Jill Watts

Buy Now! Clark County home inventory is DISAPPEARING!
Clark County and Southwest Washington have seen a lot of home sales activity! So much activity that Keller Williams is experiencing record sales for the last three months.

GUESS WHAT....Clark County Home sales increased for the third month in a row and Pending sales rose 8.9%.

Here is the link to our Market Action from the RMLS.
There are six pages of interesting facts.

Check it out. Click this link below:
Southwest RMLS Market Action Statistics June 09

But on another note...of 3,798 active homes for sale...average sales price % change is reported by our RMLS as being -13.2%. There lies the rub...sadly some people are losing their homes, but yet others are able to buy a home...half of these buyers are buying a home for the very first time.

If you are planning on buying...now is the time. In January of this year we had 21 months of home inventory to be sold off, now we only have 7.9 months! If home inventory goes much lower, it might just become a "seller's market" rather than a "buyer's market." (6 months of inventory is supposed to represent a "seller's market" where the sellers can name their price and buyers are fighting to get the home they want.) I'm not really sure whether "seller's market vs buyer's market" applies in this economy...it would be interesting to hear some opinions from the financial set.

I will happily give you more specific neighborhood values if you are interested. FREE!

I love assisting clients to find their dream home whether it is for investment in a custom home, short sale, relocation, rental, bank owned sale...quick, smooth sales and purchases are managed for you, contract to close. Maximize your profits in real estate in Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver, Washington today!
I am also connected to our new Keller Williams Commercial group, so give me a call today to get hooked up with a dynamic possibility for your investment future.

Our son-n-law just got orders from the Air Force to be deployed to South Korea for a year.

He has been in the Air Force for about 11-12 years I think. He will leave in a few months and be gone for a full year. He has seven days to make up his mind whether he will go or not. (It is still a volunteer military and we should be ever more grateful for the protection all these men and women provide America. They have to make these heart-wrenching decisions all the time!) If he decides to not go, he will have to leave the military service. That is something he does not want to do. But if he chooses to commit to his South Korean deployment, he will miss his wife and two little boys for the whole year. That's a pretty hard thing to do to a family...be apart for a whole year. There are many things to consider in such a deployment, especially since the world is in such unrest. Who knows what will be going on with South and North Korea in the coming months and into next year?

Our whole family is sad for them, but oh so proud.

Here is a graph of the amount of residential homes for sale each month of 2009 taken from our RMLS. If Clark County didn't list one more home, the first graph represents how many months we would have to sell all this inventory off. From this graph you can see that we are still experiencing a "buyer's market" where the buyers are able to influence and negotiate better prices for themselves.

For example, in January we had 21 months of homes sitting and waiting to be sold. As you can see, our inventory is going down. If we get to the point where Clark County only had less than 7 months of inventory, that would equal a "seller's market" and the sellers could pretty much name their price. (Very similiar to 2005 where many people bought "high.")

This second graph is comparing April 2009 market activity with May 2009 market activity.

This is about the fifth time this year my buyers and I have "lost" a short sale! In other words.."Not Won," "Gone by the Wayside," "No Compete" losing of short sales happening to my buyers here in Clark County, Washington. It's outrageous. I'm sick of it I tell you. It's fair. But I hate it. Can't get anywhere with all these other buyers thinking these houses are worth MORE than their list price. Offers, offers, offers! These short sale houses are being "fought over!" Investors, 1st time home buyers...they're fighting over the best deals in town. They are offering their "highest and best offers" and actually "winning" the sale of the homes! Stop that. My buyers need to "win" one of these sales. Whew. So frustrating.

My 3 or 4 cash buyers have made decent offers, that's cash with large downpayments. Then an offer will come in that is an FHA loan but with 20% down. Then someone will come and offer OVER list price. Then another person will come along and offer OVER the list price! And then some joker will come in and offer OVER list price with CASH! Please!

There aren't going to be any great houses left to sell in Clark County Washington if this isn't stopped immediately.

Jill Watts

360-8521689

What a FUN Run!

"How far will people go to be in a parade? If they're runners in the Starlight Run, the answer is 3.1 miles! And, with more than 4,000 runners projected for this year's event, the Starlight Run is definitely the largest fun-run in Oregon. It's also the most FUN fun-run, with participants vying not only to break the tape, but also to win prizes for best individual or group costumes."