NCW Real Estate Blog

The City of Wenatchee has released a Request for Proposals, Mixed Income, Affordable Housing Development.  The available sites for the project are shown here, on land currently used as public parking.  The City is offering to discuss incentives such as density bonuses, required parking reductions, fast track permitting, tax abatements, permit fee wavers/reductions and/or publicy financed infrastructure.  Wenatchee is asking respondents to the RFP to identify the incentives they think may make the project feasible.

Those are all costs to normal development.  Why everybody can’t get “fast track” permitting I have no idea.  [Read more →]

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Pacific Appraisals has sent out their wonderful Snapshot Report for August.  There is a new addition to the format, where they have included sale and active listings by price range.  “Months Supply” by price range has been a feature for awhile now.

The change in average and median prices for August compared to one year ago is 0% in the overall MLS area and up 3% for the average and 1% for the median in the Wenatchee market.  Volume year to date is down about 30% from last year.

The total listings in Wenatchee are down by 3% compared to last year.  Vacancy rates for rentals continue to be very low.  Have a look and my thanks to Pacific Appraisals.

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Chelan County is hosting public open houses in Wenatchee and Chelan, with a third meeting being hosted by the City of Leavenworth. The purpose of these meetings will be to confirm priority transportation improvement projects for Chelan County and City of Leavenworth Transportation Plans with community members. Decisions established by this effort will influence the future of all modes of transportation in the County and City.

 Information will be the same for the events in Wenatchee and Chelan, but the Leavenworth event will focus [Read more →]

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According to Realty Trac this morning, there are 8 properties scheduled for foreclosure auctions in the Chelan zip code, 1 in Manson, 6 in Leavenworth, 24 in Wenatchee and 3 in East Wenatchee.  The auction dates range from the 10th of October to the 1st of December.  That is the largest number I’ve seen and it would appear that North Central Washington is not immune from the increases in foreclosures that have been happening in other areas. 

What we are not seeing is large tracts of homes where a major builder has defaulted or entire neighborhoods with large percentages of foreclosed homes.  Where that is occuring, that level of foreclosures is devastating a few parts of the country. But I don’t expect to see that level of issues occur in North Central Washington.  Foreclosure sales are rarely happy events for the parties involved.  But, for those who are interested in perusing foreclosures in hopes of finding deals, they now have something more to look at in North Central Washington.

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According to the NWMLS, single family homes in King County (excluding condos) had a median sale price or $314,000, 10% below last years $349,900 for completed sales.  While low interest rates and abundant selection are making for good buys, tighter credit and the elimination of seller funded down payment assistance continue to inhibit sales activity.

Across Western Washington inventory is leveling off with pending sales comparable to the last 4 months.  11,415 new listings were added in August compared to 14,500 in August of 2007.  There are still 8.1 months of inventory system wide and a 7.4 months supply in the 4 county Puget Sound area.  Nationally, there is an 11.2 month supply.  6 months supply is typically considered a “balanced” market between buyers and sellers.

Seven counties showed price gains in August. Median selling prices in Clark, Grant, Island, Kitsap, Mason, Okanogan, and San Juan counties were up in August from the previous month. 

With inventory leveling off, prices may be at a point where the market is flattening and becoming more balanced.  Stay tuned right here to keep abreast of it all!

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County Assessor Russ Griffith commented on tax reform in the Opinion section of the Wenatchee World today.  He reaffirms that new revenue is not generated by property revaluations.  If you’re interested in property taxes, it is a good read.

He doesn’t sound like a fan of options like circuit breakers, homestead exemptions or a proposition 13 like approach.  Here’s an excerpt and a link:

Property tax shifts are great if you are getting the break in taxes, but tax shifts are not appreciated if you are paying the other person’s taxes!

This is the 18th year that I have been your assessor and I have worked toward changing the system for all taxpayers’ benefit every year in one way or another. Frankly, the easiest way to get property tax relief is by reducing the state school tax. In 2008 it represents 24 percent of all the property taxes paid in Chelan County. The state had a large surplus in 2007, which in my opinion could have been used to reduce or eliminate the state share of the property tax. - Wenatchee World

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The Spanish Castle resort between Rock Island and Trinidad is still progressing according to its developer.  Wade Entezar, president of Entazar Development Group of Bellevue, plans to have an Open House on the property September 20th with Windermere of Wenatchee for prospective buyers.  He also hopes to build a model home on the property by the end of the year.

Spanish Castle is to be built over seven years and is estimated to be a 300 to 400 million dollar project that eventually could site 1340 residential units.

The Wenatchee World has a story on the resort here.  A link to a video from Entezar development is here: Entezar Development

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According to a post in Crosscut today, Seattle is one of the most extreme cities in the USA.  How extreme?  Seattle has few families, is highly educated and very gentrified.  The big number is that Seattle averages only 2.08 occupants per household.  The closest rivals of major cities are San Francisco and Portland at 2.24 and the national average is 2.61.  A local Community Housing Steering Committee I am serving on shows a trend towards similar demographics in certain parts of North Central Washington.

Here’s an excerpt from the article and a link:

A related statistic is the share of households that are families with children; the Seattle share is 19 percent, San Francisco 18 (lowest in the country), and Portland 24. (The U.S. average is 31 percent share of families with children.) Conversely, the share of non-family households (singles, unmarried partners) is 55 percent (33 for the U.S.). Seattle is only slightly behind the winner, San Francisco, in the share of adults never [Read more →]

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 The Chelan County PUD announced that they now serve over 25,000 homes, businesses, schools and hospitals in Chelan County with fiber optic services.  This is an amenity we often forget to mention to folks, that the latest in broadband services including video (television), internet and phone services are available to many areas in Chelan county reliably and at reasonable pricing.  For many, such access is the key to being able to live and work in our area.

Here’s the announcement:

Chelan County Public Utility District announced today that fiber-optic access is now available to more than 25,000 homes, businesses, schools and hospitals throughout Chelan County, a rural county in north central Washington state.

The District began construction of the fiber network in 1999 and the work continues. The plan is to bring fiber access to 95 percent of the public utility district’s (PUD’s) home and business customers, about 40,000 premises by 2012. [Read more →]

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Back in early July, I posted about the a court reversal of the King County Critical Areas Ordinance being overturned on appeal.  The issue is that King County’s ordinance required huge areas, up to 65%, of rural properties, be left undisturbed.  That was successfully argued as being an illegal taking by property rights activists who had challenged the ordinance.

There is a detailed posting in Crosscut today, Paying for our Growing Pains, that goes into much more detail of the history of the King County critical areas ordinance and the issues surrounding it.  Apparently, part of what the ordinance is trying to accomplish [Read more →]

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