Currently this week in Sudden Valley, WA the Pending Ratio is 14%, which is up 1 percentage point from last week’s ratio of 13%. The pending ratios are the percentage of homes listed that have pending offers on them.

Below is a graph to view the Sudden Valley Real Estate pending sales trend.

To view the pending ratios in numerical form click here

Currently this week in Lynden, WA the Pending Ratio is 9%, which is down 3 percentage points from last week’s ratio of 12%. The pending ratios are the percentage of homes listed that have pending offers on them.

Below is a graph to view the Lynden Real Estate pending sales trend.

To view the pending ratios in numerical form click here

Currently this week in Ferndale, WA the Pending Ratio is 17%, which is stable with last week’s ratio of 17%. The pending ratios are the percentage of homes listed that have pending offers on them.

Below is a graph to view the Ferndale Real Estate pending sales trend.

To view the pending ratios in numerical form click here

Currently this week in Blaine/Birch Bay, WA the Pending Ratio is 10%, which is stable with last week’s ratio of 10%. The pending ratios are the percentage of homes listed that have pending offers on them.

Below is a graph to view the Blaine/Birch Bay Real Estate pending sales trend.

To view the pending ratios in numerical form click here

Currently this week in Bellingham, WA the Pending Ratio is 18%, which is stable with last week’s ratio of 18%. The pending ratios are the percentage of homes listed that have pending offers on them.

Below is a graph to view the Bellingham Real Estate pending sales trend.

To view the pending ratios in numerical form click here

For those of you who haven’t already noticed we have added a new property search to our website www.JohnsonTeamRealEstate.com  you can now search by address, map, new listings, neighborhoods and more.

Be sure to let us know what you think of the site and how it works for you.  Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Two years ago Lylene excitedly told me about this new thing she heard about - a blog. She had signed up for one, but wasn’t too sure what to do with it. It was my first day of work at the Johnson Team and I told her that I had a personal blog and was familiar with them.

That sealed the deal. The blog was passed on to me and for the past two years, I have written, designed, tweaked, read and linked away. The result - The Bellingham Blog. Over 800 posts on a variety of topics in Bellingham from real estate to the weather.

Two months ago I was accepted to the nursing program at the University of BC, so today is my last day at the Johnson Team. I’ve had several “last days” of jobs before, but this one is different. In the past I was always SO excited to be done with the job and getting out of there. Although I’m excited about the opportunities that I’m moving on to, I am truly sad about leaving the Johnson Team. I’ve had the pleasure of working with such an amazing group of people over the past 2 years and that is hard to that give up. I’ve learned a lot, laughed a lot and been supported a lot in my time here.

So to our faithful readers (I know that you are out there!) thank you for reading this blog as it evolved. I’m sure that as Fawn takes it over it is only going to get better. And watch for Lylene’s posts - she usually writes when she is really fired up about something which means that you get a very interesting article.

And to the Johnson Team - Fawn, Lylene, Rich, Mike and Graham - thank you for everything over the past two years. It has truly been a pleasure!

To begin, I want to give you a snapshot of overall market conditions right now.

The last few weeks have been very interesting, what with all the news regarding the home loan market.  At this point the FED has stepped in to keep money available, but the skittishness of investors will keep everything on edge for a while.  The massive amount of home loans due to reach their first interest rate adjustment in October is just the beginning of hundreds of billions of dollars in loans on which the rates will adjust over the next year.  How consumers handle the increased payments and whether financing markets have money available for those who need to restructure debt will have a huge impact on the health of the housing market.  So how does this seem to be impacting our local market?  Let me show you a snapshot.

We track the number of homes for sale and with sales pending every week, and have done so for several years.  Since Bellingham is the largest market (and therefore the most stable), I use it as my canary in the mine.  Following are the numbers over the past 3 months.

What this shows me is that buyers are wary - value is very important to them.  Sellers may be holding off a bit on putting their homes on the market.  But, houses are still selling, and since that is our focus, what do we know about those houses?

First, we know that generally speaking a house is most likely to sell if it is priced below $300,000, although $350,000 to $399,000 has an above average likelihood and the $800,000 to $850,000 range isn’t bad at all. $550,000 to $700,000 is very slow.

We know that of those houses which sold in Bellingham over the past 30 days, 31% of them sold within the first 30 days of their listing date and they sold at 99.6% of list price.  As the time on market increased, the % of sold price to original list price declined.  Even in the slowest sector of the market, 30% sold in the first 30 days at 99.1% of list price.

So what is the bottom line?  Fewer buyers are committing to buy and initial pricing is critical.  Time is not a seller’s friend.  On the other hand, if a home is a good value, a buyer had better make a decision and pay the price, or they will be left to choose from those that are not as good. In a market like this, people buy for 1 of 2 reasons.  Either they walk into a house and fall in love, or they walk into a house and think, “This will work, and if I don’t buy it, someone else will.”  As a seller, you have very little control over the first reaction, but you have total control over the second.  You make the choice.

While every transaction and client is important, there are some that are just that extra bit more special. First time home buyers are ALWAYS that extra bit special!

This week Deva signed the papers to buy her first home! Having just returned from a year of teaching in Mexico, Deva came to Bellingham to buy her first home and start a new teaching job. There were only a few homes available that suited her criteria, and when new ones came up there was usually a lot of competition to get them. Everyone in the office was rooting for Deva - we couldn’t help it! She has in infectious smile and sweet personality that made us all just love her.

When Mike told us they had mutual acceptance on a house I was so excited for her! And now it’s closed, done and she has moved in! So Deva, congratulations on your first home! We are so happy and excited for you!

Currently this week in Sudden Valley, WA the Pending Ratio is 13%, which is down 4 percentage point from last week’s ratio of 17%. The pending ratios are the percentage of homes listed that have pending offers on them.

Below is a graph to view the Sudden Valley Real Estate pending sales trend.

To view the pending ratios in numerical form click here