Help a service organization in your community!

MBAKS is currently accepting applications for our 15th Anniversary of Painting a Better Tomorrow.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to help a service organization in your community get their environment spruced up with a new coat of paint! We will be accepting applications for this year's event until July 31.

We're especially excited for this year's event, taking place on November 18 at a location to be determined, as 2017 marks 15 years of helping our community members brighten their days (and walls)! We encourage all service organizations in King and Snohomish counties to apply. We are aware that the aesthetic improvements of painting are also the easiest costs to cut from the annual budget in order to provide funding for crucial service needs to the community. To be considered, the organization must have a space that's in need of upkeep. That's it! Oh, and they also have to apply. We'll do the rest.

We ask you to reach out to organizations in your community and get an application in their hands. And make sure they get their application in by July 31!

Just think—by Thanksgiving, one local organization will be sitting in a beautiful, freshly painted space with one more item crossed off their 2018 budget.

Organizations can apply online or by contacting Michell Filleau-Maas, 425.460.8232 or mfilleau-maas@mbaks.com.

How Well Does Seattle Recover From Disaster?

Turns out, pretty well.

80.5 percent* is the percentage of Seattle metro area homes that have recovered to peak pre-recession value, according to a recent Trulia article.

What does this mean, exactly?

It means that the Seattle area has recovered quite well compared to a large amount of the United States. The region ranks #22 nationally in recovery percentage (a bit surprising we're that low), currently sitting behind Colorado smoking buddies Denver (#1, with an impressive 98.7 percent recovery rate) and Colorado Springs (#7, 93.4 percent), San Francisco (#2, 98 percent), and Oklahoma City (#3, 94.3 percent—and give us back the Sonics, please).

Other cities beating us at the moment include Dallas (#9, 92.5 percent), Honolulu (#11, 91.5 percent), and Portland (#13, 90.3 percent—grrrr).

Find the full list here.

Among the areas with the lowest recovery rates, including the bottom tier of Las Vegas—#101, with just 0.6 percent of homes back to pre-recession value), Tucson (100, 2.4 percent), and Fresno (99, 2.5 percent), it's no surprise to find that these cities have seen the worst income growth in the years spanning December 2009 to January 2017.

And guess what?

The cities with the strongest recovery rates, including our beloved Seattle, also have the strongest income growth. With the median Seattle proper home price currently clocking in at $638,000 (and $426,000 in the Seattle metro area), that's no big surprise, really. It takes a heavy wallet (or a lot of big wallets) to help dig us out of such a monumental disaster, especially considering that just 34.2 percent of all homes nationally have fully recovered to their pre-recession peak value.

The three big factors that set the tone for quicker recovery include, alongside income growth, job growth and population growth, as well as post-recession vacancy rate.

It's a bit humbling to see just how far into the hole the housing market was just eight years ago, spurred by the foreclosure crisis that was so big it now has its own major motion picture. The good news is that, according to Trulia, U.S. home recoveries have been steadily—albeit slowly—climbing since the stuff that hit the fan began to get cleaned up, to the tune of 5 to 6 percentage points per year. While Trulia's data suggests we won't see 100 percent of homes fully recovered until September 2025, the fact that we can again use terms like "thriving" and "booming" when it comes to the housing market and our economy feels good. Let's hope we can keep wearing these buzzwords out.

Now, if we can only figure out where to house all these home-hungry folks…

*All data courtesy of Trulia.com

By MBAKS Senior Policy Analyst Allison Butcher

Data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service show the month’s supply of housing inventory for sale continuing to decline in King and Snohomish counties. In November, King County had 0.93 months’ supply of inventory, down from 0.99 the previous month, and 1.39 months’ of inventory a year ago. Even more concerning, Snohomish County had just 0.38 months’ supply of inventory in November, down from 0.49 the prior month and 1.27 a year ago.

The Builder's Bulletin is intended to provide a convenient way to track housing in our market and includes information from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, State of the Cities Data Systems, Office of Financial Management, and the Washington State Employment Security Department.

Download this month's report: