NCW Real Estate Blog

From Pacific Appraisals comes August results in Snapshot reports for Leavenworth and Cashmere.  This information is culled from the Wenatchee multiple listing service.

From the report, Leavenworth:

The Leavenworth market finds itself slightly better in comparison to 1 month ago, but still significantly behind where it was 1 year ago. The total number of sold single family homes is down 48% from a year ago.  Interestingly, both the median and average home sales price are higher when considering YTD. Currently there are 194 homes on the market, which translates into a 48 month supply at current selling rates.

It was a pleasure to see Geordie Romer yesterday at ReBar Camp in Seattle.  Looking at his latest posts, it looks like we all concur that the market is still a bit slower than last year!

And for Cashmere in July where only 1 home sold:

The Cashmere market continues at sluggish pace when considering single family purchases in comparison to 1 year ago. The total volume is approximately 58% behind last year at this time. The number of sold single family homes remain close to 50% of last years numbers. In contrast, the average homes sales price remains stable by comparison at only 5% lower. The median home sales price remains significantly less at -23%. The volume of homes currently listed remains significantly higher than last year at this time.

Tags: General Interest, Local, Marketing by Al Lorenz
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8 Kahler Glen homes cannot be occupied from December 31 to March 31 each winter due to avalanche danger in their locations according to an order issued by Chelan County. 

Last year, a home on Pelton Place was destroyed by an avalanche and there was damage to neighboring homes.   The order is to remain in place until the homeowners, at their expense, undertake avalanche protection measures that could cost as much as $2 million.

The homeowners have hired an attorney and filed an appeal with the Chelan County Hearing Examiner.

Here’s an excerpt of a Wenatchee World story on the issue:

The order is the first of its kind in the county, where officials have deemed residential homes uninhabitable for part of the year. In addition, two vacant lots in the area will not be eligible for building permits because of the order, county planning officials said.

The restriction would remain in place until avalanche protection measures are taken by property owners, which could cost up to $2 million.

The county issued the order last month in response to a powerful avalanche that destroyed a home on Pelton Place on Feb. 7, 2008. The slide knocked a two-story home about 45 feet off its foundation. The destroyed home is included in the eight affected by the county order, even though it was not rebuilt. The foundation is still there. – Wenatchee World

Tags: General Interest, Land Use, Local by Al Lorenz
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Sales dollars in Homes/Condos in the Wenatchee area are down by 28% compared to 2008 as well. 

The most striking feature of the Pacific Appraisals Snapshot Report is the monthly sales volume, available inventory and months supply at various price levels.  Sales volume over $250,000 drops off steeply and sales volume over $400,000 is less than 1 per month in most price ranges!  Some good news is that the number of homes on the market has stopped climbing and currently sits at 643 as of the end of June.

Tags: General Interest, Local, Marketing 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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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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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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