Bellingham Herald has a good article on Housing – Summarizes 2012
Don’t miss today’s article in the Bellingham Herald on Housing. It gives a good summary of 2012 and breaks the year’s results down for individual towns within Whatcom County.
Call if you have any questions about your home in particular!
Linda – 820-8559
Why are Home Sales on the Rise?
What do you need to buy a home? A job and a decent Credit Score! Lots of people have had what they needed to buy homes, but have been sitting on the sidelines. WHY? I believe it’s because they feared the market was still going down and they’d be stuck with an overpriced home (like so many other people they know).
So what has changed? We’ve hit the bottom!! Economists and analysts are confirming on a regular basis that the U.S. housing market has hit bottom and is turning upward. Economists have been encouraged by a variety of readings, including three straight months of increases in the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. With the media broadcasting good housing news, the buyers are getting the final piece of the puzzle needed for buying a home. . . CONFIDENCE.
All they needed to do is wait for their confidence to rebuild,” said David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders.
Across the nation. . . CONFIDENCE is back and Home Sales are UP!
Reaser said that that change in attitude is a key to the market turnaround.
“The firming in home prices might be feeding on itself,” she said. “You’ve got buyers not wanting to miss the bottom of home prices and mortgage rates.”
Tuesday Morning News – Shows Number of home sales keeps rising
The trend of rising home sales continues:
The National Association of Realtors said today that its index of pending home sales posted its 15th consecutive month of year-over-year gains in July, reaching the highest level in two years.
The index is at its highest level since April 2010, which was shortly before the closing deadline for the federal homebuyer tax credit.
In Whatcom county, we’re seeing multiple offers on homes in the lower price ranges. In August we had a property receive 9 offers (3 of which were all cash). These often happen on newly listed homes that are priced really well, or on distressed properties that the bank is giving away cheap.
Keep in mind that the HOME PRICES are not going up. It is the number of HOME SALES that has gone up for the last 15 consecutive months. Thus, the number of people (mostly investors and first time home buyers and Canadians) buying homes is increasing. This increase in home sales is adding work to realtors, escrow and title offices, appraisers, inspectors, and contractors. That’s where the good news lies. The trickle down effect of more home sales is more jobs for Whatcom County. Now THAT’s Good News!!
Another Short Sale closed and another seller free of his huge mortgage.
Thank you, Linda! Thanks for handling everything so efficiently for us!
R.L.
Bellingham Herald Posted Housing Price Data- Great Summary of Where We’re At
The Bellingham herald today posted on the front page, a great article summarizing where we’re at in Bellingham on Home prices. We all know that number of sales are up from last year. But a big question for sellers is. . . are prices going up yet?? The answer is NO. Year over year, Bellingham’s home prices have gone down .9%. (over the past 5 years, the price of homes has dropped 15.3%).
So where is our GOOD NEWS?? The good news is that we’re experiencing far less steep declines than in the past. Which suggests that we’re very near bottom. And We’re experiencing less Steep declines than in most other communicties in the state. Be glad you’re in Bellingham and not in Tacoma. Tacoma ranked 2nd worst in the US for declining prices. It showed a 6.4% decline over last year in home prices (beat only by Port St Lucie, Florida with at 7.5% decline over last year) See today’s headlines in the Bellingham Herald for more information & data.
More great e-mails from our clients – you can see why we love our clients – they’re the best!
Linda,
Again, thank you SO much for all your help and kindness in helping me deal with all this during this challenging time. You have been wonderful to me and I really appreciate it!
-K.M.
Another Closing – always a celebration!!
Hi Linda
I can’t thank you and your team enough for the amount of work you put into getting the house sold and closed, I know it was not easy. I so appreciate you dealing with all of my emotions through this process. I will gladly recommend your services when I can.
Thank you
Jenn
We Love Our Clients. . . And it Shows!
Dear Linda…
Just wanted to thank you, Carl and your whole team for all that you have done for us with the sale of our condo…we appreciate all of the extra effort to make sure it closed on the 10th and how you never made us feel like we were a nuisance! I would highly recommend you to everyone I know! Enjoy your summer…Hope to see you on a visit to Bellingham!! Cindi
AGING BABY BOOMERS SELLING THEIR HOMES
The next two decades will see a surge in our nation’s senior population by 30 million. We are an aging nation.
As adults enter their sixties, the pace of household dissolution begins to exceed that of creation. In other words, more households are disappearing. This means more homes saturating the market. It will swell the number of dwellings released into the housing market over the next 40 years.
Echo Boomers (who typically move up to purchase these homes from Baby Boomer) have suffered setbacks due to the recent economic downturn. They have been hit hard by the recession as they’ve entered independent adulthood. This has reduced their income and employment and limited their ability to obtain home ownership.
We’re seeing this locally in Whatcom County, as the First time home buyers & Canadians & Investors dominate the market. Meanwhile, move-up buyers must typically first sell their homes before they can move up to the homes being vacated by Baby Boomers. With the drop in market value over the last 6 years, many are unable to sell their home to move up.
Bank of the Pacific Chairman noted in a meeting yesterday that 28% of the homes in Washington are “Upside Down” meaning more is owed on the mortgage, than the home is worth. Many of those homes belong to Echo Boomers.
There are so many dynamics at work in our housing market today And they’re all fascinating to watch. This is just one of them. Where is the market for the homes vacated by Baby Boomers?