News from Bainbridge Island the middle of February~

This week's drizzle hasn't kept things from being interesting on Bainbridge Island, as reported in the local paper, the Bainbridge Island Review. But first, I want to compliment my good friend and client Viki Walaskay on the sunrise photos she posts on her facebook page. She shoots them from the front lawn of her wonderful home on the shores of Murden Cove. Great photography--and good work being up so early every morning. That's what having two active boys will do for you.

My favorite item in today's paper comes from the Police Blotter--crime reports are almost always a source of entertainment here. (When I read the paper to record it for the VIP, Visually Impaired People on Bainbridge, I always found myself laughing out loud when I read the Police Blotter.)

In a truly iconic Bainbridge Island story, a man coming home from work got off the bus and was walking home when he saw his truck heading down the road with a young man he'd never seen before behind the wheel. He quickly called the police to report grand theft truck. The police arrived and the man's wife pointed out a strange car parked in their driveway. While the police were still at the house, the young man pulled up in the "stolen" truck. It turns out he had permission to borrow a friend's truck--he'd been told the front door would be open and the keys left out. Unfortunately, he walked into the wrong house and picked up the wrong set of keys. Case closed, no charges pressed. They probably all had a cup of coffee and called it good.

Happy Valentine's Day. My recommendations: have dinner at Four Swallows with the blackberry slump, recently named one of the top 100 restaurant dishes by Saveur Magazine, but first pick up roses from  Flowering Around and Pink Peony truffles from Bon Bon Confections. Are you reading this, Hubby?

First Friday art walk on beautiful Bainbridge Island~

Last night was the monthly party on Winslow Way, when the First Friday Art Walk threw open the doors of all the galleries up and down the street--and around the corners, too.

The biggest buzz was at Roby King Galleries where Kathe Fraga's latest "French wallpaper series" paintings were hung. Kathe and Jeff were there receiving kudos and hugs, and Wes and Andrea were happily handing out wine and greetings to the packed house of friends and art patrons.

Across the street, The Gallery at Bainbridge Art and Crafts hosted "Mixed Nuts, the annual show of local kids' work. In this program, Bainbridge kids learn how artists work with galleries, and how it feels to earn a commission when your work sells. I saw one proud grandpa step up to buy two paintings--red dots marked much of the student work "Sold."

The Gallery is a non-profit organization, staffed by locals in both paid and volunteer positions. The proceeds benefit arts education on the island, and the Northwest artists they represent receive a larger than average share of the commission. It's where I volunteered when I first moved to Bainbridge Island over a decade ago, and I remain a major fan of their endeavors.

The arts, artists and the many galleries, studios and venues on the island help make Bainbridge the place we're happy to call home. Please click here to search for homes listed on Bainbridge Island.

Hometown bank on Bainbridge Island home no more~

Change is hard, and when your hometown bank fails and is bought up by a regional bank, that's change that hurts. On Friday regulators closed Bainbridge Island-based American Marine Bank and when I drove by Saturday morning I saw it was re-opened as Columbia State Bank. A temporary sign hung over the door, and it was business as usual. Read more by clicking here.

What does this mean for Bainbridge Island? That remains to be seen. American Marine Bank was created by a group of local Island businessmen in 1948, when banking for folks living on Bainbridge meant taking the ferry to Seattle. AMB built to twelve branches throughout the region with the company headquarters based on Bainbridge. Jobs may be lost over the next year, and certainly a part of our story has closed its final chapter. The news made the AP wire and Huffington Post picked up the story as one of 15 banks closing in the month of January. AMB wasn't the biggest bank that failed last month, but it wasn't the smallest either.

The good news is that Bainbridge has grown since the days when AMB first began, and we have several national and regional banks on the island. Those of us who have our money deposited at AMB haven't lost a dime.

The real lesson here is a good one for businesses and individuals. Don't borrow more than you can repay; don't loan more than you can afford to lose. And, reputation is hard won and easily lost. AMB~RIP.

Tax credit for 1st-time and experienced homeowners~

Today's Seattle Times' syndicated column by Kenneth Harney offers a clear, concise description of the $6,500 federal tax credit available to repeat home buyers. Lots of people have heard of and benefitted from the "First-time Homebuyer Credit" of $8,000 that Congress extended until June of this year. Column: $6,500 tax credit available.

But fewer people are aware that if you've lived in your home for a consecutive 5 of the last 8 years, you could qualify to receive up to $6,500 credit against your 2009 or 2010 taxes when you buy another principle residence. The paperwork required is fairly straightforward--a HUD-1 Settlement Statement from a closed transaction anywhere between November 7, 2009, and June 30, 2010 (in contract to purcase before April 30th,) and proof of your prior residence.

There are some income restrictions, but essentially this is easy money. If buying a new home is in your plans this year, it may make good sense to act sooner rather than later. Furthermore, interest rates are still low--below 5% again for conforming loans with 1 point. In this buyer's market, it's not uncommon to negotiate to have the Sellers pay down the loan rate.

Here's a gorgeous home I have listed that just had a $51,000 price drop to $799,000. It's beautifully located on Tiffany Meadows, a quiet street just off Ferncliff on Bainbridge Island. It's .5 miles to the ferry terminal, and under a mile to the center of Winslow village shops and restaurants. The home has a lovely view of the 10th green of Wing Point Country Club and the home and gardens are professionally designed with an artist's eye. Here's a link to a full preview: Tiffany Meadows home. This would be a great place to call home, and pocket $6,500 at the same time. For a link to all properties available on Bainbridge Island, please click here.

Bainbridge Island commute by ferry is gorgeous~

Because I work on the island, I'm not usually lucky enough to be out on the water as the sun is rising. Yesterday was a lucky exception, as I had to be on the 7:55 ferry for a continuing education class in South Lake Union. Here's the image I shot with my ever-present iPhone as the sun rose and a bicyclist sped by. I love the sunrise reflected in the car windows and on the waters of Eagle Harbor.

It was a day for rising! The tides have had record highs this week. The tide in Eagle Harbor was 3.7 meters at 8:05 a.m., just as the ferry pulled out of the bay and headed south parallel to Rockaway Beach. (My iPhone has an app for that--I can look up the tidal charts for our area for any given day.) Local artist Kathe Fraga said she chatted with a long-time Islander who said he hadn't seen such high tides since 1935. The weather warnings said we had "astronomically high tides" coupled with "low atmospheric pressures," which sent the waters lapping over the tops of seawalls and bulkheads.

Eagle Harbor looked like Safeco Field after the last out. I have never seen so much floating debris in the bay. Everywhere giant tree trunks and logs were bobbing in the surf. I would think small crafts would want to stay in the marina. Clearly the saturated soils and the high winds of last week brought down trees throughout the Puget Sound, and it looked like most of them washed in with the tide.

It was a morning to make me envy my neighbors who head to Seattle for work every morning while I sip a second cup of coffee at my kitchen table.

UPDATE:  01/23/10
This morning the front page of the Kitsap Sun had more information on our high tides this week. Quoting Andy Haner of the National Weather Service in Seattle, three forces account for higher tides--the sun, the moon, and low pressure. Although the tide for Thursday was only predicted to be 12 feet, in fact at 8:24 Thursday the tide was measured at 13.8 feet. He said the models that predict tides don't take air pressure into account very well, but the National Weather Service is working on models that within two years may be able to predict when super-high tides are likely. For photos of the effects of Thursday's "perfect storm," here's a link to the whole article: Kitsap Sun "Tides".

End of year market analysis of Bainbridge Island real estate~

It's been a year with lots of ups and downs for most people in most areas of their lives. That's certainly been true in the real estate world on Bainbridge Island. The good news is that we finished strong, with all the numbers going in the right direction.

The number of listed residential properties dropped to a low we haven't seen since 2006--only 174 home listed as of the end of the year. (January has not yet shown a surge of new listings.) That's down 14.3% from the 203 listed homes in December 2008 and down from the 193 listed in the prior month, November 2009.

That's significant, because supply and demand are always at play here. To search for all properties currently available on Bainbridge Island, click here.

We also saw the numbers of Pended Sales and Closed Sales increase over the end of 2008 by healthy margins. Twenty-two homes closed in Dec. 2009 compared to only 13 in 2008, for a strong increase of almost 70%. Pended sales (those listings in a transaction to sell) jumped from 13 in 2008 to 17 in 2009, another strong 30.8% increase.

However, a single month's activity is only a snapshot, and not a trend, certainly. The following graph from Trendgraphix shows the Listed, Pended and Sold numbers over the course of all 2009:


One interesting correlation that is apparent in this graph is the relationship between pended and sold properties. A 100% correlation would mean that every home with signed paperwork would close--and you can see that we're not there. However, the numbers are getting closer, and my personal observation is that more and more transactions are coming to a happy and successful closing, with fewer Buyer's backing out of their purchases. I was pleased this year to have every transaction I participated in ultimately reach a successful closing. Sometimes the lenders made us all hold our breaths (or our tongues,) but my clients have been able to complete their purchases and sales once we've begun.

There is no question that we are still strongly in a Buyer's Market, which is reflected in the prices properties are selling for. As much as we've gone up and down, we're also going around and around, back to the future. Prices have rolled back to about the 2005 level, in both average and the more reliable median prices. Home owners have watched their equity shrink, and that's a difficult ride to be on, especially since we have become accustomed to expecting prices to continue to rise year after year.

Certainly double-digit appreciation was not sustainable here or anywhere, especially without salaries increasing at the same rate. At the height of the real estate market, which in hindsight seems to have been mid-2006 to mid-2007, most people I knew could not afford to buy the homes they were living in. In that way, the adjustment has been healthy. Unfortunately, you can't take "healthy" to the bank, and it's heartbreaking to see people who need to sell, who can't clear enough at closing to cover their debt load.

I'm an optimistic person, and I believe in both the appeal of Bainbridge Island and the economic health of the Greater Seattle Area. I believe that to sell a home today, the price must be realistic and in line with the current market, it must be well prepared, and professionally represented. Buyers are negotiating from a position of strength, which can be a challenge--one that I welcome representing either side in a transaction. Banks are loaning and rates remain low.

One last item (lots to digest) that I'll write more on another day. The Federal Government has extended the tax credit for first-time home buyers, and for current home owners who meet certain criteria.

Will interest rates go up or down? Will prices stabilize here or take another drop? I'm reading the experts and buckling my seat belt for an interesting journey this year. One thing I know for sure--we'll have more perspective when we look back a year from now. Ironically, my best instinct tells me this is a good time both to buy and sell.

Bainbridge Island competition: A little (strawberry) cannery row? ~

It's a long stretch of the imagination to place John Steinbeck's world onto Bainbridge Island. He's all weathered faces on dust bowl refugees in gritty California neighborhoods. We're all rain on fleece-wearing California refugees hiding out amongst the cedars.

But, now's the time for all good Islanders to bring the worlds together. Our library is calling for submissions to its Bainbridge Island Sketches, a compilation of fictionalized depictions of life here. Change the names, stay under 2,000 words, and revel in the juicy details of your friends and neighbors, the quirkier the better. As the BI Review reported today, "Capture the essence of Bainbridge and its inhabitants in exact and signature details." The great Ann Combs is giving a free workshop on writing the sketches at Eagle Harbor Book Co. this Sunday afternoon at 3. Come on by. I hope to be there with a few of my favorite Bainbridge images and details.

The deadline is October 26th; send entries to Kathleen Thorne thornekm@gmail.com and prepare to win. Selected entries will be read at San Carlos November 1st. That's only fitting, since the majority of our quirkiest residents find their way to San Carlos, many on a regular basis.

I have an additional reward. If any of my clients who have moved to Bainbridge in the last ten years have their entries selected for reading, I'll treat you to your favorite margarita at the San Carlos bar. Get writing!

Third quarter market analysis Bainbridge Island real estate~

We're just now getting the statistics for the end of September, and we're about to start on the final quarter of 2009. Everybody I talk to wants to know the same thing--how's real estate doing on Bainbridge Island.

One bit of information I've analyzed this past week is helpful. It's an Excel spread sheet that shows the listing/pending ratios that we've been tracking on Bainbridge for the last several years. Some real estate analysts believe that comparing the number of total listings to the number of listings in contract will give you a good view of the health of the marketplace.

At the end of September we had 289 total residential listings, with 47 of those houses in a contract to be sold. That's a 16% "absorption rate," which is significant for two reasons. The first is that conventional wisdom is that 16% is seriously a Buyer's market, and that's not news to anyone.

But, the other significance is that the last time we were close to 16% was July of 2007 at 19%. That's when we had crested the top of the market and had our skis pointed downhill. Little did we know then that this was going to be a black diamon run with moguls! By October of 2007 we real estate agents knew the market had dropped; few of us understood that it had fallen off a cliff. When we look back at the numbers, that free fall is apparent. The absorption rate in May of 2007 was 27%, and by October it was 9%. In one quarter we went from 52 homes in contract to 23 . We've pretty much been bouncing along that bottom ever since.

It was hard to know in the period from the summer of 2006 to the summer of 2007 that we were at the very peak of the marketplace. Some indicators were apparent, and looking back now we can see all the signs. It took courage and vision during that year to sell when everyone else was buying, when prices seemed to be rising with no end. But, nothing has no end.

It is hard now to know if we are at the bottom. Prices are still dropping. It takes courage and vision to buy when few are buying. But, prices are at 2005 level, or lower, interest rates are low, and Sellers are eager to sell. Perhaps a year or two from now we'll all know if indeed this is the bottom. If it is, those who buy now will be congratulating themselves.

Advantages of making Bainbridge Island home and playing in Seattle~

It doesn't take much to remind me of the advantages of living on Bainbridge Island. My dear husband and I had a date night in Seattle yesterday, and the reminders were everywhere. We had tickets to "Wicked," at the Paramount, and took an early ferry so we could do some shopping and have dinner before the show.

http://www.stgpresents.org/artists/?artist=910

We walked onto the ferry, and took a leisurely stroll through downtown Seattle. The Seahawks game was getting out, and when we caught a glimpse of the freeway, we could see that traffic was backed up and moving slowly. Event parking at the Paramount was $20 a car. We weren't affected by either of these things. When the play finished a $6 cab ride had us back to the ferry terminal in time for the 9:45 ferry.

Those of us lucky enough to live and work on Bainbridge don't commute into the city every day. Those Islanders who do experience all that Seattle offers, and through their work they are an integral part of that great city. Sometimes it takes an extra effort for the rest of us to make plans, buy tickets and get into the city, but it's such a luxury to have Seattle so nearby.

And, for all of us, it's a joy to return to the peaceful island at the end of the day.

Bainbridge Island to Seattle: most beautiful ferry ride in the US~

Budget Travel magazine has just listed the most beautiful ferry rides in the United States, and the 35-minute ride from Seattle to Bainbridge Island was prominently featured. (We who live on "the rock" tend to think of it as the Bainbridge to Seattle ferry.) Here's the link to the article: http://www.budgettravel.com/bt-dyn/content/article/2009/04/23/AR2009042301954.html

You'll find four pictures featuring the Seattle skyline and the beautiful Puget Sound. They recommend spending time shopping, dining and hiking the trails on Bainbridge. Finally, they recommend staying long enough to make a sunset crossing back to the city, which made me smile since the sun sets around 10 p.m. in the summer! That would make for a great day on the Island.