NCW Real Estate Blog

And had no state income tax and was not business hostile?  In fact, this place should be openly welcoming to business.  According to this article on MSN, 16% of all people who moved to other states are relocating to just such a place.

The article talks about the low housing prices, less than $200k for spacious homes, as being a big draw for folks.  The economy is also strong and growing.  What the article doesn’t mention is some of the reasons that Texas is that place. 

 I’ll fill in some of the rest of the background.  Texas is one of five states without a state [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest by Al Lorenz
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The Manson Sub Area Plan meeting was very well attended last night.  It was standing room only at the Ray Bumgarner building with several folks standing in the back throughout the meeting. 

There were a number of new faces who gave lots of great testimony and opinion to the Manson council.  There are folks who are worried about growth and change in almost every way imaginable.  A couple of young families who own acreages said they would like to be able to divide and build their homes on their property.  There were a few orchardists who talked about having some flexibility that would allow [Read more →]

Tags: Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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In an article entitled “Property Values Rise by nearly $1 Billion in Chelan County” by Michele McNeil in the Wenatchee World today, County Assessor Russ Griffith said:

The county is now in the process of assigning new values to properties in Chelan, and the overall increase there is expected to be even greater than the western part of the county, he said.

“The demand for property (at Lake Chelan) is just astounding,” he said. “If you are looking to buy a place and you are a young person just starting out, the market is [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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UPDATED March 27:  The location of the meeting has been changed to the Thousand Trails Adult Lodge, still on April 26th at 10:00 a.m.

On April 26, 2008 at 10:00 am at the Lake Wenatchee Recreation Club there will be a meeting of members (property owners) of the Chiwawa Communities Association. Members are property owners in Chiwawa River Pines and I understand that this is not a meeting open to the general public.

However, members of the association should plan on attending or voting by proxy (mail) as, among other items, an amendment of the protective covenants of the community is on the agenda. That amendment, if passed, would allow some low-impact service oriented businesses that serve the community to operate in the community. Examples of those businesses are accounting, grooming, etc.

As I read it, the proposed amendment would not change the status of vacation rentals in the community.

Tags: Local by Al Lorenz
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Attention: The Chelan County PUD has set April 7th (1PM in the Boardroom) as the date and location for of an important meeting to continue a discussion of whether PRIVATE DOCKS should be permitted on land the PUD owns along the shorelines of the Rocky Reach Reservoir on the Columbia River – affecting about 7 percent of land behind Rocky Reach Dam. There are also a few parcels affected on Lake Chelan.

Property owners who own their entire waterfront would not be affected.
 

Tags: General Interest, Local, Uncategorized by Jerry_Isenhart
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Pacific Appraisals has once again sent out their useful “Snapshot” of residential real estate activity in the Wenatchee market and MLS area with February numbers.  Volume of home sales compared to February one year ago is down, 14% and mobile home sales are down 57%, both numbers are by dollar volume in the MLS area.  By number of sales, homes are down 20% and mobile homes are down 55% (although that number is a change of 10 in 2007 to only 6 in 2008) also in the MLS area.

But, if you stop here, you really miss [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
1 Comment »

The Wenatchee World has this article on Soaring Foreclosures being bad news for neighbors.  It’s a big headline, all the way across the top of page C3 in the business section.  But, I have a problem with it.

I have a problem because we don’t have soaring foreclosures in North Central Washington.  We don’t have high flying, or even a hopping foreclosure problem.  In fact, foreclosures here are very low and expected to remain so. 

 The places that have high foreclosures are places where [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest by Al Lorenz
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The Wenatchee World reports in this article that the County Commission went ahead and approved some rezones in Sunnyslope and south of Wenatchee that the City Community Development Director opposed.  It goes on to state the points of view of the City’s new Community Development director and the Commissioner’s points of view. 

Never fear for Mr. Smith, City Community Development Director, being the only city employee who may not agree with county policies.  Public Works will have their opportunity to find out how badly the county commissioners, and the county citizens, want to tax themselves to build Wenatchee a new bridge across the river. 

Tags: Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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The City of Wenatchee is accepting applications to consider amendments for the 2008 comprehensive plan updates.  The applications need to be into the Department of Community Development no later than March 31.

Tags: Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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Here is a place you can post your opinions for the world, and the assessor to see.  It has been a couple of weeks since we received those new tax assessments and bills from the assessor’s office.  Were you surprised?
Was it more… or less… of a change than you expected?

I have several properties in the county and local area. 
I had surprises both directions. 
Don’t get me wrong, nothing went down. 
It may be that I had such an expectation of increase that when one or two didn’t go up quite as much as I feared,
that surprised me a little.  On the other hand, I had a couple that went WAY up! And now … more than surprised,  I am also concerned.

 Please add your comments and use this as a forum!  If you haven’t commented before, when you click to comment, a box will come up that will allow you to enter a username and password.  Then, you can add your comments.  This is a moderated site that I intend to keep “G” rated.  All that means is your comment will show up shortly and that you should keep your comments professional, although strong opinions are allowed.

Tags: General Interest, Local by Jerry_Isenhart
1 Comment »