NCW Real Estate Blog

The information about the bill recently passed in Congress, the Waxman-Markey Cap & Trade Bill, HR 2454, is frightening.

You’ve probably already heard folks worried about the costs.  But you probably haven’t heard about the details of the 300 page amendment introduced by the Democrats at 3:00 a.m. that could not be read before voting.

How do these details grab ya?

Beyond what it will do to our economy, at the end of the debate House GOP Leader John Boehner took to the floor and started reading from the 300 page amendment that the Democrats drafted and dropped on the legislatures at 3 AM, there was literally hundred of items to impose federal control over your life. Here are some highlights.

Want to replace a window? Not so fast. First you must pay for an appraisal of your house to measure its energy efficiency and receive calculations of both before and after the proposed change. Hey, it may be a great excuse for those guys trying to avoid putting in that big bay style window that the missus has been bugging you about.

Are you having a new house built? Back up, Skippy. This bill includes language that tells you exactly where you can put your electrical outlets.

Did you know that for one sort of appraisal service related to determining energy efficiency there is only one company you can use? Yup, it is right in there along with the name of the company. How is it that this one company managed to land the only contract to service 300 million Americans? Who is this company?

I wish I could answer those questions, but all of those provisions and more, Rep. Boehner went on for almost an hour citing them and still didn’t get through the whole 300 pages, is not available. You see because of when the Democrats dropped this amendment at 3 AM the text of it is not available. So much for that transparency. The total bill runs on for more then 1500 pages and it controls every aspect of your life, from what type of car we will be able to produce and buy to what type of appliances you have in your house.

Under some of these provisions you won’t be able to sell your house. Got your eyes and a quaint little place out the way and off the beaten path? Forget about it. By the time you went through the time and expense to get it up to the new code proposed in this legislation that little place in the woods will resemble something out the Jetsons. –JammieWearingFool

Are these the same folks you want deciding if you get health care when you need it?  If you’re mad, please do something about it.

Tags: General Interest, Land Use by Al Lorenz
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The Snapshot reports from Pacific Appraisal for May show slow sales in both Leavenworth and Cashmere as compared to last year and the last several years.

Here are the reports:

Leavenworth Real Estate Sales
Cashmere Real Estate Sales

Sales in Leavenworth are down 67% compared to last year for single family homes and condominiums sold.  While the median price for homes sold is only down 3% as compared to last year, condos in Leavenworth are down 25%.

In Cashmere, there were no recorded closed sales in May.  YTD data indicates a 61% reduction in overall volume and a 58% reduction in number of homes sold.

Tags: General Interest, Local, Marketing by Al Lorenz
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On Wednesday, I was able to go to the Chelan Planning Commission’s workshop on the new draft Shoreline Managment Plan, but did not have a copy of the plan to view during the discussion. Today, the draft is available in its 358 pages of glory!  For most of us, the first 8 sections are the pertinent ones since most of the stuff after that is specific to individual cities.  That leaves you with only 183 pages to review carefully.  This is important to review carefully if you care about building anything near any waterway, clean water, access to shorelines, access to waterways, private property rights, public rights and I could go on and on.

From Wednesday’s discussion, there are many changes from the previous preliminary draft that came out.  Some are great, like easing some of the maintenance restrictions on docks, etc.  But, there are still provisions for public access requirement across private developments.  Apparently Washington’s Shorelines Managment Act has requirements that are driving some of the more controversial sections of the local Shoreline Management Plan update.  Also, attempts were made to reference appropriate Washington Administrative Code (WAC) and Revised Code of Washington (RCW) that are the rules that the plan is required to comply with.  So, you should be able to compare what the rule requires to what has been written.

Now, the draft Shoreline Managment Plan is available.  I will have further comments next week when I’ve spent some time with it.  The county would like to have all comments by August 7th.

A hard copy of the Draft SMP will also be available (starting next week) to look through at each City Hall (Cashmere, Chelan, Entiat, Leavenworth, and Wenatchee), Chelan County Natural Resource Department, Chelan County Community Development Department, and the North Central Washington Library in Wenatchee.   

How to submit comments:

• Comments can either be submitted electronically (e-mail) or through the postal mail (see addresses below)
• Comments referencing the section (not the page) of the document first would be extremely helpful
  For Example: Section 4.4.2.1.a; then comment.

Submit comments to:

Erin Fonville
SMP Project Manager/
Natural Resource Specialist
Chelan County Natural Resource Department
316 Washington St. Suite 401
Wenatchee, WA 98801
E-mail:  erin.fonville@co.chelan.wa.us

Tags: General Interest, Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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Well, yes, I think a bunch of it is.  There are a bunch of homes, particularly in the over $400k range, that are overpriced for today’s market.   The Wenatchee World had a conversation about this a few days ago, with a couple of local experts weighing in, because of a CNN Money article that pegged Wenatchee as the third most overpriced real estate market in the country.

They measured “over priced” by the ratio of the median income to the median home price.  There are some arguments why that may not be a perfect model for Wenatchee.  But, to be the way out in the tail of the curve as third most overpriced in the country, well, there are other towns with lots of out of town buyers too that didn’t score ahead of Wenatchee.  I don’t mean to pick on Wenatchee.  I think this applies to the whole area.

The CNN article stated:

And there are still some over-valued areas. Atlantic City, N.J., for example. Here the median price is $243,600, an overvaluation of 44.1%, the most of any metro area. The Ocean City, N.J., median price of $302,100 is the second most overvalued, at 33.8%. In third place is Wenatchee, Wash., which at $247,100, is 29.3% above normal. – CNN

In the World article, a local appraisal company and a local realtor in Wenatchee gave their opinions.  The opinions were well stated and thought out.  They talked about the basis for the CNN article, average income versus median home price, as having some issues.  They also talked about different price sectors of the market versus inventory at those price points.  All good thoughts.

 But after a discussion of the large inventory of higher end homes,  Brian Vincent from Pacific Appraisals said “I can’t say those (higher-end) homes are 30 percent overvalued, but the market has to correct itself to get some of them to move.”  Brian also said at one point he did not forsee an adjustment of 30% in the local market.  It is a good article, and worth a read: Housing Experts differ on pricing.

One fairly simple way to look at it, if your home is marketed competently, and has been on the market for a long time, it is over priced for today’s market.

Tags: General Interest, Local, Marketing by Al Lorenz
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I got wound up while reading an article about the Chelan County government’s budget woes.  It seems that the reduced development and construction was funding a lot more than sewer connections and road improvements, judging by the amount of cutbacks that will be required to cut services due to the industry’s decline.

Couple that with the local desire to burden home buyers with even larger shares of the tax burden with impact fees, and a post was born!

The local political lexicon that justifies extortion of development for  impact fees, SEPA fees and other fees that create high housing costs is “Development should pay for development.”  What a sound byte for a politician!  The problem is, development already does pay for development, and much more. – Chelan Real Estate Blog

Tags: General Interest, Land Use, Local, Northwest by Al Lorenz
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How will the Chrysler and GM deals raise mortgage rates even further than what we saw last week?  Simple.  The Obama administration seems unconcerned over damage to the credit markets in his quest to reward the United Auto Workers by trampling laws and legal precedent regarding corporate debt.

That is causing a loss of confidence.  That is going to make mortgage rates go up! 

From James Glassman at the New York Times:

What’s my interest in this? I head a nonprofit group that encourages developing nations to adopt policies that will lead to prosperity — starting with transparency and the rule of law — and hold up America as a model. Yet in its high-handed dealings with Chrysler and G.M., the Obama administration reminds me of an irresponsible third-world regime, skirting the law and handing economic prizes to political cronies. – New York Times

Tags: Finance, General Interest by Al Lorenz
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Here are the Pacific Appraisal sale reports for Cashmere and Leavenworth.

Cashmere is lagging last year in sales by 57% in dollar volume and 53% by transaction volume.  The 46 homes for sale in the market are about a 6 month supply which should make for stable pricing in the market.

Leavenworth is down 71% in dollar volume and 69% in transaction volume compared to last year.  The average home sales price is down 6% while the average condo sales price is down 18% year to date.

Have a look at the complete reports!

Tags: General Interest, Local, Marketing by Al Lorenz
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“Smart Growth,” or planned growth with high density in urban cores, was supposed to reduce sprawl around urban cores.  The latest studies show that is anything but what has actually happened.

For example, 90% of the growth in the Seattle area over the last 20 years has been outside the City of Seattle, despite the Growth Managment Act and the development of residential towers in the City.

Suburbanites aren’t folks fleeing the dense downtowns but are people who move from small towns and exurbs to share in the economic opportunities and jobs available in the cities.

What’s a planner to do?

…suburbs need to be seen differently, not as the hostile “other” to core cities:

[S]uburbs have to be seen not as the enemies of the city, as just a modern expression of urbanization. They are neither the enemies of the city, nor are their residents likely to move “back” there. You cannot move back to someplace you did not come from.

In other words, the idea that suburbanites can be enticed back into dense urban cores is unlikely. In fact, the bigger cores grow and flourish, the more likely they will generate new sprawl. – Crosscut

It appears to reduce sprawl in the cities, economic opportunites and incentives need to be created in rural areas that can support larger populations.

Tags: General Interest, Northwest by Al Lorenz
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Pacific Appraisal has once again released their Snapshot Residential Sales Report for Wenatchee area residential sales.

Year to date 153 condos and homes have sold versus 190 for the same time last year.  Volume is down 21% by dollar volume and 19% by number of sales.  The report includes breakdowns by price range of active listings, average number sold per month and indicated months supply.  For homes priced over $300,000 sales volumes drop off fairly abruptly.

Tags: General Interest, Local, Marketing by Al Lorenz
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Finally, after years of neglect, the Department of Natural Resources is going to sell off the Kmart building in Olds Station in downtown Wenatchee.

This building is $107,418 square feet on about nine acres of land.  The DNR recently had it appraised at $4.25 million.  Had they sold it a couple of years ago, it would have fetched much better than that.

Today, the commercial real estate market is in meltdown.  Financing a project like this is almost impossible.  Buying a building like this without a tenant is a high stakes game.

So, I expect the price at auction, planned for June 26 in the Chelan County Courthouse, will be well below appraised value.  If you’re up for a high stakes game of real estate, this could be your hand to play!

For more, go to Kmart in the Wenatchee World.  Click if you want some help with high stakes real estate in Chelan County,

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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