Report includes For Sale By Owners, REO's, Foreclosures, For sale by owner, and Short Sales. Zip codes 98686,98685,98665 and the following neighborhoods:

Felida, Salmon Creek, Lakeshore, Lechten Meadows, Wiebold Heights, Cole Heights, Sorensen ParK, Tiare Place, Rolling Village, Points West, Wallace Heights, Sherwood, Vilhauer Infill, Cougar Creek, Mayer Estates, Westmoor, Seacrist, Cougar Crest, Songbird, Lakeview Estates, Northshore, Vancouver Lake, Hawk's View, Horizon West, Avalon Condominiums, Continental Condominiums, Waterford, Tenny Creek, Sunrise Place, Buckman Garden, Green Gables, Gaiser, Hunsinger Townhomes, Sunnyside, Fairfield Park, Royal Ridge, Avalon Court, The Villas, Springhaven, Gibert Garden, Updike Estates, Kramers Place, Kennedy Estates, Pleasant Valley, Pepper Ridge

Call, email, or follow my blog today for the latest market information, statistics and Hazel Dell, Felida, and Salmon Creek Real Estate listings, or subscribe to monthly reports for Hazel Dell, Salmon Creek, Lakeshore, Felida and other coveted neighborhoods in Vancouver, WA and surrounding areas by clicking here and typing "subscribe to monthly reports" in the subject line. Informational reports include:

•Average Price of homes for sale and sold in Hazel Dell, Pleasant Valley, Salmon Creek homes
•Average price per square foot of sold homes in Hazel Dell, Hawks View, Salmon Creek houses
•Months if inventory for Hazel Dell, Salmon Creek WA homes and condominiums for sale
•Number of properties for sale and sold with historical data going back 12 month or more
•Days on the market for property listings in Hazel Dell, Salmon Creek WA, Vancouver Lake
•Sold vs. List price for Hazel Dell, Salmon Creek WA, Lakeshore, and Felida WA

Real Estate and Homes Sales in Clark County Still Challenged with Distressed Properties

We are now far enough into February 2012 to take a snap-shot look at the Clark County WA real estate results for January 2012. What you'll find in the table below are the approximate number of listings Active, Pending and Sold at the end of the month. The columns then break out the elements by Categories: Total Homes; Short Sales and PreForeclosures; Foreclosures (Bank Owned).

Without too much analysis in this report (the more in-depth report is due out next week - stay tuned!) we see that the total Inventory is way down from prior years; with Closed Sales down (typical for January) to a near-term low; although the Pending Sales were quite strong.

The Distressed Property results are the most challenging to the housing recovery for the Clark County real estate market. With Short Sales and Bank Owned properties combined runnig at 53% to 54% for Pending and Sold listings, the ability to heal the market quickly faces some tough hurdles.

For Home Buyers with a good source(s) of income this is probably the best time to purchase a house or investment property in decades.

For Home Sellers, this type of market is the near-term "normal." Do you want to sell now at the market price or, bet that that the market prices won't slip further? -- not an easy call.

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This report was prepared by John Slocum, Realtor & Broker with Vancouver WA REMAX. The data provided by the RMLS is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Here in Vancouver WA (just next to Portland) it is big news when the Weather Service expects a big snow storm to come through the area. We don't have snow on the ground often enough, and for long enough, for the local road crews to budget adequately for the rare large snow storm.

When I know a big storm is on its way I like to make certain we have a week's worth of supplies on and be ready to stay real close to home for a few days. This time around I felt we we ready BUT, saw no need to start the "hunkered-down" phase just yet -- if we did I know the onset of the dreaded Cabin Fever would happen sooner! So, even though there was a slight drizzle outside (and most home buyers were getting ready for the storm) I felt I better get a bike ride in.

Thankfully the signed bicyle routes in Vancouver and parts of Clark County have improved greatly over the years. When I lived in Everett many years ago while working for GTE, Everett and Snohomish County had been very progressive with Bicycle lane and separate path deployments, and was at that time many years ahead of Southwest Washington in this regard. I think we've caught up quite a bit now.

The Destination this time was the Renaissance Trail on the Columbia River Waterfront. Okay, so this trail is several miles long, and it takes me several miles just to get there -- this turned out to be a two hour ride! Some of the sights included:

First Stop at the Western part of the Trail we find: The Angry I-5 Bridge over the Columbia River -- could it be upset that its days are numbered?

A couple of miles up the trail I stopped at the boat basin used by the Christensen Luxury Motor-Yacht (they make these awsome yachts here in Vancouver WA) company. Today the Aghassi ccan be seen, awaiting a new owner perhaps?

Another mile up the trail and the turning point for my ride is the tip of the break-water at Tidewater Cove. This can be a great place to see Mt. Hood or watch the planes landing at PDX across the Columbia River. Today, it was too blustery to linger...

Well, I had better pedal back home and get back to work. Hope you enjoyed this winter ride! /p>

The Form 35R Request for repairs was much less demanding than we had anticipated. Out of the 19 things that the inspector called out, only 5 repairs were requested. Jackpot! We had thought that the inspection may have blown the deal. I was confident as I called my seller with the good news.

As they say, "one man's treasure is another man's trash" and my client wasn't nearly as happy with the requests. He looked at each request as a check that he had to write and didn't want to hear how I saw it as a small obstacle to overcome before closing on his FULL PRICE offer.

Of the 5 issues, 3 were electrical and dangerous, 1 was the replacement of faulty wall heaters (DANGEROUS!), and the last was a window with leaky seals. My thoughts were to agree to the 4 "things that could kill a guy" and let the buyer worry about the window. What I did not consider was the theseller/owner was the one who had performed the dangerous electrical work!

After an hour of heated discussion I finally reached an agreement with my client to repair the 3 electrical issues and replace the heaters which had been recalled. I was on the home stretch! (I thought.)

"REPAIRED OR REPLACED BY A LICENSED ELECTRICIAN" was how the request was worded but, I can now tell you, that was not what the seller read. The seller's impression of the contract seemed to be that he had to go back in and make the issues "look" like they were safe. Boy was he wrong!

Rather than call a licensed electrician to do the work, he decided to do the work himself and save a few bucks. He re-wired the spots in question, bought new heaters online and installed them himself. That seemed like a good idea until the bank appraiser guy comes along (who used to be a county building inspector) to do the appraisal and discovers the poor quality work. He called it out as a condition of lending and went on his merry way.

The seller blew a gasket but had no choice but to now hire an electrician to fix his shoddy work. Electrician's bill = $375.

Closing came and went without a hitch. On a cold day in November (about 2 days after the closing date) my phone starts to ring off the hook. It seems that the buyer/new owner decided that she needed a little heat in the home and turned on a few of her new wall heaters. The home filled with smoke in about 2 minutes flat and everyone evacuated. She gathered her courage and ran into the smokey house to turn off the heaters.

After several hours of convincing my client that it wasn't actually "her problem" and explaining the fact that he was most probably going to end up in court and ALSO POINTING OUT THE OBVIOUS FACT THAT HE COULD HAVE CAUSED THE HOME TO BURN DOWN AND MOST LIKELY KILLED SOMEONE, he finally agreed to replace the heaters (again) and have a licensed electrician repair the burnt wiring and install them. New heaters (this time the right ones) = $675.00. Electrician's bill = $450.00

In an effoort to save a few hundred bucks the seller cost himself an extra $1000 and almost landed in jail!

My friends Laura and Terra are at it again! Take a look!

Date: Second Wednesday, February 8th

Time: Informal intros begin at 6pm, feel free to gather as early as 5:15

Location: Lacosta Mexican restaurant

5 minute spiel: February's Green Drinks presentation will be from Clark County's Environmental Services with development updates and participation information on Clark County's new Green Business Recognition Program. Clark County has given roots to this new web-based program designed to help usher green and even not-so-green businesses into an environmentally savvy future. Get in on the ground floor and get the recognition your green business deserves. Find out more at this month's Green Drinks. (See below for an invite to the program kick-off event!)

Some other community news we think you might be interested in:

Green Business program kick-off event: Clark County Environmental Services is pleased to announce the launch of a new green business recognition program designed to help Clark County businesses get green and stay green. Please join us in honoring the first recipients of the Clark County Green Business designation and learn how you too can earn this important recognition. February 14, noon to 2 p.m. Lunch will be provided, The Heathman Lodge, Fort Vancouver Ballroom, 7801 NE Greenwood Drive, Vancouver 98662 Register online. Seating is limited.

Bike Recycling opportunity (update):

After the last email (see below) we were connected with a non-profit that has many of the necessary elements in place already. The biggest stumbling block at this point is space. If you or someone you know has space that you think might be appropriate for a non-profit bike reuse program, please let us know!

Know someone who's passionate about bikes? Bike repair? Reusing bikes for needy families in Clark County? We are in the very preliminary stages of trying to start a program similar to Community Cycling Center and a few others (see below.) We have the resource (bikes diverted from the County transfer stations) but we need someone to spearhead the rest of the program. We're looking for some individuals who have the skills and enthusiasm to start a program like this. This program absolutely won’t get off the ground unless we can find a few people excited about it. Currently, all the bikes that end up at transfer stations are recycled for scrap metal. For more inspiration, see: Bicycle recycling in Yamhill County and a Seattle program