2011 Wenatchee Real Estate Outlook (3 of 5)

Guest writer, Rebecca Darley

As the manager of a Wenatchee home inspection company I must stay educated on the latest local real estate news and developments.  On May 19, 2011, the Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce invited local real estate experts to lead a discussion panel called “2011 Real Estate Outlook.” This blog entry along with the next 2 entries will summarize the panel discussions of each speaker.

Previous Entries:

• Speaker from Touchstone Appraisals, Cheri Farivar
• Speaker from Peoples Bank, Darel Ansley

Fritz Nichols is the owner of Windermere NCW in Wenatchee.  He’s been in the real estate industry since 1994 residing in the Puget Sound area and has recently expanded his services to the Wenatchee Valley.  Like us, Fritz works in Western and Central Washington and has seen the effects of the housing market throughout those areas.  He started off his discussion with some stats.

In the first quarter inventory of 2010 there were 620 single family homes comparing to 501 in 2011.  About 10% of the inventory is bank owned homes matching the stats of the past couple of years.  The Puget Sound area is seeing about 20% REOs and short sales in their inventory with up to 45% in some badly affected areas.  In Wenatchee we’ve been fortunate to see rental vacancies trending down along with the inventory.  This is a good sign.

Fritz predicted that the 2011 inventory will increase over the summer as it usually does annually, but he doesn’t expect much appreciation in home values.  Fritz also commented on the media’s negative coverage on the real estate market.  Gallup polls and Newsweek articles claiming that the homeownership dream is dead is not an accurate portrayal of the local opinion.  His experience with clients has been completely opposite.  Home buyers are taking advantage of affordable homes and cheap money realized by low lending rates.

On a side note, I came across an article while research Fritz’s Wenatchee home market stats.  Bloomberg news write this on May 10, 2011: “Among metropolitan counties, the biggest sales improvement from the fourth quarter of 2010 was in Chelan County (Wenatchee), which saw a 25.5 percent increase in sales, followed by Spokane County with a 20.1 percent jump. Sales declined 18.2 percent in Asotin County (Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Wash.) and 9.1 percent in Thurston County (Olympia).”  Good news for Wenatchee!

Source: Sales and prices of homes slip in Wash. State

A New Seattle Office for Bank Of America Offers Foreclosure Alternatives

“Bank of America announced Wednesday it had opened an office in Seattle to allow distressed homeowners whose mortgages it services to meet face to face with specialists and consider alternatives to foreclosure.”

Source: Seattle Times, April 27, 2011.  “BofA opens office for foreclosure alternatives.”

People considering foreclosure can speak to specialists at BofA by appointment to weigh out their options.  An increase in foreclosures and short sales in the Washington area has required banks and mortgage providers to add more services and departments.

Outreach events are planned for May 19-21 in Bellevue and Spokane and require registration.  To register for the BofA events go to www.bankofamerica.com/outreachevent.

Neighborhood Stabilization Summit

Foreclosures are a huge issue in the United States right now. After July resulted in the worst month in real estate history, the feds are starting to take notice. Today many important professionals met to talk about the compounded problems with foreclosed, abandoned and vacant properties. Read on…

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/09022010_neighborhood_stabiization_reo.asp
by Jann Swanson
Community organizers, state and federal government officials, and representatives from banking, research and educations institutions are currently meeting in Washington at a REO and Vacant Properties Summit sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank.  The two day conference is focused on examining the problems associated with vacant and abandoned property and to explore approaches to neighborhood stabilization.
Governor Elizabeth Duke, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve pointed out that the impact of each foreclosure goes far beyond that one home; a conference participant estimated that every blighted home negatively impacts five or six nearby homes.  Therefore, in Cleveland for example, where 11,500 homes have been foreclosed, 60,000 others can lose value which leads to lower taxes to support schools and other community services. The residents who remain in a community suffer social losses as well as their communities decline.