About Cowlitz County, WA

Early this month a child of one of our own in the real estate industry (9 year old Hannah, the daughter of Danni Wicken from Chicago Title) was diagnosed with leukemia. A devastating situation, our harts and prayers go out to her and her family. The incredible support and unity the whole Cowlitz County community has shown has been unbelievable; neighbors, class mates, co-workers, parents and teachers of her school and the real estate community (among others) have jumped on board to help with meals, toy, organized car washes, raffles and other fund raisers. Click here for more on her story.

Since I know Danni through work and my 10 year old daughter (Leslie) attends the same school as Hannah, we decided to team up and volunteer on last Sunday's car wash organized by Dnni's co-workers and other in the real estate industry. I'm happy to say that despite all the unusual crazy weather we been having the last couple weeks, Sunday was nice and the turn out was great. Thanks to everyone that showed up with their donations and made us work none stop for almost three hours, we had a blast.

On Sunday May 4^th the Cowlitz PUD employees, family and friends will be holding another fund-raising car wash from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on the Ocean Beach Highway Les Schwab Tire Store. Come to support Hannah and show your unity spirit or you can also stop by Bank of America and make a donation and don't forget to keep her and her family in your prayers.

Well, this last weekend, here in Cowlitz County we finally had nice weather, for the first time it felt like spring. It is a great feeling to go outside and see the sun shinning, all the colorful trees blooming and the beginning of all the sport activities baseball, softball and spring soccer. My wonderful wife (Martha) and I are the proud parents of three great children Alan, Leslie, and our baby Edgar; all three are in sports so we had a very busy day on Saturday, three games and opening ceremonies spread out through the day from 9:00 am till 4:00 pm.

Our first event was Edgar's T-ball game. We had a great time watching him and his team mates play their first T-ball game, these kid are from 4 ½ to 6 years old (Edgar is 4 ½). As you can imagine it was a lot of excitement there, a lot of proud parents and grandparents gear up with cameras and camcorders ready to capture for the first time those special moments. After that great experience out we went to the next schedule events, Leslie's game then Alan's. We had a wonderful day the kid got to do what they love to do and we got watch them and visit with some of our friend and other parents.

I'm looking forward to the next couple months of practices, games and hopefully nice like this weekend.

These are the Cowlitz County real estate market statistics for the first quarter of 2008 for active, contingent, pending and sold, single family homes.

Active listings 747 with average of 127 days on the market.

Contingent listings 11 with an average 153 days on the market.

Pending listings 74 with an average 84 days on the market.

Sold listings 139 with an average 105 days on the market.

Statistics for March shows the local market been more active than previous months as expected at this time a year. Here are the numbers compared to February.

Active listings by end of March 747, end of February 712.

Contingent listings at the end of March 11, end of February 5.

Pending listings end of March 57, end of February 50.

Sold listing on the month of March 63, on February 38.

Most competitive price range $250,000 - $299,999 with 119 listings.

Last month most active price range $200,000 - $249,999 with 3 contingent, 13 pending and 8 sold.

As many of you already know the annually Cowlitz County Home and Garden Show is almost here once again, everyone is invited Saturday the 5^th from 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. and Sunday the 6^th from 11: A.M. to 5:00 P.M., at the Cowlitz County Convention Center. For those of you who aren't aware of what this event is all about, this is a yearly event coordinated by the local LCCA (Lower Columbia Contractors Association), in an effort to promote local businesses and at the same time provide a variety source of information about everything related to a home all in one place.

This is a great opportunity for home owners and potential home owners to learning everything and anything associated with a home from how to find, buy and maintain a home, the closing process, inspections, remodeling, updates, upgrade and gardening. All participants, dozens of local business, vendors and providers participate provide a booths with informational brochures, live demonstrations and stuff to answer any questions you may have.

Every year hundreds of families walk thru this great event enjoying treats, games and colleting small gifts business give away like pens, small toys, balloons and many other fun things. Another exciting and fun thing, mainly for adults, is the drawing many business do like discounts, gift cards and many others. Windermere (the company I work for) every years give away a very nice dog house, so if you feel lucky or are a dog owner this could be your chance to win a nice home for your best friend. For more information contact the LCCA at 360 425 8820 or contact me at 360 751 4001.

It couldn't have been a nicer day for egg hunting, the sun was shining, the temperature was great and the kids were all smiling. I took my younger kids (4 and 10) to an early egg hunt at the Coweeman Middle School soccer fields in Kelso, an event that Jeanette Amos (an agent in my office) coordinated for the Kelso Lions Club for the little ones. It was a big hit, well over 100 kids showed up basket in hand ready to sweep the fields. Even though it was not really an egg hunt, it was more like let see who is faster at picking up candy, the kids had great time and it was good practice for tomorrow.