Archives for December 2018

28 Stats That Sum Up the American Housing Market By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

December 27, 2018 Joe Szabo

By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

Both renters and buyers face challenges in finding a place to call home, and the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2017 is a deep dive into understanding them.

We surveyed over 13,000 people to determine how Americans rent, buy, sell and think about real estate. Below, we break down some of the most surprising results.

Renters

More Americans are renting today than in recent decades — some by choice and some simply due to market conditions.

Thirty-seven percent of American households are renters — about 43.7 million homes — which is an increase of 6.9 million homes since 2005.

While part of this increase is due to the 8 million homes lost to foreclosure during the recession, renters today also prize the maintenance-free and flexible lifestyle renting offers.

Renters skew younger — the median age of the typical renter is 32 years old.
Renters represent a more diverse population — 55 percent are white, 19 percent are African-American/black, 17 percent are Hispanic, 7 percent are Asian/Pacific Islander and 3 percent identify as another ethnicity.
Nearly half of renters are single, including a third who have never married.
Although the majority of renters are single, 78 percent live with others — most often this is another family member.
The median rent across the U.S. is $1,010, with the highest rents in the West and the lowest rents in the Midwest.
Renting can be expensive: 79 percent of renters who moved in the past year had a rent increase.
More than half of renters (57 percent) said a rent increase influenced their decision to move, and 37 percent of renters who aren’t moving say it’s because they can’t afford to.

Buyers

Buying is tough in all markets. For most Americans, it’s the biggest purchase they’ll ever make and an investment they’ll tap into as part of retirement.

In particular cities, purchasing a home has become a competitive game, complete with bidding wars and offer negotiations. It makes sense that most buyers rely on agents to help them through the process.

Today’s buyers have a median age of 40, although the majority (71 percent) of first-time buyers are millennials.
The median household income of the typical buyer is $87,500, and most buyers are married or partnered, relying on two incomes to purchase a home.
The typical purchased home in the U.S. costs $200,000 and has 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms and 1,800 square feet.
More than anything, buyers want their home to be in a safe neighborhood (71 percent) and in their price range (67 percent).
Other than safety, buyers also want to stay cool — 62 percent of buyers require their homes to have air conditioning.
Buyers take an average of 4.3 months to search for their new home — although millennials take just under four months (3.9 months), and silent generation buyers take 5.6 months.
The suburbs rule — 49 percent of buyers buy there, followed by 31 percent who buy in urban locations and just 19 percent who purchase in rural regions.

Sellers

Although some hot markets have favorable conditions for sellers, selling is still rarely an easy process.

Sellers have two main goals when they list their homes: sell their home in their preferred time frame and for their desired price. Balancing the two is a delicate dance, and most sellers are also buyers searching for a new home.

The median age of sellers is 45, although millennials make up nearly one-third of todays’ sellers.
Sellers have a higher median income than homeowners at $87,500.
The typical seller has lived in their home for 12 years.
Most sellers are selling for the first time (61 percent) and looking to buy at the same time (71 percent).
76 percent of sellers have to make at least one concession to sell their home — and most often it’s a price reduction.
1 in 2 sellers sell their home for less than the original listing price.

Homeowners

Owning a home is a lot of work. It’s also a great investment, especially in many of today’s markets where annual appreciation rates are higher than they’ve been in decades.

Homeowners are the oldest, with a median age of 57 years.
14 percent of homeowners are millennials.
Homeowners have a median household income of $62,500, and 71 percent live with a spouse or partner.
40 percent of homeowners have a pet (with dogs ranking in top at 30 percent).
Almost half of homeowners (46 percent) live in the first home they purchased, although this percentage decreases with age.
86 percent of homeowners have no plan to sell in the next three years.
Less than a quarter of homeowners say their home is in “like-new” condition, and more than 60 percent say their home could use a little updating.
On homeowners’ to-do list for the next year: painting the interior (25 percent), improving the bathroom (22 percent) and landscaping (21 percent).

Please note that this Scottsdale Real Estate Blog is for informational purposes and not intended to take the place of a licensed Scottsdale Real Estate Agent. The Szabo Group offers first class real estate services to clients in the Scottsdale Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area in the buying and selling of Luxury homes in Arizona. Award winning Realtors and Re/MAX top producers and best real estate agent for Luxury Homes in Scottsdale, The Szabo group delivers experience, knowledge, dedication and proven results. Contact Joe Szabo at 480.688.2020, [email protected] or visit www.scottsdalerealestateteam.com to find out more about Scottsdale Homes for Sale and Estates for Sale in Scottsdale and to search the Scottsdale MLS for Scottsdale Home Listings.

Simple Ways to Improve your Wifi Signal By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

December 25, 2018 Joe Szabo

1. Perform a Speed Test

Before diving in to troubleshoot your home’s Wi-Fi network, you should verify the speed of your Internet connection. Perform a speed test from a device connected to an Ethernet port.

Many ISP’s provide a web tool from their home page to do this. Your level of service will determine your maximum connection speed to the Internet for both downloads and uploads. Service speed may vary by time of day.

2. Perform A Wireless Survey To Check Congestion

Slow Wi-Fi speeds might be caused by congestion and interference from a nearby Wi-Fi network using the same channel. Perform a wireless survey with a scanner tool and scan for SSID’s to identify which channels are being used by other devices in your home or in neighboring homes. Keep in mind that results may vary by location, so you should perform this test in various parts of the home.

Choose a Wi-Fi channel that is not occupied or has the least amount of congestion on it. For example, if your router is set to channel 6 (often the default Wi-Fi channel) and you find there are a lot of other SSIDs using 6, then use channel 1 or 11 for your Wi-Fi network.

3. Upgrade Your Wireless Router

Your network speed can be influenced by the age of your router, what wireless standards it supports, as well as how good its processor and antennas are. Check with your ISP to determine what hardware is supported with your service. If you have been using the same router for several years, it could be time to upgrade.

4. Upgrade to 802.11ac

If you are looking for the best performance for real-time apps like video, consider moving to 802.11ac Wi-Fi. To add 802.11ac speeds to your network, you can either upgrade your wireless router or add an 802.11ac wireless extender to the network.

Keep in mind that in order to take advantage of 802.11ac speeds, both your router and connected devices will need to support this latest standard. Per the 802.11ac standard, all previous standards (b/g/a/n) are supported. However, your older mobile phones, tablets, and laptops will consume more “air time” as they operate at lower data rates.

5. Change The Location Of Your Wireless Router

Modern routers do a good job of beaming out Wi-Fi signals, but keep in mind that walls, floors, metal, mirrors, furniture can all impact the signal. For maximum coverage, place the router in the middle of your house to ensure you get a strong signal on both sides of the home. Elevate your router off the floors, as well as keep it away from dense structures like cement walls or metal objects, like a metal desk or metal filing cabinet.

In addition, most new wireless routers and access points have internal antennas and are optimized to be positioned standing up vertically. When you lay one of these routers flat on your desk or table, you’re preventing the wireless signal from maximizing coverage in the room and beyond. If your router has internal antennae, stand it up vertically. It’s a two-second fix to boost your speeds.

6. Switch to the 5GHz band

Dual-band wireless routers support both 2.4GHz and the newer 5GHz frequency. 5GHz offers more channels and tends to be less congested, thus giving faster wireless connections. In addition, the 2.4GHz frequency can be subject to interference from devices like cordless phones, baby monitors, and microwaves.

Switching to 5GHz gives you a cleaner signal, but the one downside is range. 5GHz has a smaller range than 2.4GHz and doesn’t penetrate walls and other solid objects as well. One really effective strategy is to use 2.4GHz for basic Wi-Fi applications like web browsing, and then use 5GHz for high bandwidth applications, like streaming HD video to your set top box/HDTV.

Why Cities Must Become Affordable for the Middle Class By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

December 18, 2018 Joe Szabo

By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

Cities need the middle class. They need nurses and teachers. Yet if people have a well-paying job like those, they’re finding it increasingly difficult to afford to pay for a house in the city in which they work. Cities tend to have the most job opportunities, but they also have the highest cost of living. In recent years, the housing costs in urban areas have grown more than anywhere else.

“This isn’t just a coastal problem,” explains Zillow economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. “We’re seeing rapidly appreciating home values in places like Nashville, Provo, Charlotte, Orlando. These people that have good jobs are running into the problem that they simply cannot afford to live in cities anymore.”

Not enough to go around

So, what happened that is causing housing costs to rise so much? A classic problem of supply and demand. “We’re in a really strong part of the recovery,” says Gudell, “and it comes down to not enough homes available to sell right now, but a lot of people demanding housing.”

Even though cities are becoming unaffordable, there is still an intense desire for people — especially millennials — to move there.

“For a lot of people, their jobs are actually located in cities, so the appeal of a short commute is right there,” says Gudell. “Millennials are starting to think about renting, leaving their parents’ basements and perhaps even buying their first homes. They have a preference to be in cities, oftentimes. The acute inventory shortage that is being experienced all across the country right now is because cities don’t have as many single-family homes. They have more condos available.”

Smaller and smaller

Brooklyn. New York; Shutterstock ID 684623227

Unfortunately for potential buyers, there are not many choices that you can make in this situation of high demand/short supply.

“You can choose to simply rent,” says Gudell, “but you end up missing out on wealth building because you don’t actually invest in equity by paying off a mortgage. Or you have to choose to move farther out, where housing gets a bit cheaper, but then you face very long commutes.”

If you’re in an average, middle class-paying job, buying a home in a city with your current employment isn’t realistic at all. Unless that home is under 500 square feet — about the size of a toolshed. For the biggest cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Washington, D.C., your average affordability falls to under 300 square feet.

So, why shouldn’t we have cities be just for wealthy people, and suburbs and rural areas for people who are not? “In every city, you’ll find a coffee shop,” says Gudell. “You’ll need garbage pickup, you’ll need all these things, and it simply doesn’t work to say, ‘If you’re a janitor, you’re going to have to commute in for an hour and a half, but if you’re ultra-rich, you can live in the city.’”

Fill in the cities

The middle class should be able to afford the cities they serve without incurring the burden and long-term physical and mental stressors of a multi-hour commute. With America’s supply and demand problem not getting any better, there are certain steps that both governments and the private sector could do to try to help impact cost in a positive way.

“Cities have to evolve with the times, and that means adding more units,” says Gudell. “People oftentimes are afraid that higher-density living will ruin their cities, but in the end, higher density will just change the character of a city. It won’t ruin it. But pushing people out and having only a city for the rich will probably ruin cities.”

An Up-Close Look at Housing Insecurity (and How to Help!) By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

December 13, 2018 Joe Szabo

By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

Five years ago, Timothy C. Acena was living — and sleeping — in his wheelchair behind a busy fast-food restaurant. At night, he’d park himself on a fresh piece of cardboard near the restaurant’s dumpster and clip together a makeshift awning of eight umbrellas to protect him and the five backpacks full of his belongings from the elements.

During the day, he’d sit in front of the restaurant and ask customers to buy him a meal, which they always did, he says. He used the restaurant’s bathrooms and traveled for showers and laundry. All the while, he waited for an affordable apartment to open up.

Today, Acena, 52, has his own bed and a roof over his head. The former construction worker, who lost the ability to walk when he was 40, lives in a studio apartment in West Seattle in a building that provides affordable, stable housing and mental health and addiction treatment services to him and 65 other people who had been sleeping in shelters or out in the cold.

In the building’s lobby, letters cut from beige construction paper hang over the mail slots on the wall, spelling out the season’s message: “Be thankful.” Acena says he lives those words every day. He knows he would probably be dead or still homeless had other people not cared enough to build and manage a place where he could afford to live — and where he could very well spend the rest of his life.

More than a half a million Americans were homeless in 2017, a number that increased for the first time since 2010, according to a one-night count by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Experts agree the count doesn’t capture all the people sleeping outside and say the number is likely to be much higher.

In some cities, homelessness has reached crisis levels as the economy continues to expand and people flock to urban areas for jobs, driving up rents that were once affordable for people earning low and middle incomes.

Many people are one emergency away from a missed rent payment. Today, only 52 percent of renters say they would be able to cover an unexpected expense of $1,000 if they had to, according to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2018. Gen X renters, who are between the ages of 39 and 53, are the most vulnerable: Only 44 percent say they could weather a $1,000 hit to their budget.

In some cities, the share of median income spent on rent exceeds 40 percent, according to Zillow economists, whose research also ties rent increases to moves and even homelessness. In Los Angeles, for instance, a 5 percent increase in rent would add 1,993 people to the ranks of the homeless.

Colin Maloney, project manager for Cottage Grove Commons, the Downtown Emergency Services Center building where Acena lives in West Seattle, said homelessness affects a broad swath of humanity: families, people with advanced degrees, people with mental and physical disabilities, and people with job skills no longer in demand.

Some residents of the Grove apartments grew up in homelessness or bounced through the foster care system only to end up alone when they turned 18. Others, like Acena, have struggled with addictions or remain yoked to criminal records that keep them from jobs and homes. At times, it’s hard to for them to see a path back to home, Maloney says.

But, he adds, “We have to believe that a better future is possible.”

Acena is proof of that. Before he became homeless, he lived in a $60 a night motel room, paid for with a combination of his Social Security disability check and funds from a church youth group. When the group’s subsidy stopped, Acena made a temporary home behind the restaurant rather than return to shelter living.

Acena smiles recalling the day he moved into his current home. He could finally sleep lying down. “It was like somebody took a Tyrannosaurus rex off my shoulders,’’ he says.

His apartment costs him $215 a month, about 30 percent of his $720 monthly Social Security income. He spends his days there building plastic models, watching TV, indulging in pancakes with peanut butter and staying healthy.

“I don’t think it’s unsolvable,’’ he says of homelessness. “It’s just difficult. Anything difficult has got to have something good in the end if you go through it.”

This holiday season, you can help these organizations that are working to bring housing security to communities across the country. Their success brings hope to all of us.

2019 Design Forecast: What’s In, What’s Out By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

December 11, 2018 Joe Szabo

By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

As we flip to the last pages of our 2018 calendar, it’s time to look at interior design trends on the rise — and say goodbye to those on their way out in 2019.

Here are our predictions about what’s in and what’s out in the year to come.

What’s in

Warm modernism

It’s official — many regions throughout the U.S. are choosing a modern aesthetic over a rustic style.

While black-and-white contrast and raw materials like steel and wood will continue to be popular, they’ll be softened by color and asymmetry. These modern elements will have a fresh approachability when surrounded by sun-soaked fabrics and natural wallcoverings.

Effortless technology and transformations

Talk-to-me tech products help you get things done with your voice, and homeowners are using them to modernize their daily routine.

In 2019 you’ll see smart faucets, fans, window coverings and appliances paired with popular platforms — Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple HomePod — for a convenient, connected home.

Additionally, products that offer easy installation and seamless integration into existing layouts make projects remodel-friendly. Innovative sinks, faucets, medicine cabinets, appliances and lighting provide a quick transformation to refresh the style and functionality of your space.

Om sweet home

Though talk-to-me tech is trending, some will be looking for ways to escape the chatter.

Meditative and sound-barrier features will appear in more homes this year — think transformative experiences using acoustic panels, colored lights and aura effects. Ethereal, sheer and translucent fabrics will support the aesthetic, pairing an organic feel with the benefits and convenience of select technology.

Industrial style

Concrete, quartz and metal lovers, rejoice! Industrial styles are predicted to rise in popularity in 2019.

Matte black and bronze continue to dominate and complement a more industrial vibe. But when selecting wall colors, appliances, faucet finishes and fabrics, consider the possibilities of moody blues and the gray color spectrum. From warm light grays to the coolness of matte black, these tones add a subtle layer of intrigue and distinction.

Plus, black and charcoal gray front doors could earn up to $6,271 more when selling your home!

Organic maker accents

Handmade details can immediately soften an interior. This year you’ll see rhythmic patterns and imperfect lines incorporated through hand-painting, stitching and detailing, expanding the possibilities for endless mixing and matching in the home. Additionally, fabrics and accents with strands of crystal, wooden and pearlescent beads present a sophisticated flair for artful detail.

Home decor favorites will still include earthy elements and nubby textures. Think neutral naturals by simply adding a wooden side table and sculpture, live and fake plants for color, and natural fibers through rugs and fabrics.

What’s out

Rustic

Is America finally over the “Fixer Upper” movement? Not quite, but the rustic, farmhouse-chic elements are getting refined.

The shiplap-crazy trend seems to be leaning toward a modern twist, simplifying layers of the look. Cutesy barn doors will take a backseat to more modern versions featuring glass and metal instead of reclaimed barn wood.

The signature statement range hood covered in rustic materials will swing to simplified finishes, like brushed brass, stainless and matte black. Lastly, the harsh light of the Edison bulb will move to a more complementary glow, reflecting concealed bulbs versus exposed ones.

Millennial pink

Bold, trendy color schemes are likely on the way out, with more subtle earth tones and cool, classic palettes on the rise.

Blues and neutrals continue to top Zillow trend reports, adding higher dollar values related to home sales when used in kitchen and bathroom areas. While millennial pink may have been all the rage on designer Instagram feeds, people don’t actually want to live with it throughout their homes.

Whether trends inspire you or not, it’s important to be aware of them, because they help shape our own personal interior style. If you love purple gingham in your dining room, go for it. If an all-white interior speaks to you, celebrate it.

Our homes are where we express ourselves and tell our unique style story, so I encourage you to do just that in the new year.

Signs that you need a Wifi Booster By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

December 10, 2018 Joe Szabo

1. There are areas in your home that don’t get a WiFi signal

These are known as dead zones, or dead spots. They are areas in your house where the WiFi signal disappears altogether. In some
cases, you may have traveled out of reach of the WiFi router, or perhaps an architectural feature in your home is preventing the signal from getting through. If there are places in your house, where you can’t get any WiFi signal, then a WiFi network extender or WiFi booster can help fill in the coverage and eliminate those dead spots.

2. There are areas in your home that have slow WiFi

Maybe your WiFi router is located in the home office upstairs, but you spend most of your time downstairs where the signal works, but can be slow and annoying. A lot of homeowners just live with these situations and work around the slow areas. Maybe you’ve learned that you can’t stream a video in the kitchen or Facetime in the living room. Maybe your kids know that they have to go upstairs for gaming. Instead of suffering through slow WiFi in certain areas of the home, consider a WiFi booster. It will be an instant (and cost-effective) performance boost that will let you rethink how you use parts of your home.

3. You want the fastest WiFi possible

WiFi boosters and WiFi extenders are usually associated with filling in dead spots, but they can also be used to add faster speeds and even new features to your WiFi network. By adding a booster or extender to your existing network, you can upgrade to the latest WiFi technology, including 802.11ac speeds, without the trouble of replacing your WiFi router. If your router is older and doesn’t support AC, then you’re not getting the fastest WiFi speeds possible; however, an 802.11ac WiFi booster will add these blazing fast speeds to your network. In addition, some WiFi boosters/extenders feature advanced WiFi technology to increase the efficiency of your network, allowing it to handle more devices and traffic. Look for features like dual-band WiFi, beamforming, Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO), and companion apps.

4. Your home is large

The average size of a U.S. home has nearly doubled since 1970, according to the National Association of Home Builders. It’s hard
for a single wireless router to cover a larger home, particularly when other home construction factors like concrete further weaken the signal. If you have a larger home, you can try locating your WiFi router in the most central area of the home, but you’ll most likely need to add a WiFi booster or network extender to help your signal reach the far ends of your house.

5. You want WiFi outside

As our reliance on WiFi grows, it’s only natural that we’ll want to start using it in more places – such as the screened porch in the back of the house, out by the pool, in the front yard, or maybe in a detached garage. In this case, you can install a WiFi booster in the part of your home that’s closest to the outdoor area where you want coverage, and you won’t need to use your up cellular data when you’re outside.

Your Top 5 Fireplace Questions, Answered By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

December 6, 2018 Joe Szabo

By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

Fireplaces are one of the most sought-after home features, but using one can be intimidating, and you’ve probably got questions.

Here’s a quick guide to get you and your fire started this fall.

How do I use a wood-burning fireplace?

If a cave man can start a fire, so can you.

1. Get your chimney inspected
Safety is your first priority! Have your fireplace and chimney inspected by a licensed professional. This is something you should do every year, before the first fire of the season.

2. Prepare the fireplace
Clean out any old ashes with a broom (make sure they’re cool, of course). Check that the damper is open and working properly.

3. Gather and prep your wood
Use seasoned hardwood that has been split and dried for at least six months — preferably for a year. Seasoned hardwood logs should be dark and cracked at the ends, and they should make a hollow sound when knocked together.

To construct a long-lasting fire, place a rolled-up ball of newspaper beneath the grates. Then lay pieces of narrow, finely split wood in a crisscross pattern on the grates.

Finish the stack by securely resting one to three dry logs over the kindling.

4. Prime the flue
This step heats the cold air inside the flue so you don’t get a backup of smoke. Before you light the fire, light a tightly rolled-up sheet of newspaper, and hold it toward the open damper. Keep it there for a minute or two until you see the smoke going up the flue.

5. Light it up!
Now you’re ready to light your fire and enjoy.

If the fire starts to go out, gently fan the flames with folded newspaper or use a poker to get the air flowing again. Add logs to the fire with tongs to provide more fuel.

When the fire has gone out for the night, close the metal or glass doors before you go to bed.

Are fireplaces efficient?

It depends. Wood-burning fireplaces, for all their old-fashioned charm, are a wildly wasteful way to heat a house. Since heat rises upward, most of it escapes through the chimney, even when the fire has gone out for the night.

Fireplaces located against an outside wall lose even more heat, since much of it is lost to the cold outdoor air.

Solution? Only use your wood-burning fireplace for special occasions. If you don’t plan on using your fireplace often, purchase an inflatable plug to add insulation.

Gas fireplaces are more efficient, and the newest models are realistic enough to make you forget that you don’t own any firewood. Switching to a gas insert is expensive, though, especially if you have to make changes to your chimney.

If aesthetics are all that matter, use your fireplace to display lit candles.

Are fireplaces safe?

Fire is the very definition of unsafe, but that doesn’t mean you can’t safely enjoy your fireplace. You just have to maintain it and practice common sense:

Keep flammable materials and objects away from the fireplace, and store firewood well away from the house.
To keep embers from flying out and igniting your unread stack of magazines, use a mesh or metal screen when the fire is lit.
Before lighting the first fire of the season, inspect your extinguishers, test your smoke detectors and review your family’s evacuation routes.
Continue to test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors monthly.
The glass doors, mesh screen and tools can be dangerously hot. If you have children, use a free-standing barrier to prevent burns.

Wood-burning fireplaces produce smoke that can irritate or even damage your lungs, even with a properly functioning chimney. To keep smoke from filling your house, ensure that the damper is open, your home is ventilated, and the chimney has been inspected and cleared of obstructions.

Carbon monoxide is produced by both gas and wood-burning fireplaces, and it’s especially dangerous because it’s invisible, silent and odorless. Use carbon monoxide detectors and inspect them regularly.

Why does my gas fireplace smell?

What you smell is an additive that’s been included in the propane to help you detect gas leaks.

Vent-free gas fireplaces typically come with an oxygen depletion sensor that will shut off the flame if too much carbon monoxide is detected, and vented fireplaces pull fumes away from the house.

These safety measures aren’t foolproof, however, so ensure that you have carbon monoxide detectors installed, and inspect them monthly by pressing the “Test” button.

How often should I clean my chimney?

A buildup of soot and creosote is more than unsightly: It can reduce airflow, cause smoke to back up and even create a fire risk.

To avoid a chimney fire, have your fireplace and chimney inspected annually by a licensed professional. They will likely recommend a cleaning when the layer of residue is about 1/8 of an inch thick.

To clean inside the fireplace, put on a dust mask, sweep out the ashes, and scrub the surfaces with a brush and dishwashing liquid.

The Popsicle Place Program in Seattle Helps Families in Need By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

December 4, 2018 Joe Szabo

By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team

It’s tough to afford housing in many cities across the U.S., but in Seattle, it’s a particularly competitive market.

Living in an urban area with such a high cost of living can break a family when emergencies arise, but luckily for the people of Seattle, Mary’s Place has been relieving housing burdens since 1999.

Initially established as a women’s day center, Mary’s Place has evolved and expanded into a housing facility. It now provides a warm bed for 680 family members every night of the year.

As the shelter’s website states, “The Mary’s Place model is simple — partner with anyone and everyone who can help to address the issue of family homelessness: congregations, individuals, cities and counties, and businesses of all sizes.”

It seems to be a phenomenally successful model — and it only continues to grow. The Popsicle Place program, formed in 2018, is a Mary’s Place program focused on assisting families who are simultaneously experiencing homelessness and caring for medically complex or critically ill children.

A devastating statistic says that 1 in every 285 children in the U.S. alone will be diagnosed with cancer before the age of 20, and many more will be hospitalized for serious illness and injury. Additionally, 60 percent of people with the highest rent burden can’t cover three months of expenses.

Serious illness can put many families in financial crisis, and the stress of caring for children in need of medical intervention as well as maintaining livelihood for the whole family can be debilitating.

But at Popsicle Place, families don’t have to worry about costly emergency housing options, like motels, or choosing between having a place to live and having a healthy child. They also don’t have to worry about spending the night apart, since the Popsicle Place has a medical staff and volunteers on hand so that every member of the family can rest comfortably, in private rooms, all under one roof — regardless of health status.

While a small housing operation can’t alleviate every concern for families in medical and financial distress, simply having a bit of support can provide immense relief — relief that those families need to take their next step.

“Not only do they have their own private rooms,” says Marty Hartman, executive director of Mary’s Place, “but they also have access to our healthcare clinic. They have a Popsicle Place lounge, where if their children aren’t feeling so well or if they have immunocompromised conditions, they can go in there and relax. [We] just want to set them all up for success.”

And that they do, with excellent results.

The Mary’s Place blog recently shared the story of a single mother of three named Nycolle. When she found black mold in her apartment, she was forced to immediately leave with her children, each of them with their own unique and demanding healthcare requirements, leaving them in need of emergency housing. That’s where the Popsicle Place program came in.

“Being at Mary’s Place gave me peace of mind,” says Nycolle in the article, “knowing we had electricity for Karlah’s treatments and refrigeration for Krystoffer’s medications. It let me focus on keeping them well!”

With their basic needs managed, the family members soon found a large, affordable 3-bedroom house in Spokane and happily relocated. They now enjoy a large yard, as well as a home to call their own.

That’s exactly what the program is all about, according to Hartman. “Let’s get you the housing options that you need and then move you forward.”