Real Estate & Construction Briefs

ForeclosurePoint.com begins service for Puget Sound area

Bellevue-based ForeclosurePoint.com launched its Web site in March, opening the door to the foreclosure market for a much larger base of homebuyers or real estate investors looking to purchase properties below market value.

Initially serving King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, ForeclosurePoint.com offers free access to foreclosure property listings, including the address, property details, estimated opening bid and the initially scheduled auction date. The new service also provides a complete set of resources to real estate agents enabling them to provide their clients with expert assistance in the purchase of a foreclosure property.

“There are over 800 homes in King County alone that are in some stage of foreclosure,” said Prakash Kondepudi, chief executive of DepotPoint, the parent company of ForeclosurePoint.com. “Unfortunately, the average homebuyer or real estate investor does not have access to this market because they lack the information, capital and expertise necessary to fully participate.

“ForeclosurePoint.com will change this, arming buyers and real estate agents with relevant and timely property information to purchase foreclosed-upon homes,” Kondepudi said.

For more information, go online to www.ForeclosurePoint.com.

County introduces online mapping service

Snohomish County in March unveiled SnoScape, a high-tech online mapping service that will improve county planning and offer residents a unique view of their county.

SnoScape uses an array of highly sophisticated remote sensing technologies to generate detailed images of landscape features on land parcels, according to the county.

The initial version of SnoScape, which currently is limited to southwest Snohomish County, was made available to the public on March 20 as a free, online service to help residents conduct fast, accurate research into the geographic features of land parcels of interest to them, the county said.

“SnoScape is another example of our commitment to the effective use of information technologies to serve our communities,” County Executive Aaron Reardon said.

SnoScape is accessible through the county’s Web site, www.snoco.org, by searching “SnoScape.”

EvCC reaches tentative deal to buy Topper Motel

Everett Community College recently said it had reached a tentative deal with the owner of the Topper Motel for the college to purchase the 1.1-acre property located at 1030 Broadway, just south of EvCC’s campus.

After the hotel is torn down, the property will be used for parking, said Michael Kerns, vice president of administration. Other long-range uses for the lot may be determined later.

EvCC expects the motel to be torn down sometime in the next three to four months.

“EvCC’s purchase of the Topper Motel property will provide a significant benefit to the north Everett neighborhood, bringing an end to a two-year-long discussion about the future of the site,” Kerns said. “The purchase of this property will also help the neighborhood by providing more parking for students — decreasing the campus impact to the surrounding streets.”

The property acquisition supports EvCC’s $150 million, 10-year capital plan, which calls for building new academic buildings and doubling the size of the campus.

The college’s new arts and sciences building, Whitehorse Hall, opened in January. EvCC will break ground for its new $40 million Undergraduate Education Center this summer. The college also is planning an upgrade and expansion of the Paine Field Technical Center, an expansion of its Early Learning Center, a replacement of Index Hall with a Health Education Center and plans to replace its aging Fitness and Health Center.

Condo sales heat up; housing prices continue to rise

The Snohomish County home sales market was schizophrenic in February, according to a recent Northwest Multiple Listing Service report.

If you were buying a single-family home in February, things were sluggish: The number of houses available was up by 31 percent; pending sales and sales were down. Still, prices were up by 9.6 percent. Local home prices have long been posting double-digit increases over the previous year, the listing service reported.

If you were buying a condominium, however, the market was brisk. The number of condos available was up by 66 percent, pending sales were up by 13.4 percent; sales were nearly equal to last year; and prices were up by more than 12 percent.

The difference: price.

The median price for both condos and single-family homes in the county was $334,700 in February. For houses alone, it was $356,000. For just condos, it was $222,990 — about 37 percent less expensive than the median price of a single-family home.

According to the listing service, the current numbers of condos on the market in Snohomish County, 545, and those in the pipeline, 237, will be snapped up in a little over two months. The 3,655 homes on the market and the 1,124 being built should last buyers about 3.25 months, the listing service reported.