We are very lucky here in Bellingham to have not ony a top ranked state university, Western Washington University, but also Whatcom Community College and Bellingham Technical College. Beyond benefiting students, these institutions also offer community courses for anybody.

Whatcom Community College just put out their community learning booklet and it is stocked with classes about cooking, dancing, languages, arts, gardening, computers, technology and business. Classes range from free to around $120 and are anywhere from a few hours on one day to 5 or 6 sessions. If you would like to see what is available, check it out the schedule here.

The big news today is that Bellingham Mayor, Mark Asmundson has handed in his resignation in order to accept a position as manager from Northwest Clean Air Agency. He will finish in office on November 1 leaving Bellingham City Council the task of choosing an interim replacement for him until the election in November 2007.

Asmundson announced his resignation in an email to all city employees, some of whom thought that it was a joke because it was so unexpected.

Over the past 10 years as mayor, Asmundson has seen Bellingham go from being a small former mill town to being a bustling city that is continously ranked as one of the best places in America to live by various publications. Love him or hate him, Asmundson and his often controversial policies have helped the city grown into what it is today.

For more information about his resignation see this article in the Bellingham Herald. For more information on what he has achieved and policies that he has been involved with over his political career, click here.

Bay View Tower received building permits from the City of Bellingham this week. The 23-story project is scheduled to start construction this fall with a crane arriving in November. Construction time is estimated at 20 months.

The project will consists of street level commerical units, a total of 4 levels of parking (3 levels below street level and 4 above the commercial units) and will have 124 residential condo units on the upper floors including some amazing penthouse suites on the upper floors. Most of the residential units will enjoy stunning views of the bay.

Bay View Towers is the first high rise project in Bellingham and was first proposed in October of 2005. For more info go to www.bellinghamcondo.com

It’s hard to believe that we are into our last week of summer! True, it technically doesn’t end until mid-September but the reality is with kids going back to school and everything starting up again, this week and the long weekend coming up are your last real chances at it!

So go out and take advantage of one of the many outdoor activities that Whatcom County has to offer! Go for a hike (Church mountain is a great one! A bit tough but well worth it for the view you get) or just walk on a trail, kayak in the bay, canoe on Lake Whatcom, hang out at Birch Bay, go to the waterslides, go camping for the weekend (if you can still get a spot!!), wander around historic Fairhaven, hang out at Lake Padden - there are plenty of options! Enjoy!

While the housing market soared, the rental market in Bellingham hit a soft spot. Although there is always high demand in Bellingham for rentals due to WWU, in the past several years low interest rates and an array of mortgage products including zero down mortgages allowed more people to purchase homes rather then rent.

However, with interest rates rising and much higher housing prices, renting is starting to be the better option for some again. And there is an interesting new twist in the Bellingham market: many upper end homes are available for rent right now giving renters the opportunity to live in very nice homes for far less than the mortgage on such a house would be. Many people who want to retire in Bellingham a few years from now have bought homes now with the intention of renting them until they can move up here.

Bellingham’s Western Washington University was ranked 18th in the western universities category by US News. US News does annual reports on schools and WWU has been in the top for the past several years. Great job Bellingham and WWU!

Here are the real estate sales statistics for August 19 for Whatcom County including Bellingham, Blaine/Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley.

The pending ratio (percentage of homes listed that are under contract) for each city is:

Bellingham: 24%
Blaine/Birch Bay: 14%
Ferndale: 17%
Lynden: 19%
Sudden Valley: 18%

Here are some graphs showing the real estate sales trends over the past two years in Bellingham, Blaine/Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley. Whatcom County Real Estate Sales Statistics August 19 

What are real estate sales statistics and how do we gather our data? Click here to learn more.

Remember, we keep detailed statistics, so if you would like to know about the activity in a particular price range we can graph it out for you.

Here are the real estate sales statistics for Whatcom County for August 12. These statistics look at the ratio of pending homes vs. listed homes in Bellingham, Blaine/Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley.

The pending ratios for each city this week were:
Bellingham: 25%
Blaine/Birch Bay: 15%
Ferndale: 16%
Lynden: 21%
Sudden Valley: 15%

Here are the graphs showing the real estate sales trends in Bellingham, Blaine/Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley over the past 18 months. Whatcom County Real Estate Sales Statistics August 12 

What are pending ratios and real estate sales statistics? What do all those numbers mean and where do we get them from? Click here to learn more.

Last week we wrote about the 2 markets in Bellingham, the “Sold” and the “Unsold”. Ardelle at Rain City Guide wrote a great article Why isn’t my house SOLD yet? and talks about several things that sellers and agents do that can really hinder the sales process.

She talks about the value of pricing your home so that you look the best within common search terms. For example, many websites force people to look at homes in prices ranges of $25,000. Every buyers wants the best value for their money, but most buyers also have limits on how much money they have. If they know that $300,000 is the absolute max they can go to, why torture themselves by looking at homes in the $300,000 - $325,000 range? Assuming that most websites do the $25,000 increments, pricing your home at $301,000 as opposed to $299,000 is a VERY bad idea!!!

Read her article to find out more and remember how important her tips can be, especially right now with our two markets in Bellingham.

Several Bellingham residents are challenging the city’s growth plans. They are arguing that the city does not need as much land as they say they do due some of the Lake Whatcom watershed lands that Bellingham plans on acquiring. The group of citizens claims that once these lands are included, they lower the density and therefore are within acceptable levels.

One of the opponents, Larry Horrowitz, feels that “current city policies are threatening the quality of life by being overly accommodating to growth.”

And this is where I again ask the question, isn’t it better to just accept the fact that growth is coming and deal with it and plan for it than to try and deny that it’s happening and end up with poorly planned growth in the end? If the city wants more land in the urban growth plan to make sure that they can maintain the quality and level of parks that Bellingham residents are used to - why not let them! Additional parks wiil maintain the current character of Bellingham!