The artificial market created by tax credits resulted in the expected fall off the cliff in July, with the number of homes sold in the county as a whole down 22.8% from June sales.  The only area that held its own compared to June was Bellingham, where one more home sold in July.  Other areas dropped – from 68.8% in Sudden Valley to 52.2% in Lynden and 40% in Birch Bay/Blaine.  Ferndale was down just 4.2% in July, although they were caught in August with a drop of 56.5% in sales from their July number.

Typically, July sales are higher than June.  It was expected that they would be lower this year, but what really matters is how we are comparing to last year in the same months.  One would expect July and August to perform less well relative to last year because of the compressed demand in the early summer, and July lived up (or down) to that expectation.  In Whatcom County as a whole, 36.6% fewer units sold.  There wasn’t one area in Whatcom County that sold more houses in July 2010 than in July 2009.  By August, however, things were looking up a bit in most areas, with Sudden Valley & Birch Bay/Blaine up 15.4% & 21.7% respectively, Lynden matching August 2009, and Bellingham down just 4.7%.  Ferndale was hit hard – down 52.4% from sales in August 2009 and Nooksack Valley dropped 81.8%.  As a whole, the county sold 13.3% fewer homes in August of 2010 than 2009.

 For the complete article on the Bellingham and Whatcom County Real Estate Update visit the July and August Real Estate Update page.

For ongoing real estate numbers, go to www.JohnsonTeamRealEstate.com. We update the site weekly with everything from interest rates to market conditions to information from Fannie Mae, the FED and the FDIC. Also, feel free to call us at (360) 303-2734 or e-mail Info@JohnsonTeamRealEstate.com if you want to know more about a specific portion of the market – we track a lot more than we have space to report.

 If your neighborhood would like a presentation or a link to your website of up-to-date information on real estate in the neighborhood, we can provide it – just give us a call.  www.johnsonteamrealestate.com also includes a constantly updated list of newly listed properties and a list of properties being offered as short sales & foreclosures (REOs), as well as the entire listing database of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, fully searchable to your specifications.