NCW Real Estate Blog

On Wednesday evening, the Chelan Taxpayers group held a public meeting.  It was a first meeting and was something of an organizational event.  Courtney Cox (http://chelantaxpayers.blogspot.com/) presided over the meeting that was held at Karyl Oules residence in south Chelan.

About 50 people attended the meeting.  The meeting started with a report from the Assessor’s office that even if the appeal was sent in with the wrong form, as long something was filed by the deadline, that it would be considered for appeal.  So far, the Assessor’s office has received notice of at 144 appeals, which is a near record number. [Read more →]

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GoLakeChelan’s own Steve Byquist interviewed Buell Hawkins on taxes today.  He says he has gotten the message, but there is no quick fix.  Listen here!

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Revised 9:40 p.m. 7/07:  This just in, King County’s strict Critical Areas Ordinance has been overturned by an appeals court.  The law was passed by King County in 2004 to protect environmentally sensitive areas including salmon spawning streams.  It was considered one of the strictest such laws in the nation.

Critics of the law said it required them to set aside [Read more →]

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From the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) and the Seattle Times comes this article.   The median price declined 6% in June amidst sales that surged to the highest level since last August.

An 18 percent increase in houses and condos for sale last month, compared with a year earlier, meant a 6.7 month supply of available homes throughout King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties.

A year earlier, that supply was just shy of four months. A six-month supply is considered “balanced, equally favoring buyers and sellers.

In King County last month, the house and condominium markets were markedly different. Sales of detached houses were down 27 percent compared with a year earlier and the median sales price was down 4.3 percent to $449,700. There were 25.4 percent more houses on the market than a year earlier.

King County condos, on the other hand, saw their median sales price rise 5.3 percent year-over-year to $295,000. However sales declined 45 percent while listings increased 40.5 percent compared with the previous June.

Getting move-up buyers to actually commit is a challenge, says [Read more →]

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And it is because the state squandered the money from the boom.  Here’s an excerpt from a post of the top 10 states with looming tax shortages on the Real Estate Bloggers:

As we have talked about previously, state governments did not have any restraint during the big money years of the housing boom. Instead of socking some of the money away for a rainy day, they created new vote buying programs and built shrines to themselves.  - Real Estate Bloggers

Read the whole post above.  Remember who did this to us this November.

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The May Snapshot Report is out from Pacific Appraisal.  An excerpt of their comments includes:

Wenatchee Market:
Year to date, sales by volume continues at a lower pace than last year -down 26%. Sales by number is down 28%.  Number of homes on the market is at 588 indicating a [Read more →]

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Lawmakers will explain property taxes, answer questions 

OLYMPIA…With new property tax valuations hitting Chelan County homeowners’ mailboxes, Sen. Linda Parlette and Rep. Cary Condotta will participate in a public forum on property taxes June 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Chelan High School.

The meeting is organized by GoLakeChelan.com and the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce. Topics will include future property tax changes as well as tax and budget trends.

The issue of property taxes, say the 12^th District lawmakers, is raising ire among property owners who have seen their property taxes rise an average of 6.7 percent in 2005, 9.5 percent in 2006, and a staggering 15.8 percent in 2007, [Read more →]

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The May Building Insight Magazine from the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) has, on page 4, an article about a court case where the Eastern Washington Growth Board ruled that Kittitas County’s development regulations violate the Growth Management Act because they allow rural densities of one home per three acres. 

The Seattlebased left wing environmental group, Futurewise, has taken its anti-growth agenda over the mountains into central Washington. The group filed two lawsuits against Kittitas County within the last year alleging the County’s regulations violate the Growth Management Act (GMA). [Read more →]

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From the NWMLS May sales numbers show the median home price down by 2.89% in King, 6.74% in Snohomish County and 7.57% in Pierce county as compared to May 2007.  In May, there were 2081 closed sales versus 3514 in May of 2007 which I calculate to be a 40.7% decrease in volume of sales.  Total sales in the NWMLS showed a 6.19% decrease in Median Price and a volume reduced to 5,158 from 8,590 closings in May of 2007.

Okanagon county is showing a 20.47% increase in median price but sales volume dropped from 35 closings in May 2007 to 17 in May of this year. 

What is the good news in all of that?  There are [Read more →]

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Or, did you know experienced real estate agents spend more on advertising than new agents?  This article in Bloomberg has all that and even more interesting information.  It has a great chart showing List Price Amount and Amount Spent on advertising per listing, below:

One other great bit of information in the article is most agents spend a great amount of money on newspaper advertising, while they believe it is one of the less [Read more →]

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