PR Newswire

The Washington State Department of Commerce and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), representing an alliance of Northwest utilities and energy efficiency organizations, announced a study of residential energy code compliance that shows Washington state is highest in the nation.

In 2009, Washington state adopted one of the most rigorous residential building energy codes in the country. To determine whether Washington homebuilders met this challenge, NEEA commissioned a compliance study, which included 69 homes in 17 counties. Using two different methodologies, the study found compliance rates were 97 percent and 96 percent, respectively. Additionally, energy modeling of each home in the study showed that many homes go beyond the minimum code requirements. read more »

PR Newswire

SEATTLE — After several years of depressed demand for homes, buyers are returning to the market in droves. However, many homebuyers may be ill-prepared to take out a mortgage, answering basic questions about mortgage information wrong nearly one-third (32.5 percent) of the time, according to a Zillow® Mortgage Marketplace survey of prospective and current homeowners.

For example, one-third (34 percent) of first-time homebuyers in the survey were not aware that it is possible to get a home loan with a down payment of less than 5 percent. In fact, the number of lenders on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace quoting loan requests with a down payment between 3.5 and 5 percent has risen by 570 percent over the past two years. read more »

Avid Ratings, a customer loyalty management firm, has awarded Estes Builders the 2013 Avid Custom Builder Diamond Award, the highest customer satisfaction award presented to custom builders in the United States.

Estes Builders designs and builds custom homes on the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas. The company is a North Peninsula Building Association Built Green member and has offices in Sequim and Poulsbo.

To contact the company, go online to www.estesbuilders.com or call 1-800-630-4399.

Custom home builder Adair Homes has opened its newest sales office in Silverdale to serve the West Puget Sound area. The office at 3500 NW Bucklin Hill Road, Suite 100, will serve Kitsap, Clallam, Jefferson, Pierce and Mason counties.

“Interest and activity in the Puget Sound area have both increased during the first quarter of 2013,” Adair Homes president Byron Van Kley said. “We felt this was an ideal time to bring the quality and value of Adair Homes to a new location.”

Vancouver, Wash.-based Adair Homes offers a unique customization process for homebuyers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Northern California.

Starting Aug. 1, owners of both residential and commercial buildings in Bremerton that are considered abandoned will have to register their properties with the city and inspect them monthly. The owners will also have to correct any nuisances, such as overgrown grass, trash or graffiti.

The ordinance, which the Bremerton City Council passed unanimously in April, is the first of its kind in Washington state. It imposes steep fines for noncompliance with the new rules.

Abandoned properties are defined as those that are vacant and have either been foreclosed (or have a deed in lieu of foreclosure), are under a notice of default or trustee sale, or are the subject of a pending tax assessor’s lien sale. The ordinance requires the properties to be properly maintained, and if the owner is a lender or another entity out of the area, it must retain a local property manager who will be responsible for complying with the ordinance. read more »

The corner building where Myrhe’s restaurant and bar served Port Orchard patrons for decades has been empty since a kitchen fire gutted the two-story structure in July 2011, and prospects for a revival are dim.

The boarded-up site has become an eyesore on Bay Street. The foreclosed property is scheduled to be sold at auction in a trustee’s sale in June. The last owners of the restaurant, John Lora and Mindy Oliver of Milton, owe thousands of dollars in delinquent property taxes, and they are being sued by four companies that started restoration work on the building last year. They claim Lora did not pay them for work they did, even though he received about $633,000 from an insurance claim before Travelers Insurance denied further payment on the claim because of alleged fraud. read more »

A year after plans for the Port Orchard Public Market were announced, the site of businessman Don Ryan’s ambitious project had an open-air feel when he took several prospective market vendors inside recently. The long-vacant Bay Street building was missing its roof — but that was a sign of progress.

The building that’s been empty since the Slip 45 nightclub closed several years ago has been gutted, and interior work to transform the space is in progress under a new roof. Rising above the building’s flat roof is the 25-by-50-foot frame for the clear story skylight over the market’s central area. When work is completed, there will be a new façade above the Bay Street entrance, which will have wide doors that can be rolled up to make the indoor market more visible from outside and add to the ambience. read more »

Business Examiner

Boeing Canada Winnipeg announced plans this week to increase its manufacturing site by more than 22 percent, primarily to house new composites work for Boeing’s 737 MAX airplane.

The building will be expanded by 150,000 square feet to a total of 665,000 square feet and will be used mainly to construct one piece on the newly designed engine nacelle inlet for the 737 MAX.

The expanded building, which includes two bays about the size of 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools, will house the 737 MAX and some 787 Dreamliner production. Construction will begin immediately, with an estimated completion by the fourth quarter of 2014. read more »

What was so unusual about Phillip Ratliff’s experience in getting approval for his first mortgage was that it wasn’t difficult at all — even though he could afford a down payment of only 5 percent.

In the years after the housing bubble burst, borrowers had to practically promise their firstborn child to secure a mortgage.

And while the requirements are still pretty rigorous, particularly for those with less than perfect credit, there are signs that at least some regional lenders and mortgage insurers are beginning to ease up. Some regional banks and credit unions are even offering products that vaguely resemble the more aggressive financing that became all too common during the boom days and eventually got many borrowers into trouble. read more »