thing to be doing, I doubt I will ever be anywhere else ever again on New Year's Eve. If Fremont is the Center of the Universe (as you may know this truth was discovered more than 20 years ago by a Fremont native), then Gasworks Park must be the Center of the New Year in Seattle. We watched 2008 being born on the Pacific Rim, in the dark and the crisp air among a crowd of joyful people who had no intention of letting the joyful event go by unnoticed!

May 2008 bear out the promise this celebration brought into life, and bring you all to Seattle to enjoy it with us!

Edy Kizaki, Realtor