Northwest Living | Bellingham Real Estate Market

Vancouver, BC - If you’re still dreaming of going to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., here are the most recent updates on what options are available for last minute travelers.

Accommodations: Most of the larger hotels & motels in and around downtown Vancouver are booked solid during the Feb. 12-28 Winter Games, as are those nearby in suburban areas like Richmond, Surrey and even Abbostsford. The Whistler area, where alpine and cross-country skiing and other events will be held, has been sold out for months now.

Some of the smaller Vancouver hotels have some vacancies, including some downtown locations, even on the opening weekend of the Games. The reason they still have rooms available is because they usually don’t show up on sites like Travelocity, Priceline and Hotels.com. However rates start at around $600 a night and have minimum stays.

I would suggest you start out by calling some of the smaller motels and if they don’t have anything available, find out if they know of anything that might be available or other options. The people in the hotel & motel business usually know who & where there might be some rooms available…that’s their business, to accommodate guests.

You can search by date and location on the official Olympics accommodations site, http://www.2010destinationplanner.com/. Keep checking as room inventory changes frequently, and prices/minimum stays may lessen as the Games draw closer. Finding rooms in the Whistler area may prove to be very difficult with tens of thousands of athletes, officials and fans flooding the ski resort during the Olympics.

The Web site also has links to other accommodation options in Vancouver, including B&Bs, homes for rent, homeowners that are renting out rooms locally, and even beachfront sites in a city park for RV camping.

One might try looking just over the border in Whatcom County for vacancies in local motels, Bed & Breakfasts, and homes for rent in the Bellingham, Washington area for something a little more affordable. Bellingham is less than an hours drive to downtown Vancouver as long as you don’t have too long of a wait at the border. I recently checked rates at motels in the Bellingham area and they are actually charging from $250.00 and up per nite during the games. A big percentage of the motels were already sold out during the Feb 12-28 games in Whatcom County.

If you have an RV, try one of the many local RV parks in Whatcom & Skagit County. Tow a car alone with you or rent one, once your in the area and then make the short trek into Vancouver to enjoy the Olympics this way.

Bellingham Craigslist Vacation Rentals has several new ads daily for Whatcom County area homeowners that are renting homes, condos & rooms during the Olympics as well. I have had a lot of emails and phone calls over the last several weeks and month from homeowners as well that want to rent rooms, condos and homes…so I know there are lots of local accommodations out there if one looked hard enough. Here is another site that offers accommodations for the Winter Olympics with lots of different situations you might want to consider. 

However, be careful of Olympic rental scams out there…I’m sure there will be a few trying to take advantage of this big event.

Well good luck finding a place to stay and enjoy the Winter Olympics. It should be pretty exciting once they get going just over the border from here.

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

The Building Industry Association of Whatcom County honored several of its members for their contributions to Whatcom County and the local building industry at the Annual Installation Banquet on Wednesday, Dec. 16.

Builder of the Year: Gary Honcoop of Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction was awarded the 2009 builder of the year. Gary and his Partner Roger Roosendaal have been building new homes in Whatcom County for over 30 years and have been members of the Building Industry Association of Whatcom County since 1991.

They are currently building new homes in Liberty Park, located in Ferndale Washington’s east side. They currently have three brand new homes under construction and one pre-sale as well. All three homes are one story becuase of the shortage in the new homes market for one story homes currently. Stop by and see what’s going on in their North Bellingham (Ferndale WA) location.

Some of the other awards handed out at this years Annual Installation Banquet also include the following:

Built Green Builder of the Year: Csaba Horvath of Astal Construction. Horvath has served as an active participant in Built Green since 2006, winning the 2008 Built Green Washington, Western Washington Custom Home of the Year award, a statewide honor based on resource efficiency, design, quality and craftsmanship.

Built Green Associate of the Year: Robert Stockmann, of Pinnacle Inspections for championing Built Green and Northwest EnergyStar as a verifier and advisor through his contributions to Built Green and the Program Development Committee.

Associate MRC Member of the Year: Scott Alderson of Nibs Construction for his contributions to the Master Remodeler’s Council and involvement with this summer’s MRC service projects.

Remodeler of the Year: Pat Rose of Rose Construction. Rose has been an active member of MRC and volunteered time working in the home show, participated in the 2009 service projects retrofitting access for a disabled community member, and in 2009 won three local Remodeling in Excellence awards.

Associate of the Year: Stephanie Artino, of Metcalf Hodges. A member of BIAWC since 2004, she was recently elected to the BIAWC board.

Most Valuable Political Player: Charlie Hudson of Hudson Remodeling was chosen for his leadership with the Governmental Affairs Committee over the past several years, and specifically for research and contributions in Whatcom County’s ongoing dialogue regarding land rights and affordable housing. Hudson will serve as the 2010 President of the Building Industry Association of Whatcom County.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham New Homes

Bellingham WA - Home buyers in the Bellingham area can now search weekend open houses by visiting BellinghamHomes.com and checking out the open house pages. The Bellingham open house site displays all area open houses that local Realtors advertise on the NWMLS site.

Open house seekers can go directly to the Whatcom open house page or the Skagit open house page to find a list of open houses for the upcoming weekend. Buyers no longer have to wait until the weekend or delivery of the Sunday morning paper because open houses are added every day of the week building up to the weekend. Instead of trying to read small ads in the newspaper, open house seekers can now view the listed property with all of it’s information and photos.

Jerry Campbell - The Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham WA Open Houses

Whatcom County - The Whatcom County Association of Realtors (WCAR) are promoting a huge County Wide weekend of open houses through out Whatcom County with well over 600 homes open to the public on both Saturday and Sunday.

One of the biggest open house events being held this weekend will be in the community of Liberty Park in the North Bellingham area of Ferndale, WA. Custom home builder Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction will have seven brand new homes open to the public and for sale. Besides the homes being open to the public R/H Construction will also be putting on a free barbecue for guests & offering some pretty nice door prizes to those who enter a ballot.

Mike Kent will be broadcasting Saturday with his “Radio Real Estate” show live from Liberty Park from 10 AM to 1 PM as well. Mike is also an experienced Realtor that works at the local Windermere Real Estate Company. With this event, the builder is expecting well over 200 people to attend the open house and visitors will be able to view seven of his quality built homes.

If your going to attend any of the open houses this weekend from the County Wide event around Bellingham or Whatcom County, I would definitely put this one on your list. In one stop you can view seven finished homes, enjoy a barbecue, and enter win some great prizes.

Peoples Bank will also be on site as well as Whatcom Land & Title. The builder will be on site to answer any questions about their new homes or if your considering having one built. I will also be at this event as well, because I’m proud to say I have represented Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction new home sales for the past 15 years.

Liberty Park is located just off of W. Smith Rd. between Northwest Rd. & I-5. For more Directions to Liberty Park & a quick Google map visit Liberty Park for Directions. The Liberty Park community is just inside the new city limits of Ferndale, WA.

Update Saturday April 18, 7PM: We had a huge turn out with between 300-350 people in attendance. Here is a link to the Podcast of Liberty Park’s open house on Mike Kent’s Radio Real Estate show conducted Saturday April 18th. Mike thanks for doing your Real Estate Radio show at our Liberty Park open house.

Jerry Campbell - The Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA New Homes

Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction, Inc., a Whatcom County general contractor, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with an open house Saturday, April 18. The public is invited to enjoy food and beverages from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 18 at Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction’s Liberty Park residential community in Ferndale, just a  half mile west of the intersection of Northwest Rd and West Smith Road.

Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction is owned and managed by lifelong county residents Gary Honcoop and Roger Roosendaal. The company offers experience in residential construction, both homes and remodels, commercial, industrial and pre-engineered steel construction.

Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction has successfully completed several residential communities in the Ferndale area: West 54th Lane, Byers Lane, Bellaire Estates and Myers Estates. The company has also built 14 homes on Westview Drive in Lynden and now is focusing on Ferndale’s latest flat-lot neighborhood, Liberty Park. Visit libertyparkhomes.com on line today.

With both partners still active in the business, Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction now has 30 employees. By developing and implementing educational programs and safe operating practices, company employees have worked more than 10 years without a time-loss injury. Via the Bellingham Herald. 

The company headquarters is at 5977 Guide Meridian in Bellingham. For more information, call (360) 398-2800.

Jerry Campbell - The Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Bellingham Home Builders

Whatcom County - With the fall season brings beautiful colors in our local trees, cooler temperatures, and of course pumpkin season and Halloween. Those looking for something more than just picking up a pumpkin or two from a local Cost Cutter or Haggen’s might want to consider a local farm experience to pick up the perfect pumpkin. There are lots of local farms and farm stands to choose from when it comes to picking up the right Pumpkin. We compiled a list of some great options for this fall or any year in the near future.

My family has enjoyed visiting most of the places on this list including Stoney Ridge Farm, BelleWood Acres, and Boxx Berry Farm. Make sure to inspect the pumkins well and make sure there are no soft spots. You don’t want that chosen pumpkin to rot before Halloween after all. Thanks for visiting Northwest Living and we hope your pumpkin patch time is enjoyable.

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

Lynden, WA - One visit to BelleWood Acres apple farm and for a moment you’ll feel like your in some huge apple orchard in Wenatachee, instead of Whatcom County. What a treasure to have right here in the Bellingham area where local residents and visitors can enjoy such a large apple farm in our own backyard. According to the owners John & Dorie Belisle, they have a total of 22,000 apple trees spread out over their apple farm.

Stop by and visit the farm! The first trees at BelleWood Acres were planted in the spring of 1996. The designing and planting were much a family effort.  John, Dorie, and family designed and planted the orchard over the years. Their goal is to grow the best apples in Whatcom County and its hard to argue with that after visiting the farm. They invite you to come out and see the apple farm. You will learn how they grow their fruit, pack it, store it and juice it!  They also offer pears, pumpkins, decorative gourds and corns, and much more to the public. Fall is bountiful at BelleWood Acres and a great time to visit. From September thru December BelleWood Acres is open from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm every day.

BelleWood Apples - Are grown with Care, Picked for Flavor! They have fifteen different apple varieties to delight the most discerning palates. From the early varieties, to the last ones picked, they try to harvest at the peak of flavor. They offer some of the more popular apple varieties like Honey Crisp, Gravenstein, Fuji, Gala, Jonagold, Akane, and Sunrise; to varieties that are unique and rare to find like Tsugaru, Jonamac, Orin, and Zestar. Visit their web site for all the Bellewood Apple varieties. Then go out and visit them and taste the difference that freshness makes. visitors can even sample and compare the different varieties at the store. 

The farm supplies all of the Haggen’s grocery stores with a steady supply of apple’s through-out the harvest season. Haggen’s grocery has a reputation for quality through-out their stores and having a local apple supplier like Bellewood Acres is a clear advantage for their store and clients.

BelleWood Cider - They like to say, “the nectar from the apples is a gift from Mother Nature”. They make all of their apple cider in their on-site kitchen with fresh apples, which makes the best apple cider. their cider is treated with UV light (ultra violet light) to control harmful bacteria.  They want to provide what you deserve; a high quality juice, safe for the entire family.

The BelleWood Farm allows guest to tour their farm by foot or use one of several golf carts for short tours. Make sure to check out the packing line, juice line and cooler while your there. Buy some apples, apple cider, carmel apples, or other items and use one of several covered picnic tables for a quick lunch. Owner John Belisle likes to say ”we are a working farm. We love to share our lives with you. You won’t find fluff, just a true farm experience”.

The Bellewood Farm is part of Whatcom County’s Sustainable Connections as well. Sustainable Connections is a non-profit membership organization of 600+ NW Washington business and community leaders working to transform and model an economy built on sustainable practices. Sustainable Connections vision is for “business practices that lead to a strong community, healthy environment, meaningful employment, and buying local first as commonplace in this region and a model for the rest of the world”.

Directions to Bellewood Acres Farm - here is a map that you might find useful to get to the farm. Just take Guide Meridian north and then after you cross over the Laurel Rd go about 3/4 mile and then East on Ten Mile Road. The farm will be on the right and the first thing you will see is their barn with the word…Apples in big red letters. You can also access Ten Mile Road from Hannegan Road as well. Their address is 231 Ten Mile Road; Lynden, WA. You can reach them by phone at 360-398-9187.

I think one of the best things to do is take a nice country drive and work BelleWood Acres into your route along with several other local farms, nurseries, and small stores in the area.

Another place to visit this fall would be Stoney Ridge Farm in Everson, WA, which will be opening this coming weekend on Oct 4. I would go visit both of these great farms during the fall and your family will have a great afternoon. Stoney Ridge is only open on Thursday, Friday & Saturday’s, but when they are open, they do offer another enjoyable farm experience for a local thing to do.

 Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Whatcom County 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

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