Cowlitz News and Real Estate

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.

Get the facts about your first home.

Are you a first time Cowlitz County home buyer? If you are tired of wasting you money on rent and are looking in to the possibility of may be buying your first home and don't know where to start, I have good news for you. The Cowlitz County Association of Realtors is supporting the Washington Association of Realtors in promoting a new first time homes buyers campaign called "Get the facts about buying your first home". They developed a great brochure with the 7 most important steps to consider when buying your first home things like how to Starting the home search, Determine how much home you can afford, Shop for a loan & research first time home buying programs, Decide on a home & make an offer, Get home inspected, Shop for homeowners insurance, Complete the transaction and other useful links and resources. If you are interested in getting the brochure either by mail or e-mail request it here. For first time buyers free one on one consultation or ask me a question feel free to e-mail gonzalezq@windermere.com or call me at 360 751 4001.

Updated - this property is SOLD.

If you are looking for privacy close to down town Longview this could be the place for you. Over 6 acres at the beginning of Sylvan way with nice buildable site, PUD and water at the street and territoral views. Price $99,900. Come and take a look. If you have any questions or need more informaiton contact Venancio at 360 751 4001.

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.