The Bellingham real estate market for 2006 ended just a few days ago with a rash of listings expiring throughout the county - more than 470 - depending on the categories and time periods used to calculate it. For many Realtors it was a year that was marked with double digit decreases in sales and gross commissions. Local papers heralded (is that a typo?) 2006 with the "the bubble is bursting, the bubble is bursting", however despite the dark foreboding at the beginning of the year and the rumors of despair across the country something strange happened...Homes continued to sell.
They didn't sell as quickly. And in some areas - like Lynden - homes sales were down as much as 20%...BUT...they did keep selling and that's after a feverish couple of years where you couldn't find a listing without a lineup of buyers fighting for the chance to get in on the gold rush.
The final tallies are still being completed, but my initial findings are that the Bellingham market for existing homes stayed close to even with last year. Prices in the same market continued to rise - just not as quickly as before - BUT for those that lived for years with 2-4% increases, things moved along fine. Homes stayed on the market up to 50% longer than last year. In many cases, expectations of where prices should be had to be readjusted downwards - never an easy thing to deal with.
So you may be asking but how can this be when we heard so much bad news? Well, the short answer is that bad news sells a whole lot better than good news! And in many areas of the country, there actually has been some major corrections in the real estate market.
Over the next weeks, we will discuss the local market in detail. We will talk about what happened in 2006 and what we can expect in 2007. Earlier I mentioned that many Realtors ended the years with numbers down. Many Realtors saw their numbers decrease, but some had their numbers increase dramatically. Those changes were amplified by major changes that are going on throughout the economy, and specifically in the real estate industry. The realtor your parents grew up with is being replaced. We will attempt to introduce the Realtor of the future to you as well.
2006 is gone, 2007 is here. Change continues.
Get ready, its going to be a great year!
