Here are this weeks real estate sales statistics for Bellingham, Blaine/Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley. The following are the pending ratios (percentage of homes listed that have a pending sale) for each of the cities. Click on the city to see a graph of the real estate pending sales trend.

Bellingham: 26% (no change from last week)
Total units pending: 221

Blaine/Birch Bay: 14% (last week was 13%)
Total units pending: 48

Ferndale: 18% (last week was 16%)
Total units pending: 55

Lynden: 17% (last week was 18%)
Total units pending: 32

Sudden Valley: 14% (last week was 13%)
Total units pending: 24

Don’t forget that we always have the lastes real estate statistics on our website under Market News.

Hope that you all had a great Memorial Day weekend! Mike got to go out on his boat, so of course, it was a good weekend for him. And, he gallantly announced to us this morning that shrimping is open and that it is GOOD this year! Mike and David from DMP Construction hauled in a huge load of tasty shrimp on Saturday. They even had Mike’s daughter out there helping. 

Weather is supposed to be good in Whatcom County this week, so get out on the water, go for a hike, or take off camping if you can.

Summer has arrived!

Good afternoon. The rates for Friday May 25th, based on Purchase with at least 5% down and a conforming loan amount of $417,000.00 or less.

30 Year fixed     6.125   1.5 points

15 Year Fixed     5.875   1.5 points

3/1 ARM            5.500   1.5 points

5/1 ARM            5.875   1.5 points

I will be gone next week. Off to the Grand Canyon! Enjoy the long weekend…..

I have worked for the Johnson Team for over a year and a half now and in that time, buying and selling homes has become quite normal to me. In the everyday business of this house pending, that one closing and this new one on the market, I started to forget that for the average person who does not work in real estate, there is nothing “normal” about buying or selling a home. However, I recently had the opportunity to be reminded.

My husband and I recently sold our home in Sumas and bought one in Ferndale. We always knew that our house in Sumas was just a starter and that when our two years were up, we would sell. Our house went under contract in March, and several days later we found our new dream home. And then the fun began….

Normally when a house pends, I change a bunch of marketing materials, maybe help Fawn prepare the pending folder, and generally just wait for it to close. However, since this was my home, the situation was SO DIFFERENT! We had to arrange financing, insurance, and moving details. And to make matters even more stressful, our closing was far from smooth.

In spite of our financing and details being all lined up and ready to go, some issues came up with our buyers and as a result, we were delayed for 3 weeks. This meant that more negotiating had to be done to make sure that both deals (the sale of our old house, purchase of the new one) all came together. I was certainly happy to have the incredible team of agents that I work with by my side for this one because their expertise was definitely needed! (I am the marketing manager here, not a licensed agent).

When our transactions finally closed, we scrambled to pack, move and clean within a matter of a few days. This is the other part about buying/selling a home that I had forgotten about. I had gotten so used to our clients coming in, handing them the keys, waving good bye and saying congratulations, then going back to work. I had forgotten that as they walked out that door, they were making a mental checklist of boxes that had been packed, where the furniture would go in the new home, address changes, insurance, moving truck, cleaning…. the list goes on.

So after the past few weeks, I now remember what the view is like from the other side of the real estate transaction.

There is a new web service that allows you to give money to any group or person anonymously. Giving Anonymously is a non profit organization that wants to “facilitate generosity between people”. The only catch is that they can’t give you a tax receipt since some of the donations are going to individual people instead of non-profit organizations. So, if you want to donate to an established group, probably best to still do that directly.

However, if you want to give a helping hand to a neighbor, friend, or someone that you know is in need, but would prefer to do it anonymously, this site is perfect! On the site, you tell them who it is going to (you have to have their address and preferably a phone number) and then pay $2.25 admin fee (covers Giving Anonymously writing the check, mailing, overhead etc) and 2.5% merchant fee (covers the credit card fees). The people on the receiving end of the gift have the opporunity to record a thank you message to their annonymous donor as well.

Sorry that we’ve missed a few weeks of statistics! Here are the pending ratios (percentage of homes listed that have a pending sale) for Bellingham, Blaine/Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley.

Bellingham: 26% (no change from last week)
Total homes pending: 213

Blaine/Birch Bay: 13% (no change from last week)
Total homes pending: 43

Ferndale: 16% (no change from last week)
Total homes pending: 50

Lynden: 18% (last week was 19%)
Total homes pending: 34

Sudden Valley: 13% (last week was 15%)
Total homes pending: 20

Here are the pending ratio graphs for houses in Bellingham, Blaine/Birch Bay, Ferndale, Lynden and Sudden Valley. Don’t forget that you can always find current statistics on our website under Market News.

Earlier this week Fawn posted about Lylene going to jail for Muscular Dystrophy! So far we have $465 of the $1300 that we need for her bail. You can get more information at the MDA site. Your donations are 100% tax-detuctable and will help local residents with MDA.

The people who brought you the Outdoor Expo are taking their love of recreation one step farther - they have started a website that will be a central hub of information for outdoor activities in the North West. Many people are willing to travel for their outdoor hobby/habit so the site includes activities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and BC.

Todd Williams launched the site NWActivities.com and is opening it up to clubs, groups and businesses to post their outdoor activities. Users can search by location or type of activity and can also sign up for email notification.

There is a new website that allows contractors and homeoners who have excess dirt and fill to connect with people wanting some more dirt or fill for their property. Check out http://dirtfill.com