Credit crises, mortgage scandals and home prices falling like a rock…in some places. Yet Pasco and the Tri-Citites continue to avoid the worst.

Mortgage money is still available locally—though you do need a reasonable credit score to get it. Homes are still selling locally—though for slightly less money and in a slightly longer time.

Just under 3,000 homes sold in the Tri-Cities last year, at an average price $1400 lower than the year before—about a one percent drop from 2007 to 2008.

Tri-City Association of Realtors President Glen Clark says the disparity between national media coverage and local experience is because, “all real estate markets are local. We get some effect from national news, but the local marketis holding up well.”

The Tri-Cities appears to be dodging a bullet in terms of foreclosures, too. In Phoenix, for example, nearly 100,000 homes appear to be headed for foreclosure. Locally, the number is closer to a few hundred.

Clark points out that one Hanford contractor recently announced the imminent addition of 3,000 jobs. Also, hundreds of jobs will be added in Connell in the next year. With only 1200 – 1300 homes for sale and rentals getting scarce, the Tri-Cities could quickly become a seller’s market.

As a side note… Fortune magazine—quoting Manpower, Inc.—reported that the number one and two markets nationally for employment growth in the 2nd quarter of 2009 would be, respectively, Yakima (21%) and Tri-Cities (19%).

Article Attribution: Pasco Chamber of Commerce | Join Today!

In a recent interview on 60 Minutes, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Vernanky made it clear just how they plan on recouping the one trillion dollars that was used in recent bank bailouts. The Fed is going to do it by jacking the rates back up as soon as a recovery becomes evident.

What this means to you if you have had your eye on a home in todays buyers market, is that waiting too long to lock in a deal may be a mistake that you will live to regret. Sure loans are harder to get now but you will never see interests rates this low again in your lifetime.