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Bellingham, WA Ranks #2 for "Homes Holding Steady" According to USA Today.

According to the USA Today “Homes holding steady - Cities with the lowest percentage of homes purchased within the past year that are now worth less than is owed on them… #2 Bellingham, WA 0.9%”
Published in the Money section of USA Today Snapshots® (Print only)

This is an interesting article about Bellingham’s real estate market. For several years now there has been a public opinion that a real estate bubble exists in Bellingham, yet the market has continued to move forward. In the last quarter of 2007, there was definitely a stretch where home prices in Bellingham seemed to level out. There was also a public perception that home prices were falling, but statistics showed…

Bellingham Condo Market Update for the Week of Jan 13th - 19th

10 new condos were listed in Bellingham this week, 4 in Fairhaven and 6 in Bellingham. In Fairhaven, the average condo listing price was $651,975 ($570/sq.ft).  All 4 of these condos were built in 2005 (or newer) and feature striking views of Bellingham Bay. In Bellingham, the average condo listing price was $198,042 ($196/sq.ft.).  All of the condos listed in Bellingham were around 1,000sq.ft. with 1 or 2 bedrooms.

Keeping pace with the new inventory, 10 condos also pended this week in Bellingham. This follows a similar trend that we observed in single family homes market this week. For condo sellers this is great news. Comparing Bellingham to Fairhaven sales, 9 of the 10 condos that sold…

Fiber optic connections are available for many commercial real estate locations in Whatcom County. The network provided by Black Rock Cable services much of Bellingham, Ferndale, Everson, Lynden, Blaine, Birch Bay, Nooksack, and Custer by following Hwy. 9 into Whatcom County and onto the I-5 corridor.   In a presentation to members of Windermere Real Estate Whatcom Inc., Commercial Division, Bob Warshawer, President of Black Rock Cable Black stated that “Whatcom County has a newer, broader service area than many of the other counties in Washington State”.   Black Rock Cable has committed to expanding its service area whenever possible and likely will continue to grow throughout Whatcom County. Read Full Post

My prediction is that Whatcom County’s real estate market is at its lowest point right now. Beginning in the spring of 2008, I feel strongly that the local real estate market will pick up. Whatcom County’s real estate market could have begun its recovery this fall, but it had been held back by negative press both nationally and locally.  

There is clearly a lot of negative press nationally and for good reason. A few months ago the national lending market suffered a hit with the announcement of American Home Mortgage filing bankruptcy. American Home Mortgage was one of the largest sub prime lenders. This led to a big lending scare and caused most lenders to tighten up their lending guidelines.

The other big national headline has been the rise in…

For those of you interested in purchasing rental homes in Whatcom County, you need to be in tune with the local rental rates. When determining  if a rental home will create cash flow you need to know if the current rent is at, below or above the current market rate. Windermere Property Management recently put together statistics for market rents in Whatcom County. The current rents are below.

Bellingham Rental Rates 

In Bellingham  3 - 5 Bed - 2 Bath homes (with a garage) are currently renting for  $1,200 - $1,350. Older homes that are dated tend to rent closer to $1,100 - $1,200.  For college rentals and homes near the WWU campus, rents are typically dictated by the number of bedrooms. The current rental rate per bedroom near WWU is $350 - $400. The…