“In general consumers seem to be stuck in uncertainty surrounding the world’s economic concerns, our lack of jobs and the rollercoaster of the stock market. They seem to be hunkering down despite the lowest interest rates in years,” said NWMLS director Frank Wilson.

On a more upbeat note, Wilson said the deadline extension for the tax credit is good news. “Congress has acknowledged the length of time it is taking banks to close a transaction by passing this extension,” he remarked. Without the extension, the National Association of Realtors estimates as many as 180,000 buyers wouldn’t have qualified for a tax credit of up to $8,000 because they couldn’t meet the June 30 deadline to close on their purchase.

The latest report from Northwest Multiple Listing Service shows mixed news across its 21-county market area, with arrows going in both directions. “The current market is not as bad as some people think, and not as good as some people would like it to be,” observed NWMLS director Pat Grimm. He also said the combination of low interest rates and affordable prices are the best he’s seen in his 25 years of experience in real estate.

The MLS summary statistics for June show:

• Pending sales of single family homes and condominiums (combined) fell 28 percent from a year ago, but rose 5.8 percent from May.
• Year-to-date (through June), pending sales are up 12.4 percent compared to midyear 2009.
• Closed sales for June outgained the same month a year ago by 617 transactions (up 12 percent), and rose 8.9 percent from May’s total.

“The economy is still recovering and that makes some consumers hesitant to buy,” Grimm stated, adding, “On the other hand, with prices down and mortgage rates at their lowest in 50 years, homes are more affordable now than they were before the tax credit went into effect.”

Grimm said the market has created its own incentive for buyers who missed out on the most recent tax credit. “Lower prices and lower interest rates more than offset the benefit of the tax credit. Homes are actually more affordable than they were three months ago, and that factors in the tax credit,” he emphasized. To illustrate his point, he said the purchaser of a $500,000 property this month with a $400,000 mortgage would save more than $250 per month as a result of the interest rate drop. “Do the math and you can see you are way ahead if you stay in the property for more than three years.”

House-hunters have plenty of choices. Brokers added 10,354 new listings to inventory last month, bringing the selection to 42,940 residences being offered for sale system-wide. That’s up about 4 percent from a year ago. Included in the current listings are 36,027 single family homes priced from $8,500 to $25 million, and 6,913 condominiums priced from $20,000 to $15.6 million.

Asked if now is the right time to buy, Grimm replied, “You can’t time the real estate market any more than you can time the stock market,” but added, “If you want to buy a home, and can afford it, I haven’t seen a better convergence of affordable prices and low interest rates in the 25 years I’ve been working in real estate.”

Last week’s benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 4.75 percent, according to the Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders. That’s the lowest rate for the 30-year fixed in the nearly 25-year history of Bankrate’s weekly survey. Freddie Mac reported an average of 4.58 percent, the lowest level in more than five decades.

Click to view large chart

Northwest Multiple Listing Service, owned by its member brokers, is the largest full-service MLS in the Northwest. Its membership includes more than 24,000 brokers and agents. The organization, based in Kirkland, currently serves 21 counties in Western and Central Washington.

We Need Your Votes For BlueScape as The People’s Choice Innovator Award

You can’t spell innovation without “C and B!” Inman has announced the finalists for the 2010 Inman Innovator Awards and Coldwell Banker is the only national real estate brand with multiple finalist entries for both the new BlueScape search and our consumer blog Blue Matter.

But most importantly, for the first time Inman is presenting a “People’s Choice Innovator Award” and we need your votes for BlueScape to win this coveted recognition…

BlueScape Search is a finalist in the Web Service Category: taking cues from popular music recommendation websites, Coldwell Banker® developed BlueScape, a visually-driven real estate search platform to help “dreamers” find just that – the home of their dreams.

Blue Matter is a finalist in the Blog Category: Blue Matter is the official blog of Coldwell Banker and was created in February of 2010 with the intent of providing additional insight and commentary on the real estate experience to benefit consumers.

People’s Choice Category – Vote For BlueScape

And new for this year, Inman will announce a “People’s Choice Innovator Award” with the winner selected by a popular vote of Inman News readers. We want BlueScape to take its rightful place as the most innovative product designed in real estate over the last year, but we need your votes to help get there.

Click HERE to access the People’s Choice Award and cast your vote for BlueScape only. Please vote as soon as possible!

The winners of the 2010 Inman News Innovator Awards will be announced during the Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, which runs from July 13-15 in San Francisco.

 The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that the vacation home market is showing signs of recovery, with sales up nearly 8% and increased prices (up nearly 13%) following three years of declines.

 A new trend in second homes and vacation homes sales is that one out of four second home buyers based their home purchase on the ability to rent the home to offset some of the costs.  Low prices, a large inventory of homes for sale, and low interest rates have stimulated this segment of the real estate market.

 There is also a shift in the demographics of the vacation home buyer.  While baby boomers have historically dominated vacation home purchases, nearly half (47%) of the buyers in 2009 were under 45 years of age, with a median income of $87,500. 

 This shift in demographics of the second home buyer has also caused the internet to have an increasingly important role in the marketing and buying of vacation homes.  As always, Coldwell Banker is on the leading edge of new marketing trends and is reaching out to this new market segment through On Location-the Coldwell Banker You Tube channel, a variety of phone aps including the ability to search for homes, home shopping cart recommendations based on past preferences, GPS interfaced interactive maps, and of course, old fashioned exceptional customer service. 

At Coldwell Banker Island Living we have specialists that can help you with your second home purchase whether you are looking for a quaint cabin or a luxury waterfront estate.  Email us IslandLiving@ColdwellBanker.com, or text us at 360.941.3734, call us at 3.293.4511, or drop by our office at 3110 Commercial Ave inAnacortes.  We serve Fidalgo Island including Anacortes, Skagit  County including  La Conner, Mt.Vernon, Burlington, and Sedro Woolley, Samish Island including Bow, North Whidbey Island including Oak Harbor, Guemes Island, and San Juan Island. 

We listen to your needs and communicate with you the way you would like us to.  Experience the difference in working with Coldwell Banker Island Living’s full time professional full service REALTORS®.

“We are entering what is traditionally our busiest home selling season,” said NWMLS director. The NWMLS director also reported “significant traffic” at open houses, which he attributes to the first-time homebuyer tax credit and rising consumer confidence.

Pending sales (offers made and accepted, but not yet closed) jumped nearly 45 percent last month compared to a year ago, marking the 11^th straight month of month-over-month increases. Closed sales also outperformed year-ago totals, rising 33.5 percent. Members tallied 3,214 completed transactions last month, up from the 2,407 closed sales for February 2009.

 MLS members added 10,663 new listings to inventory last month, bringing the total number of active listings in the system to 36,350. That total is down 7.5 percent from the same month a year ago, creating a more balanced market that favors neither buyers nor sellers.

 Move-up buyers are accounting for some of the surge in activity. Brokers credit the combination of a $6,500 tax incentive for qualified repeat buyers and thawing jumbo loan market as factors in spurring activity for this segment.

 Interest rates on jumbo loans fell to 5.79 percent on a 30-year fixed-rate loan in the past few weeks. That’s a five-year low, according to Informa Research Services, whose clients include the nation’s top 25 banks.

Noting the peak real estate season is approaching, the MLS director pointed to several encouraging signs. “Homes are more affordable, mortgage rates are at all-time lows, and employment in the state appears to be on the rise,” said the MLS Director.

“All signs point to a strong spring,” she added.

 Earlier in the week, the state Employment Security Department reported the state’s economy “picked up some steam in January,” adding an estimated 12,400 jobs – the first monthly gain since November 2008. The plethora of shorts sales and foreclosures has diluted the price point of many homes that are selling, making appraisals more challenging. Buyers should be reminded of the possibility of rising mortgage interest rates due to the Federal Reserve’s plan to stop buying mortgages by the end of March.

Click Chart to View Full Size

Northwest Multiple Listing Service, owned by its member brokers, is the largest full-service MLS in the Northwest.

Have you ever wondered how assessed value relates to market price?  Should you use assessed value to determine how much to offer on a property or home you wish to purchase?

Many Skagit County homes and property were given new assessed values recently, causing property owners to wonder about the value of thier real estate.  Here are some statistics to consider for home sales in Anacortes for the first part of 2009.

Source: Skagit County Tax Records

As you can see, the percent of sold price to list price varies greatly for Anacortes homes!

Overall, assessed value usually falls with a range of market value, but here are just a few things that can affect the market value that might not be picked up by the assessor.

•                 Odor (Pet, cigarette, etc.)
•                 View (improved by trees removed or blocked by trees that have grown)
•                 Issues with neighboring properties, such as poor landscaping, poorly maintained property, noise…             
•                 Subject property remodeled, or new deck or addition
•                 Road construction
•                 Failed septic system
•                 Inventory of similar property on the market at time property is put up for sale
•                 Area economy and unemployment
•                 Staging- Two properties can be identical, yet the one that is properly staged will sell for more money in less time

If you would like to know how your home’s market valuecompares with the assessed value, call one of our Coldwell Banker Island Living agents at (360) 293-4511 or visit our website and use our home value estimator at www.CBIslandLiving.com.  Even if you are not currently thinking of selling our experienced real estate agents would be happy to discuss the current market value of your home or land.

One of the great benefits to living in Anacortes is that so many fun destinations a just a short side-trip out-of-town.

One of my family’s favorite is to head for Bow, about 20 min. away from Anacortes.  We drive east on Hwy 20 Spur towards I-5, but turn left on Bay  View Edison Rd. following the coastline along Padilla Bay, then through some fields, and around the bend to Edison.

At the end of this 20 min. scenic cruise, we make a beeline for the BREADFARM and SLOUGH FOODS to select some special treats for our car-nic.

At the Breadfarm, we have a wide choice of fresh, organic artisan breads and baked goods to select the basics for our meal.  A baguette, fig  panini rolls, or potato bread all work just fine!  Every loaf is hand formed, and every loaf is DELICIOUS!

Immediately next door is Slough Food.  Here owner John DeGloria offers an excellent selection of European wine, cheese, and luncheon meats, as well as other surprises.  After few slices of “this” and some of “that”, we are good-to-go.  It isn’t far to find a nice place to park and munch.  A few bites later, we can even believe we are back in Europe!

For details, call Slough Food:  360-766-4458 or click here to visit the Breadfarm’s web-page

If you don’t think this is one of the best tasting lunches ever, call me, and well——I’ll do something about it!

Bald Eagles are abundant especially in the winter.

Samish Island is a beautiful island!  Samish Island is not very well known because there are only 300 homes on the island, very few properties come for sale each year.  Many first time visitors become aware of Samish Island because of Camp Kirby, a children’s camp founded in 1923 that is owned and operated by Camp Fire USA. 

Originally the Skagit River entered Puget Sound through Padilla Bay, and at that time, Samish Island was an truly an island.  It took from 1871 to 1932 to build the series of dikes which connect Samish Island to the mainland -  and the more accurate name would be Samish Peninsula instead of Samish Island as the island is connected by a “land bridge”.

Along with Guemes Island, Samish Island is considered part of the Inner San Juan Islands. The island is mostly residential with only a few businesses and cottage industries.  Although there is not a commercial center on the island, everything you need is available from the surrounding towns of Edison, Burlington, Anacortes, and Bellingham.

The area was originally inhabited by the 1,000 members of the Samish Tribe who enjoyed abundant food from the sea and tide flats.  In 1791 the Spanish arrived and the diseases that they brought had devastating effects on the Samish Tribe. Samish Island is pristine with breathtaking beauty, and is still a favorite clamming, crabbing and fishing location. 

Samish Island has some of the best birdwatching in North America, and I always see bald eagles on the island, although they are more prevalent in the winter.  It is not uncommon to see dozens of Bald Eagles and Great Blue Heron.

Both Seattle and Vancouver B.C. are only 90 minutes away  providing a wide diversity of cultural and culinary entertainment.

To search for Samish Island Homes for Sale CLICK HERE.

Click here to see a rainfall map.  (Samish Island get much less than Seattle or Bellingham!)

www.CBIslandLiving.com

www.AnacortesRealEstateBlog.com