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Pacific Northwest's Teasing Hints of Spring - in Plants & Real Estate

By
Industry Observer

This time of year I am so eager for spring that I am looking for signs of it every time I'm outside.  I am also eager to spot any signs of renewed activity growth in our local real estate market.

 

Spring growth

 

Quite a few of the trees and shrubs are cooperating by starting to sprout little baby leaflets, some bulbs are starting to peek out of the ground, and some perennials are poking their plant heads up to check the weather.

 

This shrub thinks it's spring!

 

The amount of unseasonably warm weather we have had this February has plants a little ahead of schedule, and us garden lovers torn between eagerness to do more planting and fear that a late cold spell could still be ahead to zap all this early growth!

First tree leaves of spring

 

I think the local real estate market reflects a little bit of that same tentative hopefulness - lots of buyers out there looking, and the available inventory really not that large in some categories.  I looked today at available homes in the Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater area with at least 2 bedrooms, at least 800 square feet, list price under $200,000; then also excluded short sales, manufactured homes, fixers, and new construction not yet completed.  This represents what a lot of first time home buyers are looking for, especially those trying to buy in time to qualify for the tax credit.  And the available listing count was just 100 homes!

 

If you bump up the search to $300,000 list price and only exclude short sales, manufactured homes and fixers you are up to 561 available homes - but $300,000 is out of reach for a lot of people.

 

Then I also looked at how many total residential closings our entire county has had since January 1st and found 237 closed sales, with 197 of them under $300,000. 

So, I think the real estate market has a few commonalities with our glimpses of spring - activity, yes.  Still some fear and hesitation about the future outlook, yes.  But those glimpses of new plant growth do make me smile, and the buyer activity also seems to indicate renewed growth in the real estate market.  Now we will just hope to avoid any freezes in either!

 

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For Info on the Communities of Olympia, Lacey & Tumwater  WA and the real estate to be found here, just call me, text me, email me!  And I'd love for you to subscribe to my blog.

Nancy Conner, City Realty Inc,    360-701-1086     nancy@cityrealtyinc.net      

Comments (3)

Lisa Broadwater
Cascade Sotheby's International Realty - Sisters, OR
GRI, CDPE - Bend, Sisters, Tumalo, Redmond

Nancy -- We're seeing similar inklings here in Central Oregon -- very welcome signs! Slightly bizarre to see lots of green in February but we've got no complaints. Nice to see more sales activity too.

Feb 23, 2010 02:22 PM
Nancy Conner
Olympia, WA
Olympia/Thurston County WA

Thanks for your comment Lisa!  Glad to hear your sales activity is picking up too - & yes, the early "spring" is bizarre but welcome!  Last weekend I could hear so many lawn mowers going that it was pretty funny.

Feb 24, 2010 06:28 AM
Ron Marshall
Marshall Enterprises - Saint Michael, MN
Birdhouse Builder Extraordinaire

You will have 36 extra points today...woo hoo!  See you at the top!

Jan 26, 2013 08:56 PM