Renting out your vacation home as a short term rental has long been a popular idea in the Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee area. Both the city of Leavenworth and Chelan County have rules regulating vacation rentals and airbnbs so I decided it makes a lot of sense to spell out the differences for local home buyers.You can read the first of my posts here: Leavenworth vacation rental rules 06/28/2022

A big snow in January caused a delay in listings but buyer demand continues to cause home prices to soar in Leavenworth.    The average sale price in Leavenworth in Q1 was... $935,000! See all the details in our latest post: https://iciclecreekrealestate.com/2022-leavenworth-home-prices-first-quarter-report/ 06/28/2022

 Leavenworth home prices continued their meteoric rise throughout 2021.  The average single family home in Leavenworth sold for $819,000 in 2021 which is up 13% from $722,000. The median sales price in 2021 for Leavenworth is up to $705,000 from $620,000.Demand remained very high and supply was extremely low.  While making predictions during a global pandemic seems unwise, it seems likely that we will see similar conditions locally in 2022.For my full analysis, please the read the article posted on my Leavenworth real estate blog.2021 Leavenworth Home Prices   01/14/2022

 What does it take to win a bidding war in Leavenworth's very competitive housing market?  I looked at the sales and listing data for 2021 YTD and found that 36% of homes are selling for above asking price in 2021. These homes sold for 6% more than the list price, on average, which is $38,000. You can read all the details in the newest article on my blog: How much should I offer above the listing price on a house in Leavenworth? 06/01/2021

Across the country, buyer demand for homes skyrocketed and inventory remained at record lows throughout 2020.  Locations popular for vacation homes, like Leavenworth, turned into “zoomtowns” and folks decided to relocate and work from home and homeschool in a new location, away from the big city.This massive increase in demand, coupled with an existing lack of homes for sale, made for an extreme seller’s market.  2020 Leavenworth home prices, for both average and median home prices, reached dizzying new heights in 2020. The average Leavenworth home price was up 35% to $722,000 and the median sales price was also up 27% from $489,000 to $620,000.While there was much talk of this price increase being driven by the lack of homes for sale in Leavenworth, the number of sold homes tells a dif... 02/04/2021

If you are looking to buy a condo in Leavenworth you will find that there aren't many choices to choose from. On the other hand, as a seller, 2017 might be a great time to sell for a strong price.In my latest article on my Leavenworth real estate blog, I share my thoughts and some statistics about the current Leavenworth condo shortage.If you are considering selling a condo in 2017, please don't wait until spring. There are plenty of buyers ready to buy right now. 02/13/2017

The weather report says to expect rain on top of all the snow we have recently received in the Cascades and in the Wenatchee Valley. When we get rain on snow events like this, flooding is sure to follow. We checked in with Eric Kossian of Leavenworth Insurance to ask him about flood insurance for Leavenworth. http://iciclecreekrealestate.com/2017/02/09/do-i-really-need-flood-insurance-leavenworth 02/09/2017

Leavenworth home prices were stable in 2016 with high demand and inventory continuing to shrink.  Neither the median nor average home prices for Leavenworth moved much since 2015. Read my full report about 2016 Leavenworth home prices as well as my predictions for 2017 on my Leavenworth real estate blog. I'm looking forward to regularly blogging again after not writing that much in 2016. Our newly designed website is a great place to share articles with folks interested in Leavenworth real estate. 02/07/2017

We have come a long way in the past 14 years. It's hard to believe that I started my blog on Blogger back in the dark ages of the internet before Facebook, iphones and cat videos.  After procrastinating for a number of years, I merged what was once called the MyLeavenworth Blog with my Icicle Creek Real Estate website on Wordpress and hosted it there for many years. In 2016, I knew I was ready for a change. We had some growing pains and worked with a couple of vendors to get it right, but I'm excited to share with you the new product. It's clean, simple and easy to use. We have neighborhood searches for all the Leavenworth neighborhoods and it works well on mobile phones too.Now that it's up and running, I plan on being more regular about writing blog articles and sharing them here as w... 01/13/2017

Everyone needs a rescue from time to time. But let me begin this little tale with some backstory... I was in Wenatchee a couple of weeks ago to teach a clock hour class. It’s just before noon on Wednesday, May 25th when I arrive to meet fellow co-worker and friend, Mike Leeds.Mike has been with First American Title a year this month. He’s a great guy, a wonderful collaborator, and a super welcome addition to our team. Funny, wherever we go, be it lunch, a store, or walking down the street, we run into someone he knows! So Mike and I head west up Highway 2 about 23 miles to Leavenworth. Washington’s little Bavarian village in the Cascade Mountains. We’re making a few calls so I can meet clients, delivering a couple of commission checks (always a welcome call with smiles) and enjoying som... 06/13/2016

Fresh air intake, new homes, and we all need to breath fresh air. Leavenworth Home Inspections Most people just do not think about it. You buy a new home and think it should not have many problems, you hope!  Now the issue is that you as a home buyer most likely do not know what is required for new construction. Codes and the requirements that come with them are constantly changing, typically every three years. I try to keep abreast of these changes because I do quite few new home inspections and perform quality control/phase inspections for several clients.On a recent new construction inspection I found the home did not have a fresh air duct or other approved means to bring in fresh air into the home. Since 1991 Washington State has required that whole house ventilation since newer hom... 05/11/2016

Road Trip!.. My good friend David Hoskin and I are off to Cashmere and Leavenworth this Saturday morning. We're headed up and over the Cascade Mountains via Snoqualmie Pass to Eastern Washington to see a few friends. First stop, Cashmere. This picture perfect postcard little town of about 3,000 residents sits next to the Wenatchee River on Highway 2. We're here to visit our old friend, mentor, and former music teacher, Pat Thompson and his wife Laurel. I met Pat back in 1968/69 when he first started teaching in the music department at Green River Community College.    We had a wonderful visit and of course a lot of great conversation about music and musicians. Don Gardner was there (another long time musician friend from back in the day) and it was fun to catch up about life and people ... 06/25/2014

I've discussed it before on our blog, but Leavenworth continues to have a shortage of listings for sale. This is especially true for homes priced between $200-400,000. At this exact moment, there are 18 condominiums for sale in Leavenworth and Kahler Glen and there are 85 single family homes for sale in Leavenworth, Lake Wenatchee and Peshastin. As far as new inventory goes, we aren’t seeing very much of it. It is starting to feel like we have a Leavenworth housing shortage. Only 2 new condominiums have come on the market in January and February. 21 single family homes have been added to the inventory in the first two months this year. Unfortunately, much of this isn’t really “new” inventory.  12 of these homes were listed in 2013 and have either been re-listed after the listing expired... 03/05/2014

As we expected, 2013 continued the positive trends that we saw in 2012.  The number of sales each year is going up significantly and with this increase in demand, home prices are starting to creep up as well.   For sellers or homeowners, this is welcome news – though buyers who were waiting to buy might be disappointed by the recent increase in prices or lack of choices.   Both the number of sales for the quarter (45) and the total number of sales for the year (138) are much improved over any year since 2006 – including 2007 which was a great year in Leavenworth. Leavenworth home prices have finally started to go up in 2013.  The average home price for a single family home in Leavenworth was $378,000 which is up 12% from $335,000 in 2012. The median sales price in Leavenworth is up as w... 02/23/2014

The Leavenworth real estate market often lags behind the Seattle market. The newest trend seems to be following this pattern. Last Spring Seattle saw a shortage of homes for sale and this extreme lack of inventory led to price gains for sellers.  Home sellers in Leavenworth were wondering if we had a sellers market back then and the answer was definitely not.   As I write this post at the beginning of 2014, I know that home buyers will ask again about a Leavenworth home shortage in 2014. I expect to get a huge number of emails asking: Are there no homes for sale in Leavenworth? Currently there are just over 80 single family homes for sale in the Leavenworth and Peshastin area. Looking at the broader single family market, this gives us about 7 months of supply. (Technically, less than 6 ... 02/23/2014

Whether you are a Leavenworth home buyer or a Lake Wenatchee home seller, or just someone who owns property in Leavenworth, chances are you are curious about current home prices. In Leavenworth, it's often hard for the public to really know what home values are doing because the newspaper ads only show ASKING PRICES which sometimes aren't in line with the reality of the market. Each month we publish a report on recently sold homes in Leavenworth which includes SOLD PRICES as well as photos of the recently sold homes and other details such as time on market. Here are some links to our recent reports: January 2014 Recently Sold Homes Leavenworth WA December 2013 Recently Sold Homes Leavenworth WA November 2013 Recently Sold Homes Leavenworth WA     02/23/2014

Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee have been pretty dry this winter until February but in the last two weeks we have received feet upon feet of snow. All of the Lake Wenatchee ski trails including Chiwawa, Nason Ridge and Kahler Glen are open now with great coverage. As of today, ski trails in Leavenworth are open at Icicle River, Ski Hill and the Leavenworth Golf Course. You can read a recent update about nordic skiing on our blog http://iciclecreekrealestate.com/2014/02/10/lake-wenatchee-skiing-2014-better-late-never/ 02/23/2014

We use the term “months of supply” in real estate to tell us how much inventory of homes for sale we have on the market.  The months of supply is the time it would take for all the current inventory to sell if it all sold at the current rate without new inventory coming on the market.   But how to calculate months of supply you ask?   Months of supply is the number of houses currently for sale divided by the average number of homes sold per month.   6 months of supply is considered the benchmark for a balanced market. Less than 6 months of supply favors the sellers because there are less choices for the buyer. More than 6 months favors the buyers and leads to lower prices. In a recent blog post, I show examples of how we use the inventory data and calculate months of supply to learn mor... 02/23/2014

Allyson and I and our business Icicle Creek Homes are excited to be Gold Sponsors this year of the Leavenworth Film Fest. Showcasing the best recent independent short films with a focus on outdoor recreation. This year’s festival includes the top films in each category and an awards ceremony. Categories this year include: Outdoor Sports & Adventure Films in this category must contain at least 75% footage of outdoor sports and/or thrilling outdoor adventure.  Films in this category MUST NOT contain more than 50% footage shot in the Pacific Northwest   POV (Point of View) Films in this category must contain 90% footage shot from a POV camera such as a GoPro or Contour   Documentary/Narrative Films in this category must be focused on telling a story or chronicling an event or series of eve... 02/22/2014

After a quiet first quarter that we attributed to the winter storm damage, we saw Leavenworth home sales surge in spring of 2013 and a continuation of  the high sales volume we started to see in 2012. Unlike the Seattle region, we are continuing to see flat or slightly decreasing prices.  The reason we have yet to see price increases is because supply continues to out pace demand.  As we described in an earlier blog post, Leavenworth still has quite a bit of inventory compared to the demand which is depressing the prices. This is good news for buyers trying to get a deal, but not for sellers, especially those who bought at higher prices in 2006 or 2007.   Both buyers and sellers should understand that this is a period of transition. Buyers may get a deal on a house, or they may end up i... 08/26/2013