Northwest Living | Bellingham Real Estate Market

Here’s a few of the article’s I read this week that I’m adding here for my viewers.  Each and every week when I’m posting to the blog, I read and review a lot of news articles and blogs.  It’s imperative that one studies this market constantly to be a well informed source when on the subjects I write about.  So here is my list of articles for the week of Oct. 01 to Oct. 07, 2007.

This week has been a pretty windy and rainy week here in the Northwest.  Typically our Octobers are calm and our big storms start in Novemeber and can last into early March.

Here’s this weeks news that caught my attention and I thought would be worthy of passing on to my viewers. 

Five Ways to Boost Your Homes Value - via Newsweek Oct 3, 2007.  With an increasing number of properties hitting the market, you want to make sure that you’re doing all the right things to get top dollar for your property. The advice and list was put together by a top Appraiser. And while you cannot change your house’s location or size, there are a number of ways you can easily affect the value of your house.

Will Home Prices Rise? Look at Trends For Answer - via HeraldNet, Oct 7, 2007. Steve Tyler  thinks they’re going to stay flat for the next few years. I would have to agree with him.  Hot markets usually only last 2-3 years and are mostly followed by a buyer’s market, then a normal market lasting a total of 5-10 years.  We have been in a buyer’s market since Sept. 2005, and should ease into a more normal market in the next few years. Tyler calls this the stair-step pattern of the Puget Sound housing market. I agree very much with the author on this…I’ve been using that same stair-step pattern to help describe the local market to others for the last 20 years in the same way. 

How Can You Tell Whats Really Green? - via Seattle Times, Oct 2, 2007. Builders, real-estate agents and cities across the country want you to buy a green house, and with good reason: They’re much better for the environment.  The article says there are many, many shades of green and everyone has a different way of identifying it. It also explains those zing words we all see like Energy Star and LEED.

Here’s a few of the article’s I read this week that I’m adding here for my viewers.  Each and every week when I’m posting to the blog, I read and review a lot of news articles and blogs.  It’s imperative that one studies this market constantly to be a well informed source when on the subjects I write about.  So here is my list of articles for the week of Dec. 16 to Dec 22, 2006.

$14.5M slated for Bellingham Bay in States budget - Via Bellingham Herald - Dec 20, 2006.  The Port of Bellingham requested money from the state’s Model Toxics Control Act budget to help with cleaning up mercury in Whatcom Waterway. The Model Toxics Control Act is a voter-approved initiative adopted in 1989 to identify, investigate and clean up contaminated sites in Washington.  This is great news for Bellingham Bay and the cleanup efforts in the Whatcom Waterway in preparation for the New Whatcom project going forward.  This whole area in downtown Bellingham presents an exciting time for Bellingham residents and visitors to our great city.

Best and Worst Housing Markets in the U.S. - Via Real Estate Journal - Dec 20, 2006.    Tacoma area rated 3rd best market to outperform the rest of the western states and Seattle-Bellevue area were rated 4th. Portland, Oregon was rated the 5th best on the list.  There were a lot of cities in California that ranked pretty low, because they were overvalued in the survey.

Bellingham Boat Builder thrives in an ‘incredibly dynamic market’ - Via HeraldNet.com - Dec 18, 2006.  In the past four years, All American Marine has grown annually at a 30 percent clip. Matt Mullett CEO, says these days their in the enviable position of choosing what projects the company should go after. His only limitation is having enough qualified workers to do the job. 

Whidbey Island Takes Storm’s Biggest Punch - Via HeraldNet.com - Dec 16, 2006.   All of Whidbey Island lost power last Thursday night when Puget Sound Energy’s main transmission line to the island was taken out by falling trees.  Winds exceeded 90 mph on many parts of the island.  My father in-law Jack Hill, who lives on the western side of Whidbey Island and had spent 20 years in the Navy said, “It’s the worst storm that he’d seen since he got out of the navy 25 years ago”.

VANOC on track and on budget heading into 2007 - Via Vancouver 2010 - Dec 19, 2006.  VANOC and its partners are planning a number of exciting milestone events in February and March 2007 to celebrate the three-year countdown to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Details will be announced early in 2007.

Boston Ready to go Green - Via The Boston Globe - Dec 20, 2006.    Boston is expected to become the first major city in the nation to require private developers to adhere to a strict set of so-called green-building standards, officials said yesterday.  The goal is to make new buildings more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, by promoting, for example, use of efficient heating and cooling systems, recycled building materials, and careful separation and disposal of waste.

There is an added cost for doing so, but I think the long term benefits of building with green standards will far out weigh the upfront cost of construction.  Infact I think the Bellingham area already has had some of the best examples of builders that have gone green already, especially Rick Dubrow of A-1 Builders in Bellingham, WA.  If Whatcom county ever took on the standards for building Green, Rick Dubrow should definetly be one of the advisors, if not running the committee.  A-1 Builders has literally been building Green for at least 10-15 years.  Good job Rick Dubrow!

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

New Lynden Windmill hit with retailers – via Bellingham Herald – Dec 11, 2006
The 53-foot windmill is under construction at Lynden, Washington’s Fairway Center on Front Street.  The windmill base will be the new home of Woods Coffee, Fairway Drug and Sportsworld.

Cordata building ban could be lifted soon – via Bham Herald – Dec 12, 2006            Trillium Corp. and the city of Bellingham say they’ve found a way to share road costs in north Bellingham’s Cordata area.  The city is now considering lifting the two-month-old construction ban.  Now projects like DR Horton’s Reserve at Cordata new homes community and a local grocery store might be able to finally get back on track.

Mortgage Insurance slated for tax deduction – via Realty Times – Dec 12, 2006
Home buyers who close loans during and after 2007 and make less than $100,000 a year will be eligible to deduct all the private or government mortgage insurance paid for the year.  That’s good news for the real estate business.

Healthier Housing Inventories – via Rismedia.com – Dec 12, 2006
Economic conditions are poised for a return to average inventory levels and home prices that are flat to small rises by June or July.  Were dancing on the bottom when it comes to this housing slow down.  I’m looking forward to a normal year up here in the Bellingham real estate market.

Smart ways to boost a home’s curb appeal - via Boston.com/realestate - Dec 12, 2006  Simple fix ups like painting and clean up results in fast sales of homes that had previously languished unsold for many months. To make a home show its best, home owners should spruce up the landscaping and making cosmetic repairs to eliminate buyer objections. 

Here’s this weeks news that caught my attention and I thought would be worthy of passing on to my viewers. 

Home Staging Boosts Home Sales – via Rismedia.com  Dec 8, 2006  As sellers and Realtors look for ways to distinguish their homes from the competition, home staging has become the hottest tool in an increasingly competitive market. In fact just today my wife and I were staging one of the new homes in Brand New Liberty Park located in Ferndale, Washington. I’ve always believed in staging homes for sale when ever I market a home in my Bellingham, WA and Whatcom County market area.  It’s especially important to do in a brand new home to make new home buyers feel more comfortable in an otherwise empty house.  Adding a little bit of jazz music in the back ground never hurts either.

Home Builders see bottom of housing slump – via CNNMoney.com   Dec 5, 2006.
The worst of the housing slump may be over, but it could take awhile before prices rebound.

Home-loan demand rises as refinancing surges – via MSNBC.   Dec 6, 2006
U.S. mortgage applications rose sharply last week, fueled by a surge in home refinancing loans as interest rates sunk to their lowest levels in more than a year, an industry trade group said Wednesday.

The US jobs market adds 132,000 jobs for November 2006 - via Nightly Business Report.  Dec 8, 2006.  Elaine Chao, US Labor Secretary was reporting the news in an interview.  She went on to say unemployment stood at only 4.5 percent.  Looks like the US economy is still growing, but there doesn’t appear to be any inflation worries on the horizon.  It’s expected that the fed will not raise the prime rate in next Tuesday Dec 12, 2006 Federal Reserve meeting.   The Dow Jones gained 114 over the five days of market ending this week. 

Salmon return to Padden Creek - via Bellingham Herald  Dec. 8, 2006
Bellingham, WA school children from Larrabee Elementary School learn to be conservationist with their salmon spawning projects.  Good job kids and thanks for being good stewards in our great Bellingham community

Chuckanut park district proposed – via Bellingham Herald.   Dec. 5, 2006
The group is proposing to preserve land in southern Whatcom County and northern Skagit County for recreation, open space, habitat and ecological quality.  The proposed district would include Sehome Hill Arboretum at its north end, stretching east to the Lake Whatcom watershed, south along the Interstate 5 corridor as far as Samish Island.