NCW Real Estate Blog

If you haven’t heard, the Town Toyota Center is not meeting its financial objectives.  The solution proposed by its Public Facilities District board is a 0.2% sales tax increase in the nine districts in its taxing area.  Those districts include: Wenatchee, E. Wenatchee, Entiat, Cashmere, Chelan, Rock Island,  Waterville and unincorporated Chelan and Douglas counties.

This morning, I wrote about the potential conflict this could set up in an election where citizens of Wenatchee are motivated to approve that tax increase and surrounding areas are not.  There is also some further analysis that citizens should demand on how much of a sales tax increase it would take in just the city of Wenatchee, where the surrounding areas also spend a great amount of money, to meet the financial needs of the Town Toyota Center.  Since Wenatchee gets most of the benefits of adjunct business from the Town Toyota Center and it is a regional shopping hub, that seems like it might be a better approach to the problem than taxing businesses in Waterville, Chelan and the rest of the area who don’t benefit from the arena.  Read about it and comment at the Chelan Real Estate Blog!

Tags: General Interest by admin
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Real estate sales reports for Leavenworth and Cashmere are out for the first two quarters of 2010. They are compiled by Pacific Appraisals.

The Leavenworth Snapshot of Real Estate Sales shows good improvement in 2010. Dollar volume of home sales is up 57% and transaction volume is up 68% from 2009. Average sale price is up 6%.

The Cashmere Snapshot of Real Estate Sales also shows a big increase, although from very small numbers last year.  Dollar volume of home sales in Cashmere is up 103% and transaction volume is up 83% from 2009.  The average sale price is up 10% and the median price is up 31%.

Tags: General Interest, Real Estate Market by admin
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Back some years ago, I put an offer on the entire Morse Steel property in Wenatchee.  I was part of a group that was interested in creating an area along the river front from Orondo on the south encompassing the former public works property to the north.  It is an area that could be used to create a vibrant identity in that part of the city that would compliment the entire Wenatchee downtown.

If the Port and City are able to pull off this project, it could go a long way towards a new vision for that area.  The Wenatchee World had an article on the option the Port of Chelan recently signed.  I certainly support something happening to take advantage of that wonderful opportunity for Wenatchee.

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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The Snapshot Report for the 2009 year end is now available for both Leavenworth and Cashmere.

Leavenworth experienced a 40% decline in the dollar volume of home sales in 2009.  Condo dollar volume dropped by only 12% even though the number of condos sold actually increased from 2008 by 13%.  In actual numbers that means 18 condos sold in 2009 as compared to 16 in 2008.   The number of homes sold in Leavenworth declines by 39% in 2009 dropping from 102 in 2008 to 62 in 2009.

The median price of a home sale in Leavenworth fell by 6% and the median price of a condo fell by 13% in 2009.

Cashmere saw a 32% decrease in the dollar volume of homes sold and a 30% reduction on the number of homes sold in 2009.  Since there was one condo sold in Cashmere in 2008 and none in 2009, there was a 100% decrease in condo sales.  The median home price in Cashmere declined 1% from $234,750 in 2008 to $232,000 in 2009.

Pacific Appraisals has decided to only publish these reports quarterly in the future.  To see the complete reports, simply click on the links above.

Tags: General Interest, Real Estate Market by Al Lorenz
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Chelan County Planning Commission will be hosting a public Workshop on the adoption of the International Building and Fire codes. This is your opportunity to comment on the proposed amendments to the Chelan County Code.  The workshop is 7:00 p.m. on January 25th in the County Commissioner’s Chambers.

Please contact Graham Simon or David Grimes with questions, phone 667-6225

The proposed Building Code Resolution

Tags: General Interest, Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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Here area a couple photos of the dogsled teams that were out on December 30th at the Fish Lake snowpark.  There is a skating rink at The Cove too!

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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The Wenatchee real estate market keeps plugging along, not gaining but not losing much from where last year ended.  While 2009 continues to be below 2008 levels in both Dollar Volume (-18%) and Number of Units Sold (-11%). since June the dollar volume and number of units sold has been holding steady with last year.

This means the Wenatchee Real Estate Snapshot from Pacific Appraisals is available!  Check it out!

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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Check it out!  Chelan county is looking at regulating vacation rentals of single family homes in the Manson SubArea.  The process being considered is an “annual permit.”

The permit would – (more)

Tags: General Interest, Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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According to the Pacific Appraisals Snapshot Report, most Wenatchee home sales are occuring on homes priced under $250,000.  Sales in total are still lagging last year and October lags last year by about 19% in dollar volume.

Currently there have been 508 homes sold this year, a -13% reduction from this time last year. Number of sales has increased monthly throughout 2009, with the 3rd quarter seeing the most activity. Most sales throughout 2009 have occured in the price ranges of $151,000 to $250,000. – Pacific Appraisals Snapshot for October

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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Snow and sun is a great combination!

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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