July 28th, 2009
Quadrant boosts production in response to home sales
O ur area’s largest homebuilder has boosted production from 2 homes a day, to 3 homes a day in response to the uptick in home sales. Quadrant homes are in the $200-300,000 range and are lined up exactly where demand currently lies. I wouldn’t expect to see some of our higher end home builders jump on the bandwagon just yet as there seems to be plenty of inventory in the high end, and relatively few sales. Read the article in the Seattle Times here.
A widely watched index, The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities, shows home prices posted their first monthly increase since the summer of 2006, indicating prices are finally stabilizing. The report released Tuesday rose 0.5 percent from April, but was still 17.1 percent below May a year ago.
The 10-city index rose 0.4 percent from April, but was off 16.8 percent from May last year. It was the fourth consecutive month both indexes didn’t post record annual decline. Home prices are now at levels not seen since mid-2003.
July 27th, 2009
New Home Sales on the rise!
G ood news for home builders, and ultimately the economy. Sales of new homes showed strong increases in June, inventory of new homes has dropped below “normal” levels, and builder confidnece is up. All of these point to more new home starts in our future which of course means jobs in the construction industry and supplies being purchased from suppliers who must be hurting durning this downturn. Good news all around! Read the article here.
July 24th, 2009
Shipwreck Day Success!
A huge thank you to Carrie Tisinger and her crew for their incredible work
at Shipwreck this year! Carrie and her crew were able to raise $1,110.00
dollars delivered directly to the Anacortes Food Bank to help purchase much
needed supplies. Carrie and her team would like to thank Cap Sante Heated
Mini Storage, The Anacortes American, Anacortes Chamber of Commerce and The
Wrestlers for Life for their space, visibility and might that made the booth
possible.
The agents at Windermere Real Estate would like to thank Carrie for her focus on the
local community and willingness to spend her time to benefit Anacortes
residents in need of some extra help ~ we also want to thank Carrie for the
extra space created in our garages by helping us take our “stuff” and turning
it into someone else’s “treasure”! Good work Carrie!
July 7th, 2009
Windermere’s Community Service Day
Every June, 8,000 Windermere agents from across the West gather to give back time, talent and energy to their communities.
This year, Anacortes Windermere Real Estate agents gathered on June 20th at Island View Elementary School located on J Avenue, where we trimmed, raked, dug out dead plants, weeded and picked up litter…all in an effort to make the school landscape look great for the hardworking teachers, staff and students, as well as the neighborhood and community.
According to the Anacortes School District, budget cuts have seriously limited the amount of help they can hire to keep the grounds in shape, which made our project all the more worthwhile. Working at Island View turned out to be a rewarding community service project for all of us…being able to help keep one of the Anacortes’ communities’ greatest assets looking good is a true joy. A big thanks to Randy at Ace Hardware, who donated lovely mature plants to replace several that had been damaged or killed during this past winter’s snow and cold.
Community Service Day is something that our office and agents really look forward to each year. Closing our office for a day, and taking a closer look at our local community to identify areas were we can help our neighbors and friends, is a big part of who we are as a Windermere family.
June 12th, 2009
Bark in the Park!
C oming to Storvik Park, the 5th annual Bark in the Park Dog Festival ~ a fundraising event for the Anacortes off-leash park. The future off-leash park is located at 38th and H Ave and is part of a bigger project, the Ace of Hearts Creek Rotary Park; a joint venture involving the City of Anacortes and the Anacortes Noon Rotary Club as well as F.I.D.O (Fidalgo Islanders for Dogs Off Leash). The future park will serve many needs, consisting of a 1.5 acre off-leash, fenced dog park with wash-off area, agility equipment, gazebo and benches; a baseball field, playground, restrooms and parking area are also part of the Ace of Hearts Park plan.
Join us June 13th as we mix 500+ enthusiastic dog owners and 300+ of their furry friends looking to have a fantastic day full of activities and events and help us raise funds to support a park for our four legged friends.
Sponsorship packages are available and vendor opportunities at the Bark in the Park are available. Email your questions to info@anacortesdogpark.com .
If your furry friend just cannot wait for the new park, visit our temporary dog park located at the corner of 9th and Q Ave!
June 11th, 2009
We can’t stop now!
W e’ve saved the ferry for now, but the long term goal of keeping this Internation Run viable still needs work! WSF Assistant Secretary David Moseley and staff members will be hosting a community meeting tomorrow night, Thursday, June 12 6:30-8:30 at the Anacortes Senior Center located at 1701 22nd St. Topics will include a recap of the 2009 legislative sessions and looking ahead to what needs to be done to guarantee the Sydney ferry run in the future. Bring your questions and join in as we continue the fight to keep our ferry.
June 9th, 2009
May Market Statistics for Anacortes
W aiting to buy? Don’t. While we are not performing at the same level as the rest of the area, we are on our way. The North West Multiple Listing Service reports shrinking inventory, double digit increases in pending sales, solid open house activity, and signs of stabilizing prices (eight of the 19 counties reported show price gains since January), all of this points to an improving market, which means one that moves from a Buyers market, to a balanced market. Buyers will lose their upper hand soon, and Sellers will be back in a position to negotiate more. Skagit County is not one of the counties reporting gains since January, but history tells me we always lag a bit behind Snohomish, King and even Whatcom counties. So if they’ve hit bottom and are on their way up, might we be at the actual bottom here? I don’t know, but we are showing signs that we might be.
Residential single family home Inventory in Anacortes continues to climb and is at its highest level in the last five years, we are up 19.7% from a year ago. The good news is Pendings are also up to the tune of 30% over a year ago, this represents the highest number of Pendings since August of 2008. Number of Solds is down a bit, and this can be attributed in part to the number of Short Sale properties that typically have much longer closing timeframes. Of the 38 single family homes pending right now, 6 are short sales. The average price per square foot had dropped continuously over the past year, due in part to the higher percentage of starter homes selling. Days On Market, which is the average number of days it takes to get a contract on a home was at 149 days in May. Another good sign is that the average price for sale is dropping while the average price sold is rising, narrowing this gap is important as we line up Sellers expectations with Buyers price tolerance. Months of Inventory based on pending sales is dropping from a high of 27.6 down to 12.2 in May.
Condo Inventory is also high, but down a bit from last summer and even down from early ‘09. Pendings are up, and average price per square foot remains relatively high at $262 per square foot. Percentage of Sales Price to List Price is in the low 80’s signaling a need for Sellers to get more realistic in pricing and Days On Market is 200 +. Months of Inventory is 17.4 based on Pending Sales and 43.5 based on Closed Sales.
Land Inventory is extremely high, and isn’t moving. We have 183 months, or 15 YEARS of inventory. This number drops to 91.5 months based on Pending Sales because we put 2 pieces under contract in May, but in general Inventory is high, Pendings are low; Sellers really need to price aggressively if they need to sell their land.
So while Anacortes and Skagit County are not doing as well as most of Washington, this is just our typical lag behind the other markets and I expect us to be in the same boat within a few months. This signals to me, that the time to buy is now as prices will start to stabilize and actually appreciate, and inventory will drop removing choices and bargaining power.
May 20th, 2009
Farmers Market Has Opened!
T he Anacortes farmer’s Market opened the season last Saturday, May 16th at 9 am, there was a full contingent of booths offering fresh locally grown produce as well as some awesome local arts and crafts. Running thru the 2nd Saturday in October, the farmer’s market is an opportunity to taste, smell and see the bounty of the Skagit Valley. Enjoy local baked goods, artesian cheese, seafood as fresh as it gets and the beauty of a fresh bouquet among other surprises at the market. Located at the Depot Arts Center, just 2 blocks East of Commercial Avenue alongside the historic Preston boat. This Saturday is also the first day of the Anacortes Waterfront Festival ~ breakfast at the market, local bounty for a wonderful dinner and a day at the festival, it doesn’t get any better than this.
May 13th, 2009
Anacortes Waterfront Festival This Weekend!
C oast In and Hang Out at the Anacortes Waterfront Festival this weekend, located at Cap Sante Marina in downtown Anacortes. The festival has everything from boat building for kids, to boat rides for adults and everything waterfront related in between. With tons of vendors selling their boating and waterfront related merchandise, entertainment hourly and events galore; this is truly a great waterfront experience in a fantastic setting. While you’re there, just down the street is the opening day of the Anacortes Farmers Market!
May 12th, 2009
Anacortes Cinemas
