Things are changing. If you're a seller, things are starting to look up. But if you're a buyer, the party is winding down. We have had more homes in pending status every month for the past four months than we did in the same time period last year. Inventory is down as well. Percentage wise, last month the market was 25% below 2008 levels. As of the end of June, the market was down eighteen percent. Last month, the sales level over the past six months was down by seventeen percent. Now it's off by just fifteen percent from the year before. Current inventory for the Port Angeles market is 327 homes, down fourteen percent from last year's 378. The lowest price segment is also the largest with 89 homes priced under $200,000. That's up 27% from last year's levels. Homes priced from $200,000 ... 08/02/2009

Sales activity is still down from this point last year, but apparently gaining ground. Last month sales were off 41% year-to-date from 2008 levels and sales in the past six months were off by 27%. At the end of April the market was down 32% from ‘08 and the "sold in the last six months" level was down by 20 percent. Sixty four homes have sold so far this year. Last year it was 93 by this time. Number of sales in the last six months has reached 117 versus 147 in ‘08. Inventory has grown from 310 in the last week of March to 313 at the end of April. Compared to last year, there are 5% fewer homes to choose from; although the under $200,000 segment is almost identical in number with 64 now available. There are 74 homes on the market between $200,000 and $249,999. Last year we had 55 to cho... 05/19/2009

Foreclosed homes are disappearing as investors and homebuyers avail themselves of low prices, historically good interest rates, the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit and programs such as the USDA's 100% financing option. For example, of the eight homes in the $250,000 - $300,000 segment that went under contract last month, six were reposessed properties, many new construction. If you are considering a new home, the inventory now is ten percent stronger than last year with 310 homes on the market. There are 58 homes priced under $200,000, an increase of nine percent. Homes priced from $200,000 - $249,999 have a 90% increased inventory over last year's level of 39. There are 74 now. There are 64 in the $250,000 - $299,999 range. Last year there were 56 at this time. The number of dwellin... 04/09/2009

The residential market has both higher inventory and higher sales than last year at this time. By the ninth week of 2008, the Port Angeles market had 264 listings. This year we have 294, an increase of ten percent. Last year we had 19 homes sold. This year there have been 24 in the same period. The lowest priced segment, those under $200,000, has a slightly smaller offering than last year with 55 now available. Last year there were 58. Inventory for homes listed in the $200,000 - $249,999 segment have seen an increase of 70% over last year with 68 currently on the market, versus 40 last year. There are 50% more homes in the $250,000 - $299,999 price range with 63 currently in stock, compared to 42 in 2008. The next four price points are showing declines, with the number of $300,000 - $3... 03/29/2009

Hello Everyone! My name is Steve Edwards, I'm a Port Angeles real estate agent.  My License is associated with "Windermere Real Estate".   I want to take a moment to say hello....so......Hello!  I will be spending a lot of my free time online presenting my ideas, tips and phylosophies on buying & selling homes on land in Port Angeles Washington.   Individuals traveling through the Olympic Northwest looking for a place to call home, will usally  find themselves being drawn to the Port Angeles, Sequim  real estate areas.  Looking around they find the Straits or Olympic Mountains just minutes away.  The air is clean and a pleasure to breath.  If you like the outdoors, camping, hiking, fishing, hunting ...etc.. Port Angeles and Sequim are real estate have it all.  Some of the most beautiful... 03/24/2009

The Port Angeles Real Estate market is coming back, Windermere's sales have increased 2 fold over the last month.  Buyers and investors are jumping off the fence and getting back into the game.  Great values are abound and along with great interest rates, makes this an ideal buyers market.  What are you waiting for, take advantage of this great buying opportunity.  Please feel free to call Steve @ 360-809-3064 or email me @ steveedwards@olypen.com I'll be happy to answer any of your Port Angeles Real Estate questions or concerns. For complete details on everything Port Angeles Washington Real Estate visit my website at:  http://SteveEdwardsRA.com  03/24/2009

When does foreclosure begin? Lenders will initiate Port Angeles real estate foreclosure proceedings when homeowners become delinquent in their mortgage obligations, usually after three payments are missed. The lender will then notify the buyer in writing that he or she is in default. The lender can request a trustee's sale or a judicial foreclosure, in which the property is sold at the Port Angeles public auction. A borrower can cure the default by paying the overdue amount and the pending payment after the notice of default is recorded, usually no later than a few days before the sale of the Port Angeles real estate property. Some sales allow the successful bidder to take possession immediately. If the former Port Angeles home owner refuses to vacate the premises, the court can issue a... 03/24/2009

Although market activity is increasing (with eight sales currently pending in the first week of February), there were only eleven closings of residential properties in Port Angeles in January. Consequently, the absorption rate (the amount of time it would take to liquidate all of the inventory at its current rate of sales) has risen to slightly more than a year from the eleven months last reported at the end of 2008. There are currently 285 homes available. Fifteen new listings came on in the last week and 21 expired. Bargain hunters are looking and finding good deals in all levels of the market, but with 180 of the homes being offered at $299,999 or less many first-time buyers and investors are also finding plenty to choose from. There are curretly 57 homes priced under $200,000, 63 pr... 02/11/2009

Over the course of 2007, 427 homes sold in the Port Angeles market. In 2008 the number dropped by 31% to 295 sold. At the end of 2007 we had 241 homes on the market and we had about six-and-three-quarter months of inventory. It took about two-and-a-half months to move a house back then. Now we have 276 homes on the market - because 67 expired last week; although some will be back. The week before we had 333 on the market. Even at the lower number, we have about eleven months of inventory. This year, the average home sold in about three-and-a-half months. According to our in-house calculations the average home lowered nine-percent in value this year. At the end of the first quarter of this year, sales were down ten percent from ‘07 and it was taking about 30% longer to sell a home, even ... 01/28/2009

Two months ago, annual sales levels were down by about fifty percent. Last month they were down about thirty-five percent. This month, just 30% with 280 sales year-to-date versus 398 in 2007. This is not a cause for alarm, despite what the national media are extolling. Annual sales were down in ‘07 from ‘06 and they are again lower this year from last. Bear in mind that real estate markets are similar to lumbering beasts, they don't speed up or slow quickly. They are more cyclical in nature. After a dramatic upswing (‘05 - ‘06) there is always a time when the pendulum swings back. Some buyers are concerned that prices may continue to lower. And not to dismiss that concern, but housing is not like a consumable good. Buying a turkey during the week before Thanksgiving is wise because stor... 01/28/2009

Sequim and Port Angeles now have a newspaper online with a new and exciting look and content that is driven by local interests, stories, and helpful news. This is bigger than it may sound for several reasons. What sets this newspaper apart from the Sequim Gazette or the Peninsula Daily News? A lot. Here's the short list: Exclusive Online Newspaper. People are using the Internet for almost everything, including reading the news and searching for information. The Internet is an amazing venue, because it doesn't matter whether a person lives in Sequim or Port Angeles, or in Santa Barbara or Phoenix, all can do the same search on the Internet and read the same news online. Now with a dedicated online news source, Sequim and Port Angeles has joined the rest of the world with an exclusive onl... 01/22/2009

Finally, there is a dedicated online classified ad service for everyone in Port Angeles and Sequim, businesses and individuals, and to introduce the service with a new promotion that benefits all businesses and citizens here, the service is being promoted absolutely free until next spring, May 1, 2009. If you're a business, and you want to promote your business online free, just register and type your product or service description (with good persuasive sales script), and you can even include a photo of your business or your staff or your product. Include your address and phone number if you like, or your email address, and guess what? You can include a link to your website, too! If you have something for sale, find the category and put it online. Again, you can include photos of your p... 11/12/2008

Port Angeles now has it’s own Blog to openly discuss the future of Port Angeles, or in other words, the vision of Port Angeles. Many local businessman and local citizens have strong opinions about what can and should or could be done to promote Port Angeles as a great place to live, a strong business environment that fosters the growth of small and large businesses, and what the direction and plan should be for the future of Port Angeles. There have been many discussions in the past dozens of years about the future of Port Angeles, and local government has made many decisions that have defined where we are today. Those decisions include land use and zoning, development restrictions, regulations, business fees and taxes, incentives, and thousands of decisions made on multiple levels, inc... 10/21/2008

There have been fifty-percent fewer sales this year than last in the Port Angeles market. While one might think only the higher priced homes would sell less frequently this year; the data does not seem to hold that correlation. Shown in declining order, sales volume of homes priced between $500,000 and $599,999 is off by 75% (12 last year, 3 to date this year) and for homes priced from $600,000 and above it's off by 70 percent (10/3). Properties priced from $300,000 - $349,999 are off by 66% (35/12) and those priced from $400,000 - $499,999 are down by 60 percent (20/8). Surprisingly, homes listed from $200,000 - $249,999 are down 58% in number of sales compared to last year (133/56).  Homes valued from $350,000 - $399,999 are off by 33 % (21/14) and homes priced from $250,000 - $299,99... 10/14/2008

Real estate prices in Sequim and Port Angeles and throughout the Seattle area are holding up well compared to other investments, particularly the stock market right now. USA Today published an article on October 8, 2008 entitled, "$2 Trillion Wiped Out of Retirement Funds." While this represents a 20% decline in retirement funds in a matter of weeks, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service data shows the average price of a single family home is down only 7.8% this September compared to September of 2007. This is good news for home owners and for investors who are not over leveraged. Again, we see that real estate is a solid investment compared to other retirement options. In Clallam County, the third quarter of this year (July - Sept 2008) the sales of single family homes were priced as ... 10/12/2008

Sales volumes continue to decline. You may recall that in June the volume was down by 24 percent. It's now off by 33 percent. Last year there had been 291 homes sold by the end of August. This year we have sold 195 or 67% of last year's levels. Sales numbers are down in every price point with the higher-priced homes showing the strongest declines. Many of our upper-level priced homes are purchased by out of area buyers and while Washington state has not suffered from the sub-prime debacle as several other areas of the country have, a downturn in the other markets does have a reflection in ours. It is not uncommon to hear buyers lament, "Our home hasn't sold yet so our plans are on hold." Homes sales for the $500,000 - $599,999 level are off by 75% and those priced from $400,000 - $499,9... 09/09/2008

While inventory is still up over 2007 levels, surprisingly, homes under $200,000 predominate the market. Last year there were 41 homes in that price point. Right now we have 72. Homes priced in the $200,000 - $249,999 range number the same as last year at this time; 65. Inventory for those in the $250,000 - $299,999 segment is slightly under last year's with 72 versus 77 for ‘07. If your budget is $300,000 - $349,999 you will find 29% more dwellings to choose from. Currently, we have 57. And there is a 58% increase in the number priced from $350,000 - $399,999 with 45 now on the market. Conversely, there are 58% fewer homes selling for $400,000 - $499,999. We have only 29 available as of June 30th. In the upper two segments of the market, there are 50% fewer homes priced from $500,000 -... 09/09/2008

The theme "Great Inventions" is of course open to personal opinion and three of the eight sculptors chose electronic devices, three chose music as the greatest invention, and two chose mechanical devices -- one of which has never been (and hopefully never will be) invented.      Charlotte Kolff made a sculpture honoring the lightbulb.  It had figures supporting the sides of a giant bulb, but the front was unsupported.  This sand weighs about 1500 pounds a cubic yard (picture a box three feet by three feet by three feet) when dry.  Wet, it weighs close to a ton.       On Friday, the front of the bulb sloughed off.  She managed to repair the damage and on Saturday decided to cut back under the bulb to give it better definition.  While she was at lunch, half the bulb fell, leaving her jus... 08/22/2008

Port Angeles has been sunny and beautiful of late, but we have our very own weather reporting station called, "Dempsey's Weather Stone."  As you can see, the stone is dry, and that means a sunny day.  Obviously, this system is accurate.  A dry stone means sunny, wet means rainy, white means snowing, invisible means foggy, swinging means windy, bouncing means earthquake, destroyed means tornado, and missing means Susan's broken heart. However, if you would like an official weather report for Port Angeles by those who are more technical in nature, here are some links that will give you the weather and much more.  Port Angeles Weather Site #1 Port Angeles Weather Site #2 Port Angeles Weather Site #3 And beyond the weather, if you would like to do more reading on the Port Angeles area, you... 08/14/2008

Olympic Medical Center is the big hospital serving Port Angeles and Sequim.  One of the questions people often ask before they decide to make this their retirement home for life is, "How are the medical facilities?"  The answer is, "Outstanding."  Here are some of the examples of quality health care at OMC. CareScience 2006 Select Practice Quality Leader Award Olympic Memorial Hospital was named as a 2006 CareScience Select Practice National Quality Leader in the category of medically managed myocardial infarction. As a recipient of the award, Olympic Memorial Hospital is a part of an elite group of the top 1 percent performers across the 4,500 acute-care hospitals in the United States as identified by the CareScience™ Select Practice methodology, which utilizes both quality and efficie... 08/13/2008