Last night was the annual meeting for the NCWAR. Our local association. Within the Windermere family there were several awards and Geordie Romer who blogs on this site was a nominee for agent of the year and yours truly too. Rather than cudos the point is this type of recognition is important as the agents that get it have earned a positive reputation and have put in a lot of hard work! (By the way the agent that actually got the award was Jamie Wallace also of Windermere). But I digress. A few years ago the realestate market in Wenatchee (aka River City and Apple Capital of the World) was a consistant 2-3% growth annually with about four short blips up or down in the last thirty years. At last count our market was humming along at well into the double digit level for the third year and likely more to come. Once our Association numbered 100+/- Real Estate Agents. Today it is 415 and growing. This is one sign the market for Homes in Wenatchee is growing and expanding. Oh yeah..I almost forgot several news agencies and publications have placed us in the cross hairs of "hottest" communities in the Nation...
The talk at dinner and after was... "can Wenatchee sustain the growth". Naturally, someone mentioned "Real Estate bubble" and there were lots of opinions. The fact is the stars have aligned in such a way that it appears, while not insulated from the proverbial bubble, Wenatchee is primed for continued growth... at a minimum double or triple our historic levels. The issues that contribute to the cost of Wenatchee Homes are absolute scarcity of land, shortage of infrastructure, legislation, climate, medical facilities (availability and quality) outside pressures and maturing boomers. Home prices in Wenatchee will rise because demand, is driving the increase. But they will also increase because cost is pulling the price. They will increase as we are regarded as a desirable place to live and they will increase because surrounding areas are being judged too expensive and Homes in Wenatchee are judged as a cost effective alternative. But saying that, if Wenatchee area politicios as well as County (Douglas County and Chelan County) don't become more pro-active of Real Estate issues we could be headed to rough waters.
Wenatchee and North Central Washington are good places to live. We have a lot going for us. Homes are comparatively affordable and the area is clean. But we are also, still, agricultural based, wihich places a lid on economics and makes it seasonal. All the positive things and all the Real Estate Market increases are slowly shutting out our lifetimes citizens. And that is potentially a very negative thing in the long run for the Real Estate Market in Wenathcee and North Central Washington.
For more information on Wenatchee area real estate and real estate advice visit my blog at http://wenatcheerealestate.blogspot.com
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