The latest Building Industry Association of Washington newsletter has statistics of building permit activity in 2009.  Brett Lamar, of Lake Chelan Building Supply, pointed out some of the information you might find most interesting: I got my latest copy of the BIAW news letter today.  In the very back they have the updated residential building permits for the year compared to last year....it's required reading for me as a lumber dealer.  It's a lagging indicator, but interesting none the least.  YTD through July the state has 54% less permits issued then 2008, which was quite a bit lower then 2007.  Chelan and Douglas county held up better then the state did, we're only off 43% from 2008.  Here's the kicker....by far the most permits are issued in King county.....they are 7X what any ot... 10/22/2009

For the third quarter, 52 homes were sold in the Lake Chelan area as compared with 35 in 2008.  That is still well below the levels of 2005 to 2007 which were all around 75 transactions for the third quarter.  But, things really ground to a halt in the fall of 2008 so I will go out on a limb and say I expect the fourth quarter this year will be stronger than last year's.  Have a look at the Lake Chelan Real Estate Residential Sales Summary.  In it you can see that the 4th quarter of last year was the worst quarter since we have been able to get data with only 12 sales total.  So, I would take the bet that home sales in Lake Chelan for the rest of the year should be above last year's levels. Both July and September also exceeded last year in sales.  September saw 15 sales close, as compa... 10/22/2009

The IRS will no longer allow a property owner to deduct the value of a building donated to the fire department for training.  Such donations have been a common way for the fire districts in the Lake Chelan area to train their firefighters.  This removes any financial incentive for those donations.For the full story, go to the Lake Chelan Real Estate Blog 10/22/2009

I spent some time on spreadsheets today looking at waterfront home sales.  If you are a buyer of waterfront property at Lake Chelan, you could make it easier to tell what is going on.  Buy MORE waterfront property and buy things similar to what was bought last year  The low number of sales and variety of properties on Lake Chelan make any sort of comparable analysis difficult.  Not only can't I find a statistically significant number of similar properties to compare, I can't find a single sale of very similar homes or land from 2008 to 2009.  Going back any further really doesn't make any sense in this market.   There are some properties for sale that are similar to properties that sold last year.  But, unless someone buys them, they won't help us compare sales.  If you're a buyer, I ca... 10/22/2009

In a post in Newgeography, the racial aspect of urban planning was examined.  The standard examples of urban areas that top the progressive  lists of media, academia and planning circles are Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver. If you take away the dominant Tier One cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles you will find that the "progressive" cities aren't red or blue, but another color entirely: white. In fact, not one of these "progressive" cities even reaches the national average for African American percentage population in its core county. Perhaps not progressiveness but whiteness is the defining characteristic of the group. - The White City | Newgeography.com Portland, often held as the ultimate example of New Urbanism, has less than half the national average o... 10/22/2009

It looks like we haven't heard the whole story on the Home Buyer's Tax credit yet.  The IRS is examining more than 100,000 suspicious returns that claimed the credit.    So, buyers who claim the credit need to beware for the possibility of an IRS audit! It appears that others are questioning the cost of this poorly targeted benefit as well. Ted Gayer, an economist at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank based in Washington, estimated that the current credit costs the government about $43,000 for each additional home sale it generates, because most of the two million or so home buyers expected to claim the credit would have bought a house anyway. Expanding the credit to all home buyers would raise the government's cost per additional home sale to more than $250,000, he said. -... 10/22/2009

There are currently only 13 pending sales in the entire Lake Chelan MLS.  I can't remember a number that low before.  Even early this year, the number stayed in the twenties and thirties.  In the more robust markets of a couple years ago, pending sales were in the forty and fifty range. So, thirteen pending sales is a pretty low number!  That number is particularly low when you consider that any sales spurred by the pricy First Time Buyers Tax Credit have to close by the end of November.  The market couldn't have possible already reacted to the IRS auditing those filing for the tax credit yet... 10/22/2009

Consider these words: Help Americans understand that the first and best defense of their liberty is not free speech, a free press or free access to weapons, but, rather, the freedom to buy, sell, own, use, enjoy and profit from the land we live on. - Greg Swan It is not that those other freedoms aren't important, but they pale in comparison to the power that individuals have when they have unfettered property rights. I attend a slew of local meetings on comprehensive plans, zoning and property issues.  I continue to be amazed at how citizens and officials in an area that claims to be freedom loving and predominately conservative are willing to toss out our individual property rights at every opportunity without even considering what they are losing. We live in a challenging area with a ... 09/11/2009

As we pass the middle of August and we start to worry about getting kids ready for school, those who were hoping to sell their homes and properties in the Lake Chelan area know it won't be long before buying activity wanes to winter lows. So, what do they do?  It becomes "End of Summer Sale" time in Chelan!  There are fewer and fewer new listings and more and more price reductions.  There have been 148 price reductions in the last 30 days on the Chelan MLS and only 48 closed sales.  Even the properties that don't reduce their list price often become much more open to offers or carrying a contract.  I have one client who would love a low ball offer on his acreage, but doesn't want to reduce the list price too much in case he needs to refinance later.  He's even open to trades on almost a... 09/11/2009

That's right, there is a type of home that is seeing much higher sales than last year.  Those would be Lake Chelan waterfront homes!  Through August, 10 have sold in 2009 as compared to 7 that sold last year. Do you want to know why?  While I don't know the thoughts of individual buyers, the bargain pricing this year probably has something to do with it.  The average sale price of the Lake Chelan waterfront homes dropped from $1,728,071.00 in 2008 to $1,030,300.00 in 2009.  That's right, waterfront homes this year, on average, are selling for 59.6% of last year's pricing!  Wouldn't we like a tax revaluation now! August 2009 saw fewer residential closings than 2008 with 15 in 09 compared to 18 in 08. By Dollar volume, August 2009 was 64% of 2008 and by transactions it was 83.3% of the 20... 09/11/2009

We have an extremely seasonal housing market at Lake Chelan.  In my studies, only Alaska sees a greater variation in visitors higher than Lake Chelan.  As fall approaches, our real estate market slows down, way down!  We have lots of people, around 80% of those who listed their homes, wondering why their home did not sell.  They begin to wonder since they're at the dance, why aren't they dancing?  It can be enough to make them question whether their home can be sold and is attractive to buyers.  So is your home attractive to buyers? Well, maybe.  Beauty is really something that is measured in the eyes of the buyer when your home is for sale.  But a pristine beauty in a seller's eyes is too often a fixer upper to a buyer. With another real estate season heading towards the slower winter ... 09/02/2009

In the first two or three minutes that the buyer enters your home, sensory organs feed data into the emotional centers of the brain.  On the spot, the emotional networks vote up or down.  The deal effectively starts or ends with the firing of a few billion neurons. A book by Jonah Lehrer, a former neuroscience researcher, "How We Decide" explains how quickly our brains make their decision.  Strong, positive visceral emotional responses make us want that house immediately.  Experienced real estate agents watch carefully for that positive response from buyers during those first few minutes. The human condition can work for you, or against you, when you try to sell your Lake Chelan home.  Smells, sounds, and details can make a huge difference.  The Lake Chelan market, like most resort area... 08/31/2009

  According to the MLS, this spectacular home in Sunnybank closed on the 7th.  This home may have the nicest finish work I have seen on a home anywhere. It was listed at $949,000 and sold for $860,000.  It was on the market for 51 days.   The home has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 4000 s.f. and was constructed in 2006.  It included a boat slip and all the waterfront amenities of Sunnybank.  This will be remembered as a time when some great deals happened at Lake Chelan!  Let me know if I can get one made for you! 08/17/2009

According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, yes!  Particularly if your home is a higher priced home.  This is not a local phenomenon, as home buyers all over the country aren't touching homes for sale unless they are perceived as a bargain. A new report Friday shows that some sellers are getting that memo, albeit belatedly. Nearly one in four home sellers has dropped the asking price on their home, with an average price chop of 10% in July, according to real-estate Web site Trulia.com. More than one third of sellers reduced their asking prices in the top three cities: Jacksonville, Fla.; Portland, Ore.; and Milwaukee, Wisc. The advice to offer buyers a "bargain" is particularly relevant for the luxury home market, where sellers have to be aggressive because inventories are pil... 08/17/2009

Wow, things are picking up now!  July sales were well above last year.  This is the first time I can say that in awhile. Check out my Lake Chelan Residential Real Estate Sales Report through July 2009 and including historical data for the whole sales story.  Rather that show all the homes that sold in July (please call me if you want to see them all) since there are so many now, I'll show the waterfront homes that sold in July!  The first one, because of the way our wacky multiple works around here, isn't really a home at all and really brings down the average sale price: 1240 W Woodin Ave A-6, Harris Marina Slip A-6, Chelan, WA  98816Original Price: $62,500| Sold Price: $58,000Days on MLS: 2670 bedrooms | 0 bath | 0 s.f. | 0.0 acre 230 South Lakeshore, Chelan, WA  98816Original Price: ... 08/10/2009

Want to search for nearby listings from your smart phone in the Chelan area?  That wish just may come true.  I'm working on it with SmarterAgent. To see how it works, in Phoenix and sometime soon in Lake Chelan, have a look at this post from a real estate agent in Phoenix, Greg Swann: We signed up for our own version of the SmarterAgent smart-phone MLS client. We've been live since Monday, but it proved its value and then some yesterday afternoon. Cathy was out with buyers, and they asked the most dreaded question of all: "What about that one?" Not every house with a sign is for sale, and, even then, most homes for sale don't meet your search criteria. That's why we don't have that listing with us. But Cathy whipped out her iPhone and did a GPS-based search on her own location. Voile! T... 08/10/2009

Wondering how the real estate market is doing in resort like Lake Chelan?  After July, it is doing a bunch better. Maybe the media do know that the housing decline is over.  Last month saw Lake Chelan residential sales at 207% of July 2008 by dollar volume!  June had already show the first month over month improvement but when July is considered this is the first strong year to year improvement since 2007.  By sales transaction, July 2009 is 212.5% of 2008!  Average sale price in 2009 was down a bit at $452,488 compared to $463,500 last year. Sales prices are still seeing active discounting with the Sale Price/List Price ratio being 91.82% this July compared to 95.85% last July.  Sales volumes are still well below 2007 levels, but the direction of change is towards higher sales.  Check ... 08/10/2009

There are new and better tools available all the time!  One way your real estate agent earns your commission payment is to be familiar with and utilize these tools to help you get your home SOLD!  This tool, with my geeky engineering side, tickles me.Have a home to sell that needs the right furniture to be shown off better?  There is a solution to generate great photos of your home for sale.  Virtual Staging, or electronic staging, lets your home have much of the look of a professionally staged home without having to have a warehouse full of art, or a furniture design center.  You have to have your home, or at least the rooms you photograph vacant and get some great photographs.  Then, you send off the photos to Virtually Staging Properties and they transform them into attractive, atten... 08/10/2009

I got a kick out of the survey on the Most, and least, prestigious jobs in America.  With Real Estate Agents coming in last of everybody, I think it gives some good food for reflection on why that is the case and what it might take to see that change, even just a little bit.  Most people know some great real estate agents.  Of course, they also feel like they know some they consider less than great.According to the Best Article Every Day, Real Estate Agents have the least prestigious job in America.  Their company in the bottom ten include athletes, business executives, journalists, union leaders, stockbrokers, entertainers, accountants, bankers and actors. Coming in dead last on the list, with only 4% of Americans considering the job to have "very great prestige" and a heavy 34% consid... 08/10/2009

Last weekend, there was a big, well promoted real estate auction at Lake Chelan.  On Saturday, the 8th of August, James G. Murphy Auctioneers held an auction for 15 condominiums at the Chelan Resort Suites.  The auction was a very visible fixture in the Lake Chelan area the last month or so, with signage, open houses and lots of advertising.  You have to give the folks at Murphy Auctioneers credit for doing a great job at being visible. According to Ed Flannigan of James G. Murphy Auctioneers, they had been seeing 700 visitors per week to their web site on the Chelan Resort Suites.  On auction day, there were about 40 attendees and 10 registered bidders.  One suite had been pre-sold before the auction and 3 suites were sold at the auction.   They are in negotiations with several of the ... 08/10/2009