Gabrielle Nemes, GRI, SRS, Auburn, WA

Lakeland Hills is a planned community located on the East Hill, just north of Lake Tapps. It sits right on the King County and Pierce County dividing line.

It's an interesting area to observe, from a real estate standpoint, simply because there's such a wonderful mix of new construction, townhouses, single family homes in "condo" style, where the lots are small but the homes are detached, and some older homes with larger lots and fantastic views.

In Lakeland, it's common to see amazing views of both the Cascades and Mt. Rainier, and then off to the west to see the Kent/Auburn valley and the Olympics out in the distance. Absolutely gorgeous area.

As with many communities, at the moment there's a mix of brand new construction combined with an sad mix of short sale and bank-owned properties. Since I live in and specialize in the Auburn area, I've tried to keep tabs on exactly what's happening in Lakeland -- which homes are selling (or not) and whether they're being sold by private owners or relocation companies, compared to new construction sales, bank owned or short sales.

Builders are doing well in Lakeland, although they're offering some fierce incentives at the moment. A few short sales are closing, but, again like many other areas, the bank owned properties are dictating prices to get inventory off the market.

Don't hesitate to give me a call or shoot me a message if you have any questions, comments, or input! I'm all ears!!

Spring has started here in the south of Seattle area, in spite of our recent snow day! Who would'a thought we'd have snow in Seattle in March, for pete's sake!

Buyers are starting to call with the "let's get going" message, especially over the last couple of weeks. Now that daylight savings time is in place and the sunshine is starting to come out, I'm thinking we'll finally be solidly in our Spring selling season.

January sales in Auburn, Washington were slightly up during the first month of 2009! Granted these are small gains, but I'll take 'em!

Trying to get a sense for the current market trend as far as how long it might take to clear out the current inventory was a bit tricky, however. Our snowy and rainy weather during December and January, combined with the holiday season, really put a damper on sales. Because the last three months comprises November, December, and January, I've used information for the last six months (August through January) in order to determine what might be a predictor for how long it could take to sell a home.

Remember, however, that this information is just an estimate. Your house WILL SELL as long as, in the eyes of a buyer, it's the best house on the market -- both as far as condition and price. It's important that an agent evaluate the market right around your own home to determine just what's necessary in order to achieve a quick sale. Of course, it's up to both of you -- your agent and you -- to define "quick!"

Lakeland Hills and all of its neighborhoods is a master-planned community on the east side of Auburn, just north of the Lake Tapps border. While the majority of homes in Lakeland are in King County, a portion of the community is actually in Pierce County.

With it's combination of single family homes, townhouses, condominiums, apartments, shops, theatres, parks and beautiful views, Lakeland is one of my favorite Auburn places!

Since I prepare sales statistics for Auburn, my home town!, I was asked to please prepare a little closer look at Lakeland activity this last month. So ... here you go! Please let me know if I can answer any questions!

A quick review shows that homes in Lakeland priced between $200,000 and $300,000 currently sell the quickest, with approximately 7 months worth of inventory currently on the market. This number is a calculation based on the number of homes currently for sale (active) as compared to the number of homes that sold within the past six months in the area. Normally I like to run this number based on only three months, but with Thanksgiving through our bizarre December and January weather, sales slowed down even more and calculating numbers based on that period would just be skewed, in my opinion.

The other piece of information you may find useful is a quick break down of where these sales are occurring:

Private sales - i.e., sold by the owner or through corporate relocation of some sort, as compared to New Construction (either completed or in presale form) or bank owned properties. I also break out short sales separately-even though they're technically "sold by the owner," they require lienholder approval and are therefore, not quite the same.

Sorry for the delay in getting these out this month. Time sure goes by fast!

Hopefully this makes sense. I haven't figured out how to do a good job inserting tables into blogs yet, so all the nifty colors and fonts fall apart making this a bit more difficult to figure out.

It's interesting looking at the activity for various "areas" of Auburn. We're so diverse here. As with most other areas, the lower-priced homes continue to sell well. Gads, there's actually fairly brisk selling going on for homes in the Auburn West Hill neighborhoods. Less than six months of inventory!

Remember, what we're looking at here is to help determine what might happen if you were to list your home ... For example, if you listed your home in the West Hill area for under $300,000 ... you might expect that it would take just under six months to sell it. Well, of course, YOUR home would sell much faster, as it would be the best prepared, the best priced, the best overall! Working with an experienced listing agent (like me!) will help certainly help!

Every single neighborhood, whether on the West Hill, East Hill, Academy, or not even in Auburn, has it's own personality and historical time line. As you evaluate your course of action -- whether buying or selling -- be sure to carefully study what's really happening for homes like yours in your own neighborhood.

Don't hesitate to ask your agent to help you interpret what the numbers mean. That's what we're here for!