rollingshomes 2012-03

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March 2012 RollingsHomes Newsletter

This is the monthly Email newsletter for Jerry and Sara Rolling, Realtors at Keller Williams Realty, 915 Broadway, Vancouver WA 98660. If you have questions about this material or wish to share your information or opinion with our email list please contact me at 360-281-8222 or [email protected]

4 Short Sales—Taxes Page 8

1 County Real Estate Sales Overview Pages 2 to 4

2 Radon—I Was Wrong! Pages 5 and 6

Jerry and Sara Rolling

281-8222 or 281-8333 [email protected]

or [email protected]

5 Contact Information—Painters, Handyman, Realtor etc Page 9

3 What Happened to February RollingsHomes Newsletter?

This approach to tracking Real Estate Sales has been taken to avoid the problems of the changing mix of size, age and quality of finishing of houses being sold each month

1 County Real Estate Sales Overview

What's happening to the price of an Individual House?

Price Per finished Square Foot # of Sales

30 year ranch new and large 30 yr newer

2003 $100 2003 $112 11.8 8.1 Average per Month









Jan-12 $106 Jan-12 $96 5 4

Feb-12 $92 Feb-12 $100 5 4

30 year Ranch is defined as a single level home, no basement, built between 1970 and 1980, 1400 to 1600 square feet, with a double garage and on a lot between 5000 and 10000 square feet in the Vancouver, Camas, Washougal areas. The total price of all the sales is divided by the total finished square footage of the sold homes to obtain the price per square foot.

New and large is defined as a home built between 1990 and 2005, 3000 to 4500 finished square feet, 5000 to 20,000 square foot lot, no view, in Vancouver, Camas, Washougal, Ridgefield and Battleground. The total price of all the sales is divided by the total finished square footage of the sold homes to obtain the price per square foot.

Sales, Pendings and Actives all categories Clark County

April 2010

Jan 2011 June Dec

Jan 2012 Feb

Currently for Sale 2811 3326 3357 2628 See 2522

of these Bank Owned 84 259 167 121 page 7 84

of these Short Sales 536 785 613 494 451

Pending this month 1064 931 1304 973 1100

of these Bank Owned 108 181 216 181 174

of these Short Sales 444 459 547 617 702

Sold this month 457 285 503 413 304 325

of these Bank Owned 70 86 140 108 85 107

of these Short Sales 75 48 72 72 70 69

total actives 22% 28% 23% 23% 21%

total pendings 52% 67% 59% 82% 80%

total solds 32% 47% 42% 44% 54%

Percent Short and Bank Owned of Total

1 County Real Estate Sales Overview Cont

Random explanations. Sales Down?- Not really. These numbers are all closed sales resulting from contracts written November/December; the slowest time of the year. Our pending sales are up quite a bit and will reflect in improvement in the next 2 month’s figures.

Prices— There are no longer any startling deals. They all sold at the beginning of the year as buyers woke up to the combination of low interest rates and low prices. Availability— Still generally good but certain categories are becoming short of choice. Pendings– This figure shows the total number of pendings, not the number that went pending this month. The short sales really mess this figure up. A regular sale takes 6 weeks to close. A short sale takes 6 weeks to about 3 months now. When we first started doing short sales it was taking 4 to 6 months. General— There will be no dramatic recovery in prices because of the huge overhang of short sales and foreclosures. These will likely take years to process and to be eliminated from the system. Also many potential sellers have delayed action “Until the market picks up”. The mostly likely scenario is a steadily increasing market by volume and price tempered by good supply and some increase in mortgage rates.

1 County Real Estate Sales Overview Cont

2 Radon—I Was Wrong!

I had been told at one time that Clark County had a lower risk of high levels of Radon Gas that other areas of the country. Since it is not a requirement to disclose or test I have not warned my customers that it is a concern. I attended the Clark County Rental Association meeting February 28th and was disabused of that belief. One in 15 homes in the US exceed the recommended level of Radon. More than 1 in 5 in Clark County homes exceed the limit. Why are we so lucky? There are decaying radioactive materials, which release Radon, everywhere but they are at much higher levels in granite. The Missoula Floods carried large amounts of material from mountains and deposited some of it in a plume behind the hill in Camas. Having said that it is still the case that levels are extremely erratic. One house can be under the limit and the one next door way over. I have ordered a Radon detector over the internet and will make it available to all receiving this newsletter at no cost. I’ll give priority to those families with children at home. Remediation is usually simple. For very high values it should not exceed $2000. In my opinion this is a risk that is not receiving enough attention. Radon is colorless, odorless and any resulting illness can be blamed on other factors. The limit is 4 picocuries per litre (!) and at present there is no legislation requiring testing. Here is a conundrum. If you test and want to sell your house you would have to disclose a high reading. If you choose not to know you have no such obligation. An incidental that was very interesting. Apparently the tobacco plant accumulates decaying radioactive material in its leaves at a high rate. It could be that Radon is the cause of lung cancer from tobacco use also. Call or email me if you want to borrow the Radon Detector. Jerry Rolling 360-281-8222 [email protected]

2 Radon—Risk of Death

3 What Happened to February RollingsHomes Newsletter?

And no For Sales and Pendings for January. We were in the Caribbean—first of all on a 5 masted sailing schooner for 7 days. This is the bay of Isle de Saints, a part of France, small, gorgeous and full of French Restaurants

Your Realtors looking very relaxed and not thinking about you on the Isle de Saints

Jerry on an 11 line Zip line over a wooded ravine in Antigua

Our Granddaughter Olivia recycling the umbrellas from Pina Coladas in Haiti.

4 Short Sales—Taxes

The US tax code treats forgiven debt as income. If a bank forgives $100,000 that amount is added to your income for that year and you owe your top rate, or more, of federal income tax on it. Congress passed the Mortgage Relief Act of 2007 to prevent this happening for principal residences. For credit cards, car loans, second homes and rentals it is still taxable income. This act expires at the end of this year. It is possible/probable that renewal of this act will be a victim of the crossfire between the two factions in Congress. If that happens homeowners delaying their processing of their short sale could be in for a huge tax liability. If you know of anybody in this position please urge them to take action today and have them call me.

Advice or information— Don’t be shy, pick up the phone

We especially appreciate your referrals of buyers or sell-ers—We promise to treat them right.

How do you refer someone to us? Ask their permission to have us call them—if yes then call us.

Jerry 360-281-8222 Sara 360-281-8333

Need a Handyman, Repairman or Remodeler?

We have over the years developed a list of reputable,

honest, talented people to help our clients. Our list

includes painters, electricians, renovators, landscapers,

stagers – you name it. Need help in any of those areas?

Give us a call. Need an out-of-town Realtor? We can

recommend those too, everywhere in North America.

Need a Realtor here? Call us!!!!

5 Contact Information—Painters, Handyman, Realtor etc Page 8

rollingshomes 2012-03

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