Weekly stats are in! Here are the real estate sales statistics for Bellingham, Blaine/Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley in Whatcom County, Washington.

The following numbers are the pending ratios (percentage of homes listed that currently have a pending sale):
Bellingham: 28% (last week was 26%)
Blaine/Brich Bay: 19% (last week was 17%
Ferndale: 19% (last week was 16%)
Lynden: 18% (last week was 20%)
Sudden Valley: 18% (last week was 22%)

Don’t forget that you can always view the latest graphs showing the real estate sales trends over the past two years in Bellingham, Blaine, Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley on the Market News section of our website.

If you are looking for the paintcan, it is now up on our site! Look at the lower right sidebar, and click on it to enter! Good luck!

For those of you that came to our website this weekend looking for a paint can to click on, I am very sorry!! We did not have our entry form up yet. It should be up momentarily though. Since it is not up yet, you can submit your entry directly to me at nickie@johnsonteamrealesate.com

Again, sorry about that! Good luck with the draw!

On February 12 Bellingham passed a permanent moratorium on any store over 90,000 square feet and extreme limitations on any over 60,000 square feet. During all of the debate that surrounded it, many people had that attitude of “Fine! If Bellingham doesn’t want the business, let the big box companies but their stores in Ferndale and we will go and shop there!”. Ferndale was just assumed to be the place they would go. And it makes sense. They have over 500 acres of undeveloped commercial land within the city limits and they are only a short drive up the I-5 from Bellingham.

However, no one asked Ferndale. In order to give themselves a bit of time to think and plan, the Ferndale City council passed a moratorium on any store over 75,000 square feet. That being said, there are TONS of loop holes!

The moratorium is essential on large planned developments. Meaning, if one big box store wanted to build, that’s fine. If a huge mall wants to go in, that is not going to happen. The wording for the moratorium was based upon Ferndale’s previous moratorium on large developments which was designed to stall the controversial Pioneer Plaza - a mixed commercial and residential development.

Here’s my question - who is really for banning big box stores and who is really against it? It is so hard to get an accurate reading of the community’s feeling on the matter because the heated debates usually involve people that feel passionately about the matter. One perspective could be that the Bellingham and Ferndale City Council are accurately representing the sentiments of their constituents. Another perspective could be that a few powerful people are pushing things their way in spite of what the general populous is saying. So which is it?

Whether or not to ban big box stores seems like a big enough issue to send to a referendum. The ramifications of banning, or not banning these stores are huge. If we ban them, Bellingham can remain a quiet little community and shun growth as much as possible. If we don’t ban them, parts of Bellingham may start to look similar to a few Seattle communities, but people would have their choice of places to shop.

Bottom line - does Bellingham want growth or do they want to deny that growth is going to happen and get stuck with the consequences of growth happening anyways, with our without the city council’s “approval”.Â

Here are this weeks real estate sales statistics for Bellingham, Blaine/Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley, WA. The following numbers are the pending ratios (percentage of homes listed that have a pending sales contract).

Bellingham: 26% (last week 25%)
Blaine/Birch Bay: 17% (last week 20%)
Ferndale: 16% (last week 18%)
Lynden: 20% (last week 18%)
Sudden Valley: 22% (last week 23%)

You can view graphs of the real esate sales trends over the past two years in each of these cities here.

Also, don’t forget that we have an array of statistics and data on the real estate market and Whatcom County our site (if you are a numbers kind of person).

This week, many of us said good-bye to a very dear friend, Jerry Chambers.  As I sat at Jerry’s funeral service in Ferndale, I was profoundly amazed and yet not surprised, that there had to be over 400 people in attendance.  What a tribute to a great guy!  Jerry supported many events that I helped organize that benefited many of the citizens of our county.  From kids to cancer, Jerry always donated.  For 3 years, he contributed a car for a hole-in-one contest for the annual golf tournament to benefit the St. Joseph Cancer Center.  For over 20 years, he served as a board member of the Ferndale Boys & Girls Club.  The last 5 years, I have served as the chair of the Ferndale Boys & Girls Club’s auction and Jerry has been the loudest cheerleader and strongest supporter; always buying the back table (always competing with BP for that honor!) in the room.  He told me the reason he bought the rear table and not the head table was so that he could watch everyone else throughout the night - not them watching him!  At last year’s auction, Jerry served as the person standing on the stage doing the “Sponsor a Child” portion of the event, talking about the club and what it does for the kids and eventually asking attendees to donate cash to the event.  Jerry raised over $25,000 for the Club in less than 5 minutes!  As I watched him, I stood in awe of the stature, charisma and heart of the man on the stage.  As a community, we will miss his generosity.  As his friends, we will miss his kindness and his laugh.  As someone who respected and admired him, I will miss his wisdom, his humor and his hugs.  Your legacy will live on, Jerry Chambers.  And you will be missed forever.  Rest in peace, you Gentle Giant.

The Port of Bellingham is seeking comments right now on a proposed parking garage in the Historic Fairhaven District.  The location of the garage would be over the bluff along the now unimproved 10 St, to the North of the Village Inn and Mill Avenue. 

The garage enterance would be accessed off of 10th Street for easy access from Fairhaven’s core shopping district for both pedestrians and cars.  Parking has been a big issue in Fairhaven and we would love you know your opinions!

Feel free to leave your comments here and we will forward them along to The Port Of Bellingham at PO Box 1677, Bellingham, WA 98227

The Bellingham Real Estate Blog has added Carol Brumet from Dyrland Insurance as one of our writers! Carol works with Erik Dyrland as the marketing manager (she’s Dyrland Insurance’s version of me ) and is also involved in a variety of community projects. Here is her bio to give you a bit more info!

Carol Brumet has been with the Dyrland Agency on a part-time basis since early 2005 in the role of Marketing Manager. She and Erik visit local real estate, lending and mortgage offices to share the latest insights regarding insurance with a focus on flood insurance and what Farmers can offer clients which other insurance companies may not be able to provide. Brumet is active in the community by serving on the board of the Ferndale Boys & Girls Club and also as the chair of the Club’s annual fundraising auction. She is a former Ferndale City Councilmember and Planning Commission member and is the Events Director for the local chapter of the Alzheimer’s Society of Washington. Brumet’s main business focus continues to be as the Outreach Coordinator for the St. Joseph Cancer Center, overseeing local cancer services and programs; a position that she has held for approximately five years.

I hope that you will help me in welcoming her to our blog! Leave a comment on her post Do you have enough homeowner’s insurance? to say hi! And, if you have any insurance type questions, make sure and ask! I’m sure that she or Erik would be happy to answer your questions.

As the Vice President of the Ferndale Boys & Girls Club board, and as an employee of Erik Dyrland Insurance Agency - Farmers Insurance, many friends have asked me about coverage of their home in light of the recent B&GC fire on New Year’s day.  I have learned from working in Erik’s office, that we are never prepared for the worst.  Many people don’t realize that their homeowner’s insurance should be reviewed annually.  The most common error is the confusion over insuring the real estate value versus what it would cost to rebuild in the event it is completely destroyed by a disaster.  Many of us simply purchase enough insurance to satisfy our mortgage lender and then go years without reviewing our coverage.  If it is has been more than a year since you visited with your insurance agent, please blow the dust off of your current policy and give their office a call.  Hopefully a disaster won’t strike you and your family - but if it does, we want you to be prepared.   For answers to any of your insurance questions, here is a link to our website.  We’d be happy to help you!  www.dyrlandinsurance.com

Real estat stales statistics are in! Here are the numbers for Bellingham, Blaine/ Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley. These are the pending ratios (percentage of homes listed for sale that have pending sales contracts).

Bellingham: 25% (last week was 23%)
Blaine/Birch Bay: 20% (no change from last week)
Ferndale: 18% (last week was 16%)
Lynden: 18% (last week was 17%)
Sudden Valley: 23% (last week was 25%)

You can view graphs of these real estate sales trends over the past 2 years here.

If you have any questions or would like a specific price range graphed out, please let me know!