Wasilla Real Estate News, Valley Market Real Estate

Salmon Task Force Looks At Upper Cook Inlet Fisheries May 29th, 2008

Categories: Alaskana

I stopped by the ATT Sports Center on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway to listen to the public testimony about the Upper Cook Inlet salmon issues.

It appears that the salmon in our rivers are being hurt by the commercial harvests of red salmon bound for the Kenai River.  I am an ex-commercial fisherman so I understand the desire and need for the Board of Fisheries to concentrate their management on those high valued red salmon stocks.

BUT…I can’t understand why they manage the commercial harvest they way that they do. Its just nuts!

Currently, the drift salmon fishing fleet can fish across the whole inlet from the Forelands by Nikiski just above Kenai to Anchor Point toward Homer.   Here is a map of Cook Inlet for reference.  They are after the red salmon that are mostly going into the Kenai River. 

The problem is, they are catching fish bound for a lot of other rivers as well.  Some of these fish are heading for Jim Creek, Fish Creek, the Yentna River, and lots of other creeks and rivers that flow into Cook Inlet.   The poor fish run a guantlet past all the nets to get to the Upper Inlet.  These are silver salmon, king salmon, chum salmon, red salmon, and even some pinks. Most of those fish are just extra baggage to the commercial fisherman.

The better job they do managing the Kenai fishery, the worse it gets for all the other fisheries.   The Department of Fish and Game is doing a great job managing the Kenai fishery and they should continue to do that.  But that means the commercial drift fleet gets more time to fish and catches more fish going to other rivers and streams.  All the other fish are sacrificed to the Kenai Red Salmon.

The really galling thing is that there is an easy fix…and I don’t understand why they don’t do it.  In Bristol Bay all the fisheries are specific to the river.  Here is a map of Bristol Bay showing the district boundaries for the different fisheries.  Click on it to expand.

It would be easy to do in Cook Inlet.  All you need to do is make some district boundaries like they have in Bristol Bay.  Then you can easily manage the specific fishery. 

Here…I’ve done it for them.

Not only does it make for better management, it will produce more fish for ALL the rivers, not just for the Kenai.

And it makes the commercial fishery a LOT more fun.  Anyone who has fished the North Line at Egegik knows that.

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Wasilla Real Estate Statistics. Week of May 19-26, 2008 May 26th, 2008

Categories: Market Trends, Monday Market Memo

For Palmer, Wasilla, Houston, Willow, Talkeetna and the whole Mat-Su Borough, here are the stats for the week.  These are single family residential homes that have pended, closed or been listed this past week.

Any holiday weekend is usually a little slower for real estate and this one was no exception.  There are fewer pendings and fewer new listings this week, people were camping, fishing, or otherwise relaxing.  Today is Memorial Day, hopefully most people will be remembering and honoring our fallen soldiers today.

I compared the amount of pendings for the last four weeks of this year to last year.  There were 163 last year and 115 this year.  That is about a 30% drop in pending sales.

BUT

Then I compared the same time frame in closed sales.  Last year there were 102 closed sales compared to 113 for this year.  So closed sales are up about 10%.  

That just shows that one month snap shots don’t tell the tale.  We will need to wait until the end of June for a real accurate picture of the year so far…but it does appear that this year is down in total sales compared to the last few years.

This chart shows the first 5 months of every year since 2002.  It is a good overall picture of how things look.

Another piece of information from Freddie Mac, shows an optimistic picture of Alaska compared to the rest of the country.  Click on it to enlarge, you will notice that Alaska appears to be better off than anywhere else in the country.

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5 Important Steps To Successfuly Negotiating A Purchase May 23rd, 2008

Categories: For Buyers, For Sellers

There are at least 5 steps in successfully completing a real estate purchase.  There are many fine points in these steps that each could merit an article.  Perhaps I’ll follow up on that later.

But here are the basics.

1. Make The Offer.  A buyer needs to sit down and write up the offer on the property.  Basically the offer must include the legal description of the property you are purchasing, the terms of the purchase and the date that you will complete the purchase.  There are many fine points included in this, (like the fact that the offerer must be of sound mind, etc), but those are the basics. 

Your offer is only good for a fixed amount of time.  Usually we only make it good for a few days, after which your offer expires.  If the seller likes your offer and signs it during that time frame, you have a contract.  The seller is not obligated to answer during that time frame, but your offer will expire when the time runs out.

It’s important to realized that just making an offer does not preclude a seller from marketing and even selling the property to another party as long as he is not yet in contract with you.

2. Counter The Fine Points.  If the seller is interested in your offer but wants to change some of the terms you will receive a counter offer.  A counter offer only changes the terms itemized on the counter.  The other terms of the original offer remain the same.  Like the offer, the counter offer only lasts for a specified period of time, (usually a day or two), and then expires.  Sometimes a buyer and seller will counter back and forth several times before reaching agreement…or giving up.

During this time of countering back and forth, another buyer may appear.  The seller can negotiate and even sell the property to this new buyer if you haven’t yet accepted the terms of his offer.

3. Look At It From The Other Parties Eyes.  A good transaction is a win-win deal.  If you try to see the situation from the other person’s point of view you may find ways to accommodate their needs that do not hurt you too much.  When one side of a transaction wants everything their way, usually the transaction collapses.  There must be a give and take. 

Sometimes a seller is just not realistic in their asking price.  There is no guarantee that making a realistic offer will bring them to reality.  You can only try, and then when you understand where they are coming from…you may or may not want to go there yourself. 

4. Follow Through. If you say you are going to do something by a certain time…do it.  If you don’t, your transaction could die.

5. Act In Good Faith.  Occasionally one party to a transaction will begin to feel as if they are being wronged in some way.  It is important when this happens to open up communication to ensure that all parties are still working for a successful conclusion of a transaction.  Do not let emotions cloud your judgement to the point that you begin to mistreat someone just because you are upset with them.

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Wasilla Real Estate-Monday Market Memo May 19th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate statistics for the week of May 12–19, 2008.  These are the numbers for residential single family homes in the whole Mat-Su Borough.  Most of the activity is in Palmer and Wasilla but includes the rest of the borough as well.

There isn’t anything new and spectacular for the week.  I would say sales are running at about the same as they have for quite a few months.  I would expect more closings than we are getting right now. 

We are selling about 119 houses a month so we have an inventory of seven months.  In 2006 we sold 136 houses a month during this same time period and in 2007 it was 138 homes.  So for this month we are down by about 15% in total sales compared to the last 2 years.

Our inventory dropped by 3 this week.  It rose by almost 20 last week so its good that we aren’t being flooded with new listings.  

I noticed quite a few of the houses from my motivated sellers list in the pending sales for this week, If you would like that list…send me an email.

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Wasilla Motivated Sellers May 16th, 2008

Categories: For Buyers

The Motivated Seller list is updated for this week.  There are over 100 properties identified including 20 foreclosed properties.  These include foreclosures, relo corporate owned, divorce sales and other types of sellers that will do whatever it will take to get a property to sell.

It appears that about 30–40 properties are going into pending sales status every week.  I would guess that about 1/2 of them will be from this list.  The others are new construction and very nice properties that are priced right. 

If you would like to get on the list please read this article first.

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