Windermere/K-2 Realty LLC is a full service real estate agency located in Moses Lake, WA. Our experienced residential agents sell homes, condominiums, residential lots and multi-family properties. Our commercial agents sell and lease commercial, industrial, agricultural, investment and development properties. Our property management division handles rentals including single-family homes, duplexes and apartments.
Moses Lake employment opportunities are available in agriculture, manufacturing, education, government services and high tech. See our Jobs in Moses Lake resource page for more information.
Click here for area information about Moses Lake, including our lake, weather, and the industries that make up our economic base. Our community links page has a list of useful resources about Moses Lake.
What’s New in Moses Lake
July 28th, 2010
30-year mortgage rates hit 4.56%, another record low
Freddie Mac released these findings in Mid-July. Even though consumers know the recession has made it difficult to secure their next or current home, there are many programs that the state of Washington has provided to assist those in need.
The average rate for 30-year fixed loans this week was 4.56%, down from 4.57% last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday. That’s the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971.
The last time home loan rates were lower was during the 1950s, when most mortgages lasted just 20 or 25 years.
The rate on the 15-year fixed loan dropped to 4.03%, down from 4.06% last week and the lowest on records dating back to 1991.
Rates have fallen since the spring. Investors worried about the European debt crisis have shifted money into the safety of Treasury bonds. That has forced those yields down. Mortgage rates tend to track yields on Treasury debt.
However, low rates have yet to spark home sales and refinancing activity remains moderate.
Sales of previously occupied homes fell in June and are expected to keep sinking. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that last month’s sales fell 5.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.37 million.
The housing market stalled after federal tax credits for home buyers expired at the end of April. Home sales have dropped off, homebuilder confidence has waned and consumer sentiment is in the dumps.
It’s unlikely low mortgage rates will bolster housing. Rates have hovered near historic lows for more than a year, so many people have already taken advantage of them to buy or refinance a home.
And many of those who haven’t wouldn’t qualify for a loan. They either owe more than their homes are worth, have shaky credit or have lost their jobs.
To calculate the national average, Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates on Monday through Wednesday of each week from lenders around the country. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a given day.
Rates on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 3.79%, down from 3.85% a week earlier. Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to an average of 3.70% from 3.74%.
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. One point is equal to 1% of the total loan amount. The nationwide fee for loans in Freddie Mac’s survey averaged 0.7 a point for 30-year, 15-year and 1-year loans. The average fee for 5-year loans was 0.6 of a point.”
July 7th, 2010
Good news for buyers who missed the deadline!!!
(509) 750-7587
Windermere Idaho’s Mogie Holm wrote a great article regarding the homebuyer tax credit extension as follows:
Late last night, the Senate passed the homebuyer tax credit extension bill, which will extend the closing date deadline until September 30. This will allow first time homebuyers who already had a property under contract to receive an $8,000 tax credit if they close before the deadline. The bill also extends the closing deadline to September 30 for qualified existing homebuyers with a property under contract.
Although this bill will not help buyers currently looking for a home, it is great news for many people who already had a property under contract and were unable to close their transactions by June 30, the previous deadline. The bill is on its way to Obama and he is expected to sign it.
May 11th, 2010
Did You Miss The Federal Tax Credit?
(509) 750-0076
Have you ever thought you missed out on an opportunity and you’ll never get a chance like that again? Many of the folks I have talked to since the expiration of the Federal Tax Credits feel that way too. But let me share something with you, in my 30 years of experience and living through 3 separate down markets has taught me that…
seller motivation does not change.
Sellers need to sell for specific reasons; moving to another place for a new job, can’t pay the mortgage, downsizing, or plain old outgrown the home they are currently in. Today could be the best chance you have had in months to find a GREAT deal on a home, what you may have lost in rebate you may now gain in getting sellers to pay all your closing costs, or lowering prices or maybe even both. The one thing it will take for all this to become a reality for you is using an experienced agent with very good negotiating skills. Windermere Moses Lake has the best group of agents I have ever worked with. Find and stay with an advocate for your best interests. You will find that at Windermere.
May 6th, 2010
Mortgage Volume Rises for 3rd Straight Week
(509) 989-3309
Mortgage applications to purchase homes rose 13 percent last week over the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey.
This was the third consecutive week applications to purchase homes have increased, rising 24 percent compared to March. On an unadjusted basis, purchase applications increased 14.1 percent compared with the previous week and were up 10.3 percent from the same week a year ago. The MBA credited tax incentives for the increase.
More than 50 percent of the applications involved government-guaranteed loans, particularly those backed by the Federal Housing Administration, the highest level in 20 years, the MBA said.
Most mortgage rates declined compared to the previous week:
- 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.02 percent from 5.08 percent;
- 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.34 percent from 4.38 percent;
- 1-year ARMs remained unchanged at 7.03 percent.”
This is good news for everyone looking to purchase their first or next home…and for sellers, too! Let’s hope this continues! This is from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
May 5th, 2010
#10 Real Estate Trend of the Decade
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As promised here is the tenth-ranked trend of the thousands. Written by Brian Summerfield, Online Editor of Realtor Magazine.
#10: Going Green
Back in the early 1980s, homes started to get bigger on average. By the 1990s, many builders were constructing houses so large—yet so similar—that the term “McMansion” had been coined to describe the huge structures with cookie-cutter designs that stood on quarter-acre lots across America.
Sometime early in the ‘oos, a backlash against these houses reached a critical mass due to a combination of the rise of New Urbanism, greater awareness of environmental issues, and the practical realities of the economic downturns that bookended this decade. In addition to the aesthetic revulsion these homes often provoked, the McMansions were reviled by many for being energy eaters. More than one-fifth of all energy used in the United States in 2006 was consumed by residential buildings, and these houses were a major contributor to that figure.
Nowadays, the watchwords in housing are sustainable development, small energy footprints, and green architecture. More builders are starting to use recycled materials in construction and incorporating renewable energy sources into designs—and getting the attention of consumers with these efforts.
However, the push to go green in real estate has occasionally produced a backlash of its own. For instance, many practitioners are apprehensive about overzealous energy regulations for homes, particularly with the proposed Cap and Trade bill. Also, some believe that once the economy improves, Americans will resume their big-house-lovin’ ways.
Whether the green movement in real estate is a long-term trend remains to be seen. But no one can deny that it’s been an important development in this decade.”
I hope you enjoyed reading about the top trends of the real estate market for the decade!
April 22nd, 2010
#9 Real Estate Trend of the Decade
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As promised here is the ninth-ranked trend of the thousands. Written by Brian Summerfield, Online Editor of Realtor Magazine.
#9: Real Estate on TV
Toward the beginning of this decade, we saw two manias explode onto the national scene: reality TV and the housing boom. The perhaps inevitable combination of these two popular trends resulted in a massive proliferation of real estate-focused programming on cable television.
These shows generally fell into two categories:
- Design and Staging: These shows focused primarily on home furnishings and improvements, for the implicit (and sometimes explicit) purpose of increasing a house’s value for resale.
- House Hunting: These shows focused more on the process of finding a home with the desired characteristics for the right price.
Moreover, while channels such Bravo and A&E added a few real estate shows to its lineup, a couple of others made real estate and related topics their bread and butter—namely, HGTV and Discovery Home & Leisure (which has since been rebranded Planet Green, reflecting another important industry trend).
Shows have adapted to the changing times as well. These days, programs like Real Estate Intervention, which helps sellers come to terms with realistic prices for their properties, and Renovation Realities, which offers a glimpse into the stresses and soaring costs involved with home improvement projects, present a pragmatic picture of the process of buying, selling, and improving houses.
Still, in good times or bad, the main thing is to amuse and interest viewers. And the sheer number of these kinds of programs on TV right now suggests that there’s a large audience that wants real estate-themed entertainment, regardless of what the market is doing.”
Watch for the blog on the tenth-ranked trend of the real estate market for the decade!
April 15th, 2010
April 2010 Home Market News
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GREETINGS
People always ask me, “How’s the market?” As promised, here’s the latest statistics just released from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
MY THOUGHTS
Spring is in the air and the Potholes Open Bass Tournament is right around the corner. We are one of the sponsors. Come out to Mar Don and join the fun! (4/10 and 4/11)
It is still a seller’s market as there are 344 homes for sale. The tax credit stimulus is available for homes under contract by 4/30/10 (and closed by 6/30/10). There are currently 84 homes in pending so buyers are definitely making things happen.
People are talking about interest rates going up, but they are still very favorable at 4.75% for 30 year fixed.
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FLASH
My home market news reports are now posted quarterly on
www.windermeremoseslake.com. This new website is blog based so there is lots of good information available. There are monthly statistics available under the “trends” button if you want information in a different format and on a monthly basis.
April 14th, 2010
#8 Real Estate Trend of the Decade
(509) 750-7587
As promised here is the eighth-ranked trend of the thousands. Written by Brian Summerfield, Online Editor of Realtor Magazine.
#8: RE.net
Recall, for a minute, what the Internet was like at the beginning of the ‘00s. Many of today’s most popular sites, including Amazon, Craigslist, and Google, were still trying to establish themselves online. Several others hadn’t even been launched yet. There was no Facebook, no Twitter, no LinkedIn, no YouTube, no Wikipedia, no Flickr … you get the picture.
Throughout this decade, though, the Internet got social. New tools were developed that allowed people to find each other, have conversations, and share ideas online. They could form groups based on their line of work, lifestyle, location, and hobbies, or just connect virtually with their existing network of family, friends, and colleagues.
Not surprisingly, many real estate professionals realized these Web platforms offered an incredible array of opportunities for marketing and prospecting, personal development, and transaction assistance. They also realized that others like themselves were flocking to the Internet to try out these new tools, and they started talking to each other via online social networks.
The result of all this is RE.net, a term that encompasses the various nodes of real estate-focused networks spread across the Web. It includes practitioner blogs, individual profiles and groups on large social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and real estate-specific social networks like RealTown and Active Rain.
One of the best things about RE.net is its diversity. There’s something for everyone here. You can find real estate news and commentary that’s fresh, irreverent, tip-filled, humorous, cutting-edge, interesting, tech-oriented, design-focused, local, national, and idiosyncratic.
It appears to be a long-term trend as well. Many of the developments in real estate on this list may not be major issues in the coming decade, but RE.net will probably continue to be very important for the real estate industry in general. We may not be using the same platforms and technologies that we are now, but my sense is that the online networks that comprise RE.net will only grow in significance over the next 10 years.”
April 6th, 2010
More Jobs For Moses Lake
(509) 750-1822
ralphkincaid.mywindermere.com
Finally…the mysterious Project Chinook is officially unveiled to reveal a new and newsworthy company locating in Moses Lake.
“Carbon fiber manufacturer SGL Group and automaker BMW Group announced today that Moses Lake is the location for a new joint venture carbon fiber manufacturing facility. “
Construction on the first phase of the Moses Lake facility will begin in June, 2010 on 60 acres just east of the Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake. The estimated investment for this phase is $100 million with 200 construction workers on site. When completed the facility will employ 80 people that will produce several thousand tons of carbon fiber each year that will be sent to Germany where it will be woven into fiber sheets and shaped into panels to form the chassis for BMW’s all electric Magacity Vehicle.
Click here for the complete story on the Grant County EDC website. http://www.grantedc.com/index.php?page_id=12&newsletter_id=165
This is another great win for Moses Lake and Grant County and should open the door to other related industries. Kudos to Terry Brewer and the rest of the Grant County EDC staff for coordinating this effort to bring another manufacturing employer to our community.
April 5th, 2010
#7 Real Estate Trend of the Decade
(509) 750-7587
As promised here is the seventh-ranked trend of the thousands. Written by Brian Summerfield, Online Editor of Realtor Magazine.
#7: Record Lows in Mortgage Rates
Many years from now, when academics write detailed, wide-ranging accounts of why and how the housing market was pumped up to bubble proportions from 2001 to 2006, one of the central explanations will be the mortgage interest rates we’ve seen in the past decade. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage in mid-2000 was above 8 percent. However, it declined to less than 6 percent in 2002, and stayed under 7 percent for most of this decade.
As much as exotic financing and easy credit are to blame for all of this, one of the biggest causes of price inflation in housing was the fact that rates were so low. Monthly payments were lower, so people could (or thought they could) afford to spend more on a home. Some have argued that low rates also led to the advent of ARMs, which sent many borrowers into default because they didn’t understand the way those loans work or experienced declining financial fortunes.
To be sure, low mortgage rates in and of themselves weren’t a bad thing. They did make home ownership attainable for many viable consumers. And no economist I know of is calling for a return to the incredibly high rates we saw in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
So why did rates fall to record lows during this decade? Well, it’s tough to make the case that one thing definitively caused mortgage rates to drop. Many point to the Federal Reserve’s policy under Alan Greenspan of fueling economic growth through low interest rates on short-term loans as the main factor, a charge Greenspan has denied. Others say prodigious savings of individuals in other large economies (particularly China and Japan) put downward pressure on mortgage rates in our country. (Typically, when savings go up, interest rates go down, and globalized financial markets allow this monetary phenomenon to cross national borders.)
Whatever the case may be, the fact is that rates remain low—in fact, the 30-year fixed rate set a new record just last week—and current Fed Chair Ben Bernanke wants to keep them that way for the near future. But some observers also see an increase as inevitable. If we see a spike in inflation and Treasury yields over the next decade, as has been predicted, we can expect a similar rise in mortgage rates over the same time frame.”