Northwest Living | Bellingham Real Estate Market

Mount Vernon, WA - When the calender turns to the month of April that is the sign for Tulips in Skagit County through out the Mount Vernon and La Conner areas. This year the Skagit Tulip Festival is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary and with the warm weather it should be a great festival this year. To find out more about this year’s event visit their site at Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

The best times to visit the Tulip Festival is during the week when their are less crowds. If you go on the weekends be prepared for traffic delays and crowds. Once your into the tulip field areas though, it’s not too bad on traffic. The Skagit Valley is 60 miles north of Seattle, Washington, 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Traveler’s can take I-5 and then use Exits 221 - 236, all of these exits have tulip brochures at the nearest business.

The tulip fields are spread out over a 15-mile radius and tulip festival events are scattered around the entire county. There are many festival sites, my advice would be to check out this Skagit Valley Tulip Field Map for locations of farms. Checking out their site and maps will help out in planning your day trip to one of the most colorful and spectacular display in the Northwest corner of Washington State.

While your visiting the Skagit Valley Tulips you might want to visit the town of La Conner as well. La Conner is a small town south west of the main tulip areas and is nestled on the Swinomish Channel that divides the mainland and Fidalgo Island. This is one of my favorite spots in Northwest WA because there’s tons of shops, restaurants, and lots of tourist things to do. Expect to take up 2-3 hours of an afternoon visiting the gorgeous town of La Conner. For more on this town visit our La Conner WA real estate web site. 

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Skagit County Real Estate 

Ferndale WA - According to the Ferndale Record Journal the city of Ferndale has formed an adhoc Olympic Committee in an effort to identify marketing ideas to attract visitors during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The Winter Olympics will be held in British Columbia from February 12-28, 2010. Following the Winter Olympics will be the Vancouver Paralympic games from March 12-21, 2010.

Some members of the committee include, City of Ferndale Councilman Jim Elliott, Ferndale Chamber of Commerce Director Guy Occhiogrosso, and Planning Department administrative assistant Kathryn Morice. The group is looking for ideas from area citizens  and those with the best ideas will win a prize. If anyone has any ideas get ahold of the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce with some ideas and attractions Ferndale might want to consider for February 2010.

Being that the event will be held during the winter, it’s probably going to be a tough go in attracting visitors to the city. The city should begin by working with the Department of Transportation and see if together they can finally clean up the mess of wild black berry bushes, and deciduous trees that grow wild on both sides of the freeway where I-5 and Main Street exit meet. In the real estate business…street appeal is everything. I can envision it all being cleaned up and of course keeping the Fir trees that are natural to the area, and adding in some nice landscaping. Otherwise Exit 262 at Ferndale will probably be just another exit to pass on the way to the games for most Winter Olympic travelers.

I would also add a nice sign saying “Welcome Olympic Traveler’s” and below “Ferndale, Washington” Put the sign along the freeway in a non obtrusive location…but well placed so people will see it. The City is going to have to come up with something exciting and enticing to make travelers want to stop and visit. The visionaries need to think in the way most travelers would be coming into hearing about Ferndale for the first time. Creating a web site now with the upcoming Olympics in mind would be my suggestion. I guess they could also utilize the city’s website or the Chambers by creating some new pages to those sites and optimizing those pages. Add information to attract Internet visitors looking for “things to do” in Whatcom County while they are here visiting.

Even if the city doesn’t have enough things to pull that many visitor’s off the travels to Vancouver, at least Ferndale could plant a seed in their thoughts for visiting during warmer weather or at a future date.

One Idea that I could imagine is that if the city would use both Pioneer park and Hovander park as a temporary spot where RV traveler’s could rent space and park their rigs during the month of February and March 2010. All those temporary visitors would probably end up spending time and money in the Ferndale area. It would just be a temporary thing and end with the conclusion of the games. I would also have a couple big tents on sight to promote local business’s, events, etc. and serve food as well. It would be better to rent those two spaces for that purpose instead of like Haggen’s parking lot…because with the influx of visitors to the area…stores would be busy and need all their spaces.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Ferndale WA Real Estate

I recently read some interesting stats put out by the goverment that showed what renters accumulated in assets vs home owner appreciation gains over a ten year period. The Department of Commerce reports that between 1995 and 2004, the average renter accumulated a little over $4,000 in net worth. The average homeowner accumulated $184,400. That translates into $180,000 more, or $1,500 per month. In other words, each month that the average first-time buyer continues to rent, it costs them $1,500 in lost wealth accumulation. Furthermore, renters are subject to rent increases as well as higher tax rates because they cannot take a mortgage deduction.

With rents increasing in the Bellingham Whatcom County area this would seem to be a convincing factor on why waiting to purchase a home may not be the right thing to do for some potential home buyers. Interests rates are low again, homes available to purchase are high and are approaching reasonable prices, and negotiations currently favor buyers. It’s just one more thing for buyers to think about when considering whether they should purchase now or wait until some magic moment in the future…

Speaking of waiting for a better time to purchase, home buyers should consider the following scenario I read in the February 25, 2008 issue of Time Magazine as an example of the cost of waiting to buy. The article logically poses the argument that home prices and mortgage interest rates do not rise and fall in sync. Though prices may fall a bit farther, rates can turn and head up at any time. Their example begins with the purchase of a home today at $218,900 at an interest rate of 5.5%. They compare it to purchasing the same home a year from now at $197,010, a drop of 10% in price, but with an interest rate of 6.0%.

The principal and interest monthly payments end up less than a dollar apart. So, the price savings evaporates with the increase in interest rates. But that’s not all:

• Waiting caused them to pay an extra year’s rent for a home they do not want.
• The interest tax deduction they could have used by Itemizing was lost for an entire year.

So when home buyers are trying to time a market either on price, interest rates, finding the right home, or any other number of reasons…many times the waiting game will in the end be a lost opportunity. In my life time the best investments that I have ever made, were the times when nobody else wanted to take the risk and buy. The need for housing will not disapear, thats a fact, the time to buy is when others are sitting on the fence, causing an in-balance with the supply and demand curve in a buyers favor…

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham Real Estate

Bellingham, WA -  With a strong local economy and favorable home buying conditions this  will prove to be a good time to buy or sell a home. There’s just too many economic conditions in place for home buyers, that are positioned to purchase a home, to ignore any longer.

Now is a good time to buy and sell real estate in Whatcom County, no matter what people may be hearing about the national market. The national media has focused too much on negative things that they only contribute to housing and economic problems instead of help. Thats the news cycle in general though, they tend to focus on negatives and rarely talk about the positive things in life. It’s unfortunate but very much true.

The Puget Sound economy is strong, unemployment rates are low, interest rates are low, local housing inventory is good and the return to good safe mortgage loans are back. It’s not a bad time to sell, especially if sellers will be turning around and buying, but sellers need to be flexible at the negotiating table in this type of market. With rental prices climbing over the last two years with less buyers in the market, It makes more sense to buy then rent currently. Coupled with the fact that home prices have plateaued or declined bodes well for home buyers.

I would have to agree with so many that a lot of the housing problems could be pointed firmly at the media, who are confusing the public by publishing headlines designed to appeal to emotions and reports that use local and national information to distort the truth at times. For them to report about the high number of subprime loans in the south and some how use that for the Northwest is confusing. The Northwest never got into the subprime loans on the scale of a lot of southern states, so no wonder we are doing so much better. But unfortunately that news is not getting out as much as the bad news from other parts of the country.

Limits on Federal Housing Administration loans were recently raised, which should give buyers more homes to choose from at favorable mortgage rates. Hopefully a bill that would lower the down payment requirement for FHA loans from 3 percent to 1.5 percent, making the loans more accessible to first-time buyers gets passed.

This past week both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were allowed to lower the amount of funds they kept in security from 30% down to 20%, freeing up two hundred billion for mortgages as well.

The subprime mortgage mess has made lenders return to “old school” restrictions and requirements. Buyers may have to get help from family rather than use a riskier loan. I think in the end it will be much better for buyers who use discipline in budgeting and learn to save for a down payment instead of securing no down payment loans of the past which teaches buyers nothing.

This “normalizing” of the market gives people a chance to take a few months and get their finances in order before purchasing a home.  I think if buyers put more of their own hard earned money in to a home, they will become less likely to fall behind in payments and go into foreclosure.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham Homes For Sale

Whatcom County, WA - The Whatcom Conservation District’s 15th annual Native Plant Sale will be held Saturday, March 22, in Bellingham. The event will be from 9 am to 4 pm in Cordata at the Community Food C0-0p’s second store location, Westerly Road and Cordata Parkway.

Those who visit will find 40 different species of native trees, shrub seedlings, and native wildflower seeds during the Whatcom Conservation District’s Native Plant Sale. This year’s event also will include the first Native Plant Expo, which will feature demonstrations, environmental exhibits and Earth-friendly activities.

Visit Whatcom Conservation District website for more details, including descriptions of the plants that will be sold. Their website is also packed with lots of information about plants, conservation efforts and area related links. WCD is dedicated to serving present and future generations of Whatcom County through a natural resource conservation program assistance to help foster a healthy, sustainable relationship between people and the environment.

For home owners this is a great opportunity to purchase plants that are native to the Northwest for planting in their yards and supporting the local conservation group. Visitors can also enjoy the Native Plant Expo while looking for plants to purchase.

In following years from now, and you come across this article, just remember that the annual plant sale is held during the month of March. The Whatcom Conservation District’s web site posts the event well in advance, so just save their site and ours to your favorite’s for future reference.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Whatcom County Real Estate

The US Government announced Wednesday that it is freeing up billions of dollars at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so that the two companies can help homeowners refinance mortgages on the brink of default. This will have a huge impact over the next year to help homeowners get out from under these tough loans of the past.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which oversees the government-sponsored companies, unveiled a plan to ease mandatory capital requirements now in place. It said the plan is expected to result in an immediate infusion of up to $200 billion into the market for mortgage-backed securities.

Now nearly $20 billion for the two - will be reduced by a third under the new deal. The freed-up money will go toward buying mortgages of struggling homeowners to enable them to refinance into more affordable loans.

The announcement is part of a large number of government actions revealed lately aimed helping the financial markets and protecting the economy from recession. The capacity of Fannie and Freddie will permit them to do more in the jumbo temporary conforming market, subprime refinancing and loan modifications areas.

These type of announcements don’t get much headlines with the general public, but are usually the type of decisions that make the most impact. If your a homeowner in our Northwest corner and have been thinking of refinancing or buying a home…there is good news on the horizon. Now we just need a little bit of a trickle down effect from the three quarters percent drop in rates, to home loans.

Once the housing market can get some footing under neath it by stopping the deflation of housing values, is really when we will see a recovery. This news today with the freeing up of capital from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was the kind of stimulus that might get the housing market going again.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA - Bellingham WA Real Estate

The Fed’s action lowers the funds rate to 2.25 percent, the lowest since February 2005, and comes two days after the central bank announced the latest in a series of emergency measures to stem a fast-spreading global financial crisis. The Fed has now cut rates by 3 percentage points since mid-September, including 2 points since the start of the year. 

In recent days, the central bank has also offered to help financial institutions as well by providing access to liquid funds. The central bank is pulling out all the stops to provide liquidity to financial markets and put a floor under an economy many analysts believe is in recession. 

The Fed, fearing financial markets would freeze up and send the economy into an sharp downward spiral, has offered cash auctions and direct loans to financial institutions, opening those liquidity avenues beyond the banks that normally deal with the Fed to include other Wall Street firms. 

The good thing is that the global economy is doing pretty good and especially in China where they are experiencing a boom. Our nations steel industry is actually on a rebound and looks to do pretty good. 

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham Real Estate

Bellingham, WA - March is traditionally when homeowners thinking of selling their homes prepare their property for listing in the local Whatcom County real estate market. The winter holidays are usually the slowest time of the year because of the cold weather and holiday events. As soon as buds start to appear on trees it seems to be the real beginning of the listing season and for sale signs pop up in yards.

The last two years there have been a few more for sale signs than usual and they have stayed longer than the boom years from a few years ago. To stay competitive in this ever changing market most homeowners thinking of selling need an edge to get noticed. The best thing a homeowner can do is make sure their home is in show condition. I’ve posted about the importance of staging a home for sale before, so I won’t go into to much today. Our viewers might want to visit an article we posted called selling your home in a buyer’s market to get an edge in selling their home. There are also some good articles under our Seller Tips category that should help as well.

Bellingham and Whatcom County home owners have it a lot better than many real estate markets in southern states across the nation. According to the statistics, Whatcom County only had 19% of all loans in the sub-prime market, with 81% in prime lending. That number most definitely has dropped even more, now that the mortgage industry has returned to more normal loans. Just because Whatcom County has 19% of mortgages in the sub-prime market does not mean all of these will fail. It’s estimated that only about 5% of these will go into some form of foreclosure. By checking out the following national subprime mortgage map, county by county, home owners can get a better feel for where the real problems are across the nation.

If one were to look at the subprime map, you can see that the Northwest really doesn’t have the same problem that the many areas of the country are experiencing. I mention this because It’s really the negative chatter and consumer sentiment that is making our real estate markets tough in the Northwest. Because we are a national economy it does effect us locally, but certainly not like those in parts of California, Arizona, Texas, Mississippi, Florida, and many more states.

The thing most home owners should take to heart is that if your selling in a buyers market and planning to buy right away, then on the buying side you will gain that advantage. Actually no matter what market your in, as long as your selling and turning around and buying again…you’ll do fine. Happy Saint Patrick’s day everyone and may you find good luck in all your housing needs this year.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham WA Real Estate

 The real estate industry launched last week it’s version of an online encyclopedia called the Real Estate Wiki. A collection of real estate professionals got together and created the brand new wiki to provide a information on the real estate business in one place.

The new real estate wiki includes real estate definitions, frequently asked questions about home selling, home buying, finance process, home inspections and a whole lot more. The wiki will also provide interesting bio information on leaders in the real estate industry, real estate books, leading real estate brokerage companies, real estate associations, and real estate blogs. They go even further and tell the public about all the designations Realtors earn, courses they take, publications of the industry, our social networks and institutes as well.

With the reputation of the the larger Wikipedia as the world’s largest free encyclopedia on the Internet, this will allow a more targeted drill down to a specific profession like the real estate industry. Since Wikipedia has a reputation for being non-biased and independent the hope is that the consumers will be able to gather tons of useful information at one reliable source.

It’s estimated that at least ten million people work in the industry related to real estate including real estate agents, brokerages, mortgage, financial, construction, and appraisers. With so many consumers now searching the Internet for real estate related information this should be a big plus for buyers, sellers, and renters alike.

This will be very exciting to see how this all evolves and how the public in general takes to the new real estate wiki. This should be a great source for my local Bellingham WA and Whatcom County real estate markets.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA Real Estate -  360-739-7779

 Orcas Island, WA - Rosario Resort is offering summer weekends dedicated to whale watching and education in partnership with the Orca Network, a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting healthy and safe habitat for Pacific Northwest cetaceans. After a boat excursion in search of orca pods, guests will take part in a workshop hosted by the Orca Network. Also included is a bottle of Hoodsport “Orca Series” wine, a special release from the Washington winery that donates a portion of sales back to Orca Network. For more details: 800-562-8820 or www.rosarioresort.com.

A quick look at their website and Rosario Resort offers this: Enjoy an unforgettable and informative narrated cruise through the San Juan Islands in search of Orca (Killer Whales) and Minke Whales. The thrill of seeing one of these majestic creatures will be an experience you will never forget. You’ll pass by unspoiled, pristine islands and historical landmarks. This is simply the best way to see and learn about Orca whales and other marine wildlife of the San Juan Islands. Educational narrated trips with experienced captain/naturalists aboard will be available daily this summer from June - September directly from the Rosario Marina. Nature Cruises depart from Deer Harbor Marina most weekends throughout the year.

If you don’t want to stay at the Rosario Resort, there are many great bed and breakfast located on Orcas Island. If your staying on Orcas for more than one day, you should also take in the beautiful drive up to Mt Constitution as well.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - San Juan County Real Estate