Monthly Archives: June 2015

Real Trends just published their ninth annual ‘The Thousand’ list in The Wall Street Journal to honor the top 1,000 real estate sales professionals and teams in the United States. Only agents who have a closed sales volume that ranked in the top one half of one percent of more than one million REALTORS® nationwide make the cut. Over 260 members of the Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estatenetwork made the list this year – that is a 60 percent increase over last year’s numbers.

Three upcoming events offer opportunities to enjoy river-based conservation properties and celebrate Legacy Lands’ 30th anniversary in Clark County. Anniversary activities for July include a volunteer effort and tours.

Residents of Wenatchee, Washington in the path of the Sleepy Hollow Fire should carefully monitor and heed evacuation warnings. Once evacuated to a safe location, residents should save receipts for evacuation-related expenses and contact their insurance companies immediately through their toll free claims telephone numbers to begin receiving assistance if their home is damaged, said the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI)

This month Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) met with community faith leaders from the group Esperanza to discuss the importance of religious freedom, educational opportunities, and the future of immigration reform. Esperanza, a nationwide faith-based community group, focuses on empowering Hispanic communities through education, economic development and advocacy.

About 1,000 Washington State homeowners facing foreclosure will receive financial counseling to help resolve their mortgage issues, thanks to a grant awarded this week by Attorney General Bob Ferguson to the Washington State Housing Finance Commission

A dramatic drop in streamflows caused by drought has several hundred irrigators in north-central and eastern Washington facing water cutoffs far earlier than normal this year. That’s because snowpack in Washington melted a month early, and 43 percent of rivers statewide are now running at record-low levels.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) introduced an amendment to H.R. 2042, the Ratepayer Protection Act of 2015, which would direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to recognize hydropower as a renewable energy source under the EPA’s carbon reduction regulations. The amendment was approved by a voice vote

The Washington State Housing Finance Commission recognizes NGBS Green Certification (Silver level and higher) as one option for meeting the requirements of the Energy Spark Home Loan program. Energy Spark provides a .25 interest rate reduction for qualifying buyers of energy-efficient homes and home improvements. NGBS is recognized alongside Northwest Energy Star Homes, LEED, DOE Zero Energy Ready Home, Passive House, and Built Green.

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Congressman Rick Larsen (WA-02) and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (WA) today applauded the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) announcement of an additional $7.6 million in grants for recovery efforts, including removal of debris deposited in the wake of flooding and mudslides that occurred in March and April last year

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, applauded the Federal Aviation Administration’s announcement that seven airports across Washington state will receive over $3 million in federal grants via the Airport Improvement Program. The grants will be used to make critical improvements to the airports in order to support air traffic and to promote economic growth in rural areas

Open houses this week will give attendees an opportunity to see how two upcoming projects -- in the Bel-Red area and the Eastgate-Factoria area -- will help to reshape the city's transportation system.

Reclaimed water is water that is treated by sewer plants to ensure it is safe for other uses, such as irrigation, controlling dust or flushing toilets. Use of reclaimed water conserves our limited supplies of drinking water.

Today, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) led the congressional delegation representing Washington’s King County in urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to fix the inflation formula used in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, which provides rental assistance to low-income households. The current formula has been particularly damaging in areas with rapidly escalating rental costs, such as the Puget Sound region.

The council adopted a multifamily tax exemption ordinance to encourage developers to include affordable rental units in their projects, and they approved a comprehensive plan amendment to help St. Luke's Lutheran Church build affordable apartments on its property.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, applauded an announcement by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) that it has awarded more than $7 million in grants to two projects in Richland, Washington, to advance research into residential combined heat and power generation and bioenergy crop development.

Tom Tebb was named Tuesday to head the Washington Department of Ecology’s Office of Columbia River. As director of the office, Tebb will oversee water supply projects along the Columbia River that are essential to the farmers, residents, tribes and environment of the region.

An interactive panel discussion on the innovative “regionalism” approach to address the growing affordable housing crisis in the metropolitan area; annual awards ceremony recognizing leaders and model housing communities in the local affordable housing and community development industry; keynote by renown homelessness strategist Rosanne Haggerty

Rep. Rick Larsen, WA-02, today announced he will not support a 2016 spending bill that severely underfunds transportation infrastructure. The FY2016 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill (H.R. 2577) fails to make needed investments in roads, bridges, highways and transit, hampering job creation and economic growth.

I voted against the T-HUD (lack of) funding bill because it slashes critical investments in our roads, rail and ports. It also hurts American families by cutting public housing programs that are critical for low-income families,” DelBene said.

To coincide with its 24th Annual Meeting and Housing Expo (June 23,2015), the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND) has released the first in a series of an unprecedented public service advertisement (PSA) campaign directed towards highlighting the need for housing affordability. The “Day in the Life of a Child” series focuses on the disparity between wages and affordability in the Washington, D.C. area by highlighting the professionals in a child’s life whose average salary often does not sufficiently cover market-rate housing in addition to the other basic necessities of life