The following is a quick analysis of the Whatcom County real estate market.

• There are currently 1387 homes for sale
• Homes are priced from $12,000 – $4,500,000
• Average Asking Price $409,010 Days on Market: 139 days
• Median Asking Price $320,000 Days on Market: 102 days
• Homes sold in October: 183
• Average Listing Price $299,098
• Average Sold Price $289,807 Days on Market 94
• Median Listing Price $262,900
• Median Sold Price $258,000 Days on Market: 52
• Homes Pending this week: 91 Total Homes Pending: 431

• Average Sales Price October 2008: $301,847
• Median Sales Price October 2008: $275,395
• Sold in October 2008: 146

The Average Sales price is down 4.0% compared to October 08 and up 9.2% compared to last month.

The Median Sales prices is down 6.2% compared to October 08 and up 6.2% compared to last month.

The number of sales is up by 37 compared to October 08 and down by 16 compared to last month.

Condo Analysis for Whatcom County

• Currently Active Listings: 429
• Price range of active listings – $22,000 – $1,565,000
• Average List Price $248,926 Days on Market: 170
• Median List Price $194,566 Days on Market: 119
• Sold in October: 47
• Average Listing Price $210,852
• Average Sold Price $204,557 Days on Market: 147
• Median Listing Price $193,000
• Median Sold Price $190,000 Days on Market: 97
• Condos Pending (went under contract) last week: 12 Total Condos Pending: 79

• Average Sales Price October 2008: $247,208
• Median Sales Price October 2008: $177,000
• Sold in October 2008: 22

The Average Sales price is down 17.3% compared to October 08, and down by 1.0% compared to last month.

The Median Sales prices is up by 7.3% compared to October 08 and up by 8.5% compared to last month.

The number of sales is up by 25 compared to October 08 and up by 14 compared to last month.

Great news the  First Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit of $8,000 available to anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the past 3 years has been extended until April 2010.  The new program will also expand the tax credit to include existing home owners who have owned a home for at least five of the last 8 years will be able to apply for tax credits of up to $6,500 when they purchase their next home.

You might want to talk to your banker to see what you can afford. Meanwhile interest rates are still extremely low and there are some great values in the Bellingham market right now. You might want to take a look at what it would cost you to purchase one of these homes at today’s rates. You might be surprised at what your monthly payments would be, maybe less than your paying for rent right now if you are renting a comparable sized house.

If you have any questions or want to see any Bellingham Property feel free to email me at or give me a call at 360-739-6981

If you have any questions or want to see any Bellingham Property feel free to email me at or give me a call at 360-739-6981

Absorption rate is average number of homes sold per month over a particular period of time. The months to sell is a reflection of the absorption rate, how long it will take to sell the current inventory at the said absorption rate.

The Pending Ratio is  the number of homes currently under contract compared to the number of homes available for sale .

This is a very interesting way to look at the market, as of today:

Average List Price $503,403    Days on the market 120

Median List Price $379,450       Days on the market 87

It still looks like a buyers market under $300.000 as conventional wisdom goes anything less than 6 months inventory is a buyers market.

The following is a quick analysis of the Residential Bellingham real estate market.

• Currently Active Listings: 468
• Price range of active listings – $124,900 – $4,500,000
• Average List Price $506,950 Days on the Market: 118
• Median List Price: $379,450 Days on the Market: 85
• Sold in October: 76
• Average List Price: $339,339
• Average Sales Price: $329,072 Days on the Market: 98
• Ratio of List to Price: 97.0%
• Median List Price: $273,450
• Median Sales Price: $273,750 Days on the Market: 50
• Ratio of List to Price: 100%
• Pending Sales Last Week: 19 Total pending sales: 169

• Average Sales Price October 2008: $305,045
• Median Sales Price October 2008: $292,000
• Number Sold in October 2008: 66

The Average Sales price is up 7.9% compared to October 08 and up 8.2% compared to the previous month September 09.

The Median Sales prices is down by 6.3% compared October 08 and up 5.3% compared to the previous  September 09.

The number of sales is up by 10 compared to October 2008 and down by 6 compared to the previous month September 09.

Condo Analysis for Bellingham

• Currently Active Listings: 262
• Price range of active listings – $103,738 – $1,565,000
• Average List Price $228,986 Days on the Market: 143
• Median List Price $184,900 Days on the Market: 102
• Sold in October: 35
  
• Average List Price: $207,320
• Average Sales Price: $201,597 Days on the Market: 148
• Ratio of List to Price: 97.2%
• Median List Price: $185,000
• Median Sales Price: $179,300 Days on the Market: 93
• Ratio of List to Price: 96.9%
• Pending Sales Last Week: 3Total pending sales: 27

• Average Sales Price October, 2008: $237,257
• Median Sales Price October, 2008: $179,000
• Sold in October, 2008: 17

Average Condo sale price is down 15.0% from October 2008 and down 5.9% from the previous month – September 2009

Median Sales Price is $300 or .2 %up from October 2008 and down 6.8% from the previous month – September 2009.

The number of sales is up by 18 compared to October 2008 and up by 9 compared to the previous month September 09.

If you look at the graph you can see that prices the  residential market has taken a bit of a rise.  Where will the graph go next month is anybody’s guess. Will the roller coaster ride of prices continue?……..Tune in next month

Great news the  First Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit of $8,000 available to anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the past 3 years has been extended until April 2010.  The new program will also expand the tax credit to include existing home owners who have owned a home for at least five of the last 8 years will be able to apply for tax credits of up to $6,500 when they purchase their next home.You might want to talk to your banker to see what you can afford.Meanwhile interest rates are still extremely low and there are some great values in the Bellingham market right now. You might want to take a look at what it would cost you to purchase one of these homes at today’s rates. You might be surprised at what your monthly payments would be, maybe less than your paying for rent right now if you are renting a comparable sized house.

If you have any questions or want to see any Bellingham Property feel free to email me at or give me a call at 360-739-6981

The home buyer tax credit ,which is part of a larger bill that also extends unemployment benefits. has been approved by both houses of Congress and signed by President Obama.

First-time home buyers are still eligible for tax credits of up to $8,000. Buyers will now have to sign a purchase agreement by April 30, 2010 and close by June 30.

The new program will also expand the tax credit to include existing home owners who have owned a home for at least five of the last 8 years will be able to apply for tax credits of up to $6,500 when they purchase their next home.

The maximum price on a home will be $800,000 and vacation homes are not eligible.

The National Association of Realtors says that so far, about 1.4 million first-time homebuyers have qualified for the program and they estimated that 350,000 of these buyers would not have otherwise purchased.

The tax credit will also be extended for another year for military personnel serving outside of the United States until June 30, 2011.

Senator Johnny Isakson, who heavily pushed for the extension, along with his own version that would have increased the credit to $15,000 stated, "this bill will help us boost what is the real problem in the U.S housing market today and that is what is called the move-up market."

Today we got something to help the move up buyers that should help jump start that segemet of the market as well as the first time buyer market.

Another common question from buyers as well as sellers is, "what are my closing costs?"  Some typical closing costs in real estate transaction are

Title search fee — is the assurance of clear title to the property and title insurance to defend against any future claims made on the title by circumstances that were not picked up at the time of the title search.  This fee is based on the price of the transaction.  It will vary from one company to another but they usually pretty close to each other.  Traditionally the seller will buy the title insurance policy to protect the buyer, and the buyer will buy a title insurance policy to protect the lender that is providing the loan for the transaction.

The appraisal fee — this fee is paid by the buyer to have a professional appraiser give their value of the property.  The appraisal is based on recent comparable sales.

Prorated property taxes, utilities, and association fee — these fees are based on the percentage of the year, or month in terms of utilities such as water and sewer, that you own a home.

Insurance fee — you can usually expect to prepay the first year of your insurance premium

Recording fees – these are fees charged to record the change in ownership usually by the county.

Document fee — these can be fees for drawing up different documents involved in the transaction.

Escrow feea — this fee is usually shared by both buyer and seller and pays for the escrow company that is handling the transaction.

Credit report fee — this fee is for the lender to render buyers credit report.

Other miscellaneous fee — these can include courier fees, electronic transfer fees, flood determination fees, digital storage fees, retrieval fees, underwriting fees, wire transfer fees, tax service fees, e-mail document fees. You won’t necessarily be paying all of these, but you will pay some of them.is

Loan origination fees and discount points — the loan origination fee can vary from 0.5 % to about 2% of the loan amount pays for the cost of providing loans.  Discount points are percentage of the loan amount paid to buying down the loan rate, resulting in a lower monthly payment.

Sellers additional fees — the seller will also pay a percentage of the sales price in excise tax to the county, and commissions to real estate agents.

You real estate agent can usually give you a pretty close estimate of what most of these fees will be.

Here is video using simple drawings is that talks about closing costs,I didn’t make it but it has some good points, even if it is a bit cheesy.

Absorption rate is average number of homes sold per month over a particular period of time. The months to sell is a reflection of the absorption rate, how long it will take to sell the current inventory at the said absorption rate.

The Pending Ratio is  the number of homes currently under contract compared to the number of homes available for sale .

This is a very interesting way to look at the market, as of today:

Average List Price $504,915    Days on the market 115

Median List Price $372,000       Days on the market 79

It still looks like a buyers market under $300.000 as conventional wisdom goes anything less than 6 months inventory is a buyers market.

This is a question this often on the minds of buyers.  Buyer’s want to be sure they are to not going to lose their earnest money.

What is earnest money anyway?  It’s like a deposit to show the seller that you really interested (earnestly) in buying their property. It’s usually in the form of check made out to the escrow company and held in trust accounts until the transaction closes.  It can be in the form of promissory note or anything else the seller is willing to accept.  The full amount of the earnest money is credited toward the purchase price of the property at closing.  There is no standard amount of earnest money, it’s commonly about 1 percent of the purchase price.  If the buyer really wants to impress the seller they will make it a lot higher to show them that they are really earnest about purchasing their property.  Or make it nonrefundable after certain conditions are met.

As far as getting the earnest money back goes, as long as the buyer is careful about meeting contract deadlines the earnest money is usually safe or refundable.  As a buyer you must be aware that you need to apply for financing (if there’s a financing contingency) within five days of mutual acceptance (that’s the date all timelines run from.) You to have your home inspection and response to the seller within ten days.  Usually the the first ten days is the easiest time to get your earnest money back because of that inspection contingency.  The contingency is subjective and you don’t like something in the inspection report or even the color of the front door, you can check the box on the inspection response that says "Buyer’ s inspection of Property is disapproved and the Agreement is terminated.  The Earnest Money shall be refunded to the buyer." As you can see you don’t even have to give a reason.
After this ten days of buyers earnest money is usually in jeopardy of  being forfeited to the seller.
There are other circumstances where a buyer can get their earnest money back.  If there is a financing contingency and within 30 days the lender turns the buyer down for a loan they can get their earnest money back.  If the appraisal doesn’t meet the purchase price and the seller is not willing to reduce the price or the buyer and seller can’t come to some new agreement based on appraisal the buyer can get the earnest money back.
If the contract runs until closing and the buyer decides to walk away at  the last-minute and go to Costa Rica instead of purchasing the property, the seller is surely going to keep the earnest money.

If you have any other questions about earnest money or anything else to do with Bellingham real estate feel free to give me call at 360-739-6981

Absorption rate is average number of homes sold per month over a particular period of time. The months to sell is a reflection of the absorption rate, how long it will take to sell the current inventory at the said absorption rate.

The Pending Ratio is  the number of homes currently under contract compared to the number of homes available for sale .

This is a very interesting way to look at the market, as of today:

Average List Price $506,792   Days on the market 114

Median List Price $379,900       Days on the market 81

It still looks like a buyers market under $300.000 as conventional wisdom goes anything less than 6 months inventory is a buyers market.

The following is a quick analysis of the Residential Bellingham real estate market.

• Currently Active Listings: 505
• Price range of active listings – $124,900 – $4,500,000
• Average List Price $507,076 Days on the Market: 118
• Median List Price: $374,950 Days on the Market: 82
• Sold in September: 82
• Average List Price: $314,932
• Average Sales Price: $304,221 Days on the Market: 75
• Ratio of List to Price: 96.9%
• Median List Price: $275,000
• Median Sales Price: $260,000 Days on the Market: 48
• Ratio of List to Price: 95.6%
• Pending Sales Last Week: 35 Total pending sales: 177

• Average Sales Price August 2008: $391,516
• Median Sales Price August 2008: $326,650
• Number Sold in August 2008: 73

The Average Sales price is down 22.3% compared to September 08 and down 22.6% compared to the previous month August 09.

The Median Sales prices is down by 20.4% compared September 08 and down 25.0% compared to the previous  August 09.

The number of sales is up by 11 compared to September 08 and down by 3 compared to the previous month August 09.

Condo Analysis for Bellingham

• Currently Active Listings: 270
• Price range of active listings – $109,300 – $1,565,000
• Average List Price $226,326 Days on the Market: 127
• Median List Price $183,900 Days on the Market: 78
• Sold in September: 24
  
• Average List Price: $221,400
• Average Sales Price: $$214,253 Days on the Market: 129
• Ratio of List to Price: 97.3%
• Median List Price: $197,450
• Median Sales Price: $192,375 Days on the Market: 67
• Ratio of List to Price: 98.9%
• Pending Sales Last Week: 7 Total pending sales: 50

• Average Sales Price September, 2008: $229,858
• Median Sales Price September, 2008: $180,000
• Sold in September, 2008: 35

Average Condo sale price is down 6.8% from September 2008 and down 4.2% from the previous month – August 2009

Median Sales Price is down 6.9% from September 2008 and down 8.6% from the previous month – August 2009.

The number of sales is down by 9 compared to September 08 and up by 8 compared to the previous month August 09.

If you look at the graph you can see that prices took a bit of a dive in the  residential market with a slighter decrease in the condo market.  Where will the graph go next month is anybody’s guess. Will the roller coaster ride of prices continue?……..Tune in next month

Meanwhile interest rates are still extremely low and there are some great values in the Bellingham market right now. You might want to take a look at what it would cost you to purchase one of these homes at today’s rates. You might be surprised at what your monthly payments would be, maybe less than your paying for rent right now if you are renting a comparable sized house.

There is only a short window of opportunity left for the  First Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit of $8,000 available to anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the past 3 years. You might want to talk to your banker to see what you can afford.

If you have any questions or want to see any Bellingham Property feel free to email me at or give me a call at 360-739-6981

The following is a quick analysis of the Whatcom County real estate market.

• There are currently 1511 homes for sale
• Homes are priced from $17,000 – $4,500,000
• Average Asking Price $417,914 Days on Market: 131 days
• Median Asking Price $329,000 Days on Market: 91 days
• Homes sold in September: 199
• Average Listing Price $276,474
• Average Sold Price $265,368 Days on Market 97
• Median Listing Price $249,900
• Median Sold Price $243,000 Days on Market: 64
• Homes Pending this week: 91 Total Homes Pending: 431

• Average Sales Price September 2008: $306,907
• Median Sales Price September 2008: $269,900
• Sold in September 2008: 175

The Average Sales price is down 13.5% compared to September 08 and down 16.7% compared to last month.

The Median Sales prices is down 10.0% compared to September 08 and down 13.2% compared to last month.

The number of sales is up by 24 compared to September 08 and up by 26 compared to last month.

Condo Analysis for Whatcom County

• Currently Active Listings: 446
• Price range of active listings – $24,900 – $1,565,000
• Average List Price $248,196 Days on Market: 157
• Median List Price $198,000 Days on Market: 101
• Sold in September: 33
• Average Listing Price $214,218
• Average Sold Price $206,401 Days on Market: 116
• Median Listing Price $179,900
• Median Sold Price $174,900 Days on Market: 65
• Condos Pending (went under contract) last week: 12 Total Condos Pending: 79

• Average Sales Price September 2008: $219,476
• Median Sales Price September 2008: $200,000
• Sold in September 2008: 41

The Average Sales price is down 5.6% compared to September 08, and up by 1.8% compared to last month.

The Median Sales prices is down by 12.6% compared to September 08 and down by 14.7% compared to last month.

The number of sales is down by 8 compared to September 08 and up by 5 compared to last month.

Meanwhile interest rates are still extremely low and there are some great values in the Whatcom County Real Estate market right now. You might want to take a look at what it would cost you to purchase one of these homes at today’s rates. You might be surprised at what your monthly payments would be, maybe less than your paying for rent right now if you are renting a comparable sized house.

There is only a short window of opportunity left for the  First Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit of $8,000 available to anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the past 3 years. You might want to talk to your banker to see what you can afford.

If you have any questions or want to see any Bellingham Property feel free to email me at or give me a call at 360-739-6981