Brandon Nelson

Sudden Valley Lot Sales… NOT!

I got an e-mail from a friend today asking about Sudden Valley lots, and whether she could pick up a few at a good price to perhaps sell them at a modest profit a year from now.

I live in Sudden Valley, and I LOVE Sudden Valley. But one thing I would have a hard time putting money into right now is a Sudden Valley lot, much less a handful of them. They’re not liquid, meaning, they are NOT selling. Which makes them a good deal as far as price, sure — simple supply and demand. Let’s look at some numbers:

• Current number of Active lot listings in SV: 90
• Number of Pending lot sales in SV: 0
• Number of lot sales in SV in the past 3 months: 0
• Lowest Priced Lot: $10,000
• Highest Priced Lot: $400,000
• Average Price: $59,497
• Average # of Days on market: 424.
• Click HERE  for a print-out of ALL Active, Expired, Cancelled or Sold lots in the past 6 months.

Yes, those Pending and Sold numbers are zeros. NOT ONE lot sale is pending in SV, according to the NWMLS right now. And when nobody’s buying something, you can rest assured you haven’t seen the bottom yet.

But let’s say we’re at the bottom, and you could pick up a lot for $3000. There aren’t any banks lending spec house money right now, so that’s not an option unless you have cash. You’ll have to pay monthly Sudden Valley dues on that lot, and taxes.

But here’s the big kicker: You’re in Whatcom County, not City of Bellingham, and you’re in the Lake Whatcom Watershed.

So what? I’ll tell you so what. You could wake up tomorrow, the day after you close on that bargain Sudden Valley lot, and there’s an emergency moratorium on any and all building or lot development in the watershed. Period. It’s happened before, and one of these times it’s going to stick and anybody with a bunch of money tied up in lots is going to be sorry. VERY sorry.

I do NOT recommend buying and holding land in the Lake Whatcom watershed, much less Whatcom County in general, unless you’re doing it to preserve it as green space out of your love for the planet. Then you’ll be fine.

Give me a quick shout or e-mail if you’re interested in knowing what I WOULD invest in right now. And I’ll let you know what my friend decides about Sudden Valley…

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 3:29 am and is filed under Buyer Info, Seller Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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