It’s a spectacular day in the Lake Chelan Valley, with a nearly cloudless blue sky. I am thankful that we live in a wonderful, magical place with such a caring community of people. Thank you for your support and readership!
Hug and cherish your loved ones, whether in person or in your thoughts, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
$150 billion for bailing out AIG. Automakers want another $25 billion. How long was it going to take for home builders to want a bailout of the area that they claim is the root cause? We now know that answer. The Wall Street Journal reports that home builders are indeed making a plea for federal aid to the tune of $250 billion.
The builders’ lobby is ramping up its sales pitch for a $250 billion stimulus package called “Fix Housing First,” arguing that financial markets won’t recover until home prices stop falling. They are calling for a generous tax credit for home purchases and a federal subsidy that would lower a homeowner’s mortgage rate. – WSJ
There are some pretty nifty graphs showing the housing correction has already moved prices back in line with historical price to income ratios. However, price to rental ratios are still a bit out of line. The Realtors and National Association of Home Builders are running these newspaper ads in Washington in support of the “Fix Housing First” proposal.
I’m not a big fan of bailouts. We’ve already spent $350 billion. Do you think it has helped? How about spending another $25 billion on automakers? We spend nearly $80 billion every year on farm subsidies and supports through the Department of Agriculture and according the the Cato Institute and many experts, it doesn’t have any positive impact. Shouldn’t other industries be asking for their share? What industry do you think will be asking next and what will be left to tax to pay for any of it?
The Wenatchee market, defying October’s financial turmoil, the runup to the election and the stock market, continue to be stable as they have been for the last several months. Pacific Appraisal once again sends us their October Snapshot showing sales down 27% in the overall market by both volume and dollar amount from last year. That means 57 homes were sold in October which is just near the average of 58 homes sold each month year to date. Average Sale Value and Median Sale Value are holding fairly steady as well.
The market continues to have an abundance of homes priced $300,000 and above. Rental vacancies have come up a bit to almost 5% overall. Real estate excise tax collections in Chelan County are down about 40% from last year. The pleasant news is there are not a bunch of surprises. Wouldn’t you like to be able to say that about the stock market!
look up! I’ve been in the process of moving with my family the last while, so posts have been a bit sparse. After a long construction project, we moved from Chelan to Manson and are now starting to get settled.
But, since this is part of what real estate is all about, don’t think there isn’t some great stuff underway for blog and GoLakeChelan readers! A book or two could be written about the fun we’ve had! I’ve also been heavily researching the most effective real estate agencies and real estate marketing nationwide. Even in this market, there are thriving agencies who are still getting their listings sold quickly.
In the near future, you will see many of those marketing practices applied to my house I will be selling in Chelan as well as a new web site that is underway for Criterion Properties. While the real estate market may be a bit slow, the stock market is making real estate look like a great investment! Stay tuned, we’re going to be having fun!
I don’t do much national news and am not a big fan of the bailouts. This process is beyond shameless to me in how it has been set up to allow the taxpayer to be taken advantage of. The SanFrancisco Chronicle, and others, are writing articles like this entitled “Are you and idiot to keep paying your mortgage?” Who do you think the victims of this process will be?
Critics say the plan, which applies to loans owned or guaranteed by government wards Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac among others, could encourage people to suspend payments.
But what about the moral obligation to pay off a debt?
Elected officials have been chipping away at that by blaming [Read more →]
I still get quite a few questions about what is happening with property taxes in the Chelan area for 2009. So, here is an update! Property valuations in the Lake Chelan area went up an average of 123% (or 2.23 times the previous valuation) for 2009. The total valuation in the valley went from about 1.3 billion dollars to over 3 billion dollars. That $1.7 billion dollar increase locally created an increase in the overall county’s total assessed value of about 24%.
What does that all mean for taxes? Local levies, for fire districts, schools, hospitals and such things should see a drop in levy rate, to less than half the previous amount. So, for most local levies, if your property valuation went up the average amount (2.23 times the old valuation) you won’t see an increase in the local part of your property taxes. If your property went up less than that amount, and many did, your local levy taxes may actually drop. Waterfront and view properties often went up more than the average amount and will carry a larger part of the local taxes.
One local levy to watch is the Manson Parks levy. They originally were looking to collect 145 thousand dollars but the way the levy was actually approved was a millage rate based on the old valuations. So, they can actually take up to 2.23 times the $145k the voters were asked for.
In a recent public meeting, the Manson Parks Board apparently voted to do just that [Read more →]
Sales in the Puget Sound area dove 27% from October 2007 in a not unexpected result of the national economic turmoil according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Sales also dropped 26% from September’s numbers! The general message conveyed is all the economic tumult plus the uncertainty of electing a new president served to suspend activity in the market. Uncertainty is not a good thing for the real estate market.
Listing activity slowed to 9647 new properties which was the lowest number since September 2007. Inventory is at its lowest level since February. At month end there were 46,189 active residential listings in the MLS system. That’s down 2.5 percent from a year ago when members reported 47,381 active listings. The highest volume so far in 2008 was of 51,817, the total inventory at the end of May.
Prices followed the downturn. For October’s 4,512 closed sales of single family homes and condominiums combined, the median price system-wide was $291,000, down 7.4 percent from a year ago. A comparison with September shows a 1.3 percent decline from the median selling price overall of $295,000.
Prices for completed sales of single family homes (excluding condos) fell about 9 percent last month compared with a year ago. Condominium prices dipped only 3.8 percent overall from a year ago. The median King County Single family homes dropped to under $392,000 which is the first time in 2 1/2 years the median price for single family homes has been under $400,000.
Wow, according to an article in the Wenatchee World, the State Department of Natural Resources might finally be ready to take some action on the former K-Mart building in K-Mart plaza at Olds Station. The former K-Mart closed in 2006 and has been vacant since that time.
The article is a bit unclear in that it sounds like the DNR is taking the first steps to sell the building by offering it to other goverment agencies. The article also claims the need to get around the $6 million appraised value to be able to sell it. I’m thinking they might be dreaming in this market if that is truly the case. The article further states that the county has been frustrated since the DNR is still receiving lease payments from K-Mart so they seem to be in no great hurry to take action on the property. So, it is a little hard to tell if something is really going to happen. In the Wenatchee World article, Buell Hawkins commented:
“The DNR was not willing to make any site improvements,” Hawkins said. “That’s common business practice – a landlord modifies a building for a perspective tenant. The fact that DNR wouldn’t do that [Read more →]
I just noticed this morning that another Chelan waterfront home now has a contingent deal pending on it. Homes, even luxury homes are still selling, just not at the levels they were. Marketing to luxury buyers is different from selling more moderately priced homes and to be successful it is important to understand the differences.
In fact, so far in 2008 there have been 8 waterfront sales in my usual reporting area around Lake Chelan at an average sale price of $1.612,062. Of course, there have been 99 waterfront properties listed! The average list price of the sales was $1,862,057. This year there have been four 6+ bedroom homes sold for an average of $3,100,000. That includes a sale for $3.4 million dollars this year and 3 sales over $2 million.
In 2006, 11 waterfront properties sold of the 17 listed at an average of $1,542,272. 2006 also saw individual home sales at $3.99 million, $3.05 million and $2.2 million. In 2007, 14 waterfront properties sold of the 26 listed at an average list price of $1,386,600. During 2007, there was one sale at $3.5 million and only one other over $2 million at $2.4 million. So, 2008 has not been a bad year for high dollar sales in spite of only a small percentage of listed homes selling. In fact, the high dollar sales have probably been what has kept the average sale value as high as it is this year. For the October sales posting, click here.
It is important to remember that there is not just one category of luxury home buyer. Some folks want a flashy “look at me” home and others [Read more →]
Those Alt-A mortgage products, that required no proof of income or ability to pay, are targeted for $100 billion of the government bailout money. In this scheme taxpayers foot the bill for reduced interest or principal amounts on these “Liar Loans.”
Of course, with taxpayers footing the bill, the banks don’t seem to be able to find the manpower to go through the documentation loan by loan and are “streamlining” the process. So, if you fit a certain formula of negative equity and a variable interest rate loan, you can probably “streamline” your way to a better loan, whether you need it or not. Those who lied in the first place to get a loan they couldn’t afford are offered a second chance to do the same, but this time at taxpayers expense.
In the blogosphere, there is discussion of even those who aren’t having any trouble paying for their loans to miss some payments [Read more →]
