Leavenworth Real Estate

Leavenworth Plans for Downtown Improvements

Contribute your ideas to Leavenworth’s Downtown Master Plan!

The City of Leavenworth is now entering into Phase 2 of design for the Downtown Master Plan. Phase 2 involves development of a sign strategy to eliminate redundant public signage and to make existing signage more effective. Phase 2 also involves the design of a variety of plazas and grand entries into the Downtown. The plazas and entries are intended to be magnificent public places.

Leavenworth’s Downtown Committee has developed renditions of how the proposed plazas in the downtown area might look, and would like to maximize the uniqueness of these areas further by understanding more about what your favorite place might look, sound, smell, or feel like.

The City of Leavenworth is asking you to:

Tell us about something you saw on your last trip to Europe or even your last trip to Wenatchee - or tell us what is special about the place where you pause for coffee, drive to for a picnic, or your favorite gateway into a community. We would like to capture the essence of the ideas you share, so if you can relate your ideas to our plaza renditions or to a place you think we should create, even better.

You can download a PDF of the entire Masterplan for Downtown Leavenworth here

Comments can be sent to Rob Eaton, the Mayor of Leavenworth mayor@cityofleavenworth.com

or

Connie Krueger, Director of Community Development. cddirector@cityofleavenworth.com

Leavenworth Forest Fires - An Insurance Prospective

Guest Post by Eric Kossian of Leavenworth Insurance

The areas surrounding the towns of Leavenworth, Cle Elum, Twisp, Chelan, Entiat, Winthrop and parts of Wenatchee are some of the most fire prone areas in Washington, where there are large numbers of homeowners at risk. From year to year the wild land fuels, level of drought, temperature and weather combine to make a moderate to severe fire season.  You can view the full seasonal assessment each year at www.predictiveservices.nifc.gov/outlooks/outlooks.htm

These areas are some of the most lightning struck areas in the entire United States (often in the form or dry lightning) and it is not uncommon to have 10- 20 fires started from one passing storm further compounding the problem for firefighters.

What Has Been Learned From Past Fires?

1.       Stay alert for evacuations during mid June to Oct. If there has been a lightning storm or you smell smoke, turn on the radio to listen for any evacuation updates. With limited Sheriff personnel and a fast moving fire, they do not always have the time to notify everyone door to door so make your own decision. If you are advised to evacuate, do so immediately; fires can move 20- 40 miles in an hour under the right conditions.  Do not think that you will be able to make any difference by staying; leave that to the firemen. If you have time, close all windows and doors when leaving to prevent smoke damage and remove from against the house (at least 30 ft. away) any easily burnable items such as stacked firewood.

2.       Prepare your Property. Have only very low vegetation (such as green grass), if any, surrounding the 1^st 50 feet from the home. Any trees within 50 ft should be limbed up to 15 ft to prevent fire turning your pine trees into flaming torches. Firefighters will make decisions about whether or not your home is “defensible” by the level of fuels present immediately surrounding your home.  You might even ask your local fire dept. to give you their recommendations for what you can do to make your property safer.

3.       Fire losses are basically one of 3 levels:  1. If a house is actually burned at all, it has a 90% chance of being a total loss.  2. Only 10% of homes with actual fire damage are partial burns, such as a garage door or deck.  3. Smoke Damage:  After a wild fire, it is not uncommon to see no damage to homes but all their contents in piles outside. (source: Insurance Journal May 18,2009)

4. 5 key things to look for in a good homeowner’s policy. Many of the best insurance companies offer less than ideal policies. Not all policies are the same; here’s some key things to consider:

A.      Does your home have “full replacement cost” or the more limiting “extended replacement cost” like 95% of policies have. That can make a difference of $100,000 or more in out of pocket costs after any fire.

B.       Does your policy have “ordinance and law” coverage to pay for current code requirements or will your policy just pay to replace what was there?

C.      Does your policy have “additional living expense” (ALE) coverage or broader “loss of use” (LOU) coverage? ALE will not pay for your additional living expenses if you are just required to evacuate for a week but have no damage to your home, whereas LOU pays for up to two weeks when “civil authority prohibits use”.

D.      Furthermore, some companies limit coverage from ALE or LOU to a specific time limit of 12-24 mo. For larger home or in areas where the number of homes having to be replaced exceeds the number of quality contractors to go around it is very unlikely the 12 mo. limit on additional living expenses will be enough.

E.       Many policies limit either ALE or LOU to 20% of the estimated replacement cost of the home. Better policies provide 25%, 30% or just a time limit and that can mean an additional $20-40,000 in out of pocket costs paid by the insurance company for the average homeowner.

Eric Kossian, Underwriting Specialist, owns an independent insurance agency catering to financially responsible homeowner clients throughout Washington State. He can be reached at by email at Eric@leavenworthinsurance.com

Leavenworth Real Estate Update | Sold Homes May 2009

This May there were three single family homes that sold in Leavenworth and one condominium.

16074 River Road, Leavenworth

List price: $519,000.  Sold price: $365,000.

Days on Market: 800

3 bedrooms | 2 bath | 2464 sqft| 2 acres.

This home had extensive time on market and a significant difference between list price and sales price. The house’s location on the lot made it less private than some buyers prefer.

 

 

 

15966 Chumstick Highway, Leavenworth

List price: $460,000.  Sold price: $425,000.

Days on Market: 140

3 bedrooms | 2 bath | 2700 sqft| 3.08 acres.

Large home 8 miles up the Chumstick, this home had Chumstick Creek running through the property.  It had a nice large great room with tongue and groove ceilings.  Just past the Alpaca /Llama Ranch.

 

 

11650 Alpine Drive, Leavenworth

List price: $729,000.  Sold price: $479,000.

Days on Market: 293

2 bedrooms | 2 bath | 1656 sqft| 20 acres.

Home at the top of the world over looking Leavenworth.  This home is part of the Alpenview Estates with steep access roads and driveways but awesome views of the views of the valley.   We believe that this was a distressed sale and needed bank approval.

 

 

575 Alpine Place, N-2

List price: $289,000.  Sold price: $245,000.

Days on Market: 351

3 bedrooms | 1.75 bath | 1119 sqft|

One of the rare three bedroom condos in Leavenworth and available for nightly rentals.  The upstairs unit, N-4 sold May 2008 for 283,500.  The last unit to sell in the Alpine Place complex was  E-4, a two bedrooom unit which sold in October 2008 for $225,000.

More Leavenworth Real Estate Info

• Click Here to See Leavenworth Sold Homes for April 2009
• Click Here to See Cashmere Sold Homes for May 2009
• Click Here to Search for Leavenworth Homes for Sale

Cashmere Real Estate Update | Sold Homes May 2009

No homes or condos sold in Cashmere in May. 3 homes did go pending with accepted offers, so we will likely see more sold homes in June for Cashmere.

More Leavenworth  and Cashmere Real Estate Info

• Click Here to See Cashmere Sold Homes for April 2009
• Click Here to See Leavenworth Sold Homes for May 2009
• Click Here to Search for Cashmere Homes for Sale

Kahler Glen Condos : Oversupply = Time to Buy

Condos at the Kahler Glen Golf Course near Lake Wenatchee have been a favorite with Leavenworth vacation home buyers for the past few years. Everyone seems to have a favorite reason:

• On the Kahler Glen Golf Course
• XC ski out the door in winter on groomed trails
• About 200 sqft bigger than other 2 bedroom condos
• Minutes to Lake Wenatchee
• Easy to add to Kahler Glen Rental Pool

Over the past five years we have seen relatively few condos at Kahler Glen come on the market and even less of the Natapoc units on Clubhouse Drive. This scarcity has caused prices to climb up and up and up. In 2005, 2006, and 2007 all the units that came on the market were sold. 

In early 2008, I had a client ask about Kahler Glen Condos and I helped him find one, even though there weren’t any listed. We were able to get one for $325,000 which included a membership to the Kahler Glen Athletic Club .   A few months later another agent listed a unit for $369,000. (Which has not yet sold.)

Unfortunately for Kahler Glen Condo owners more units came on the market in 2008 as our real estate market was quieting down and the stock market was taking a nose dive. As more units came on the market, and no condos sold, the sellers had to adjust their prices.

In 2008, 3 Kahler Glen Condos were listed on the MLS and in 2009 an additional 2 were added to the list.

I scratched my head trying my best to make a chart that shows  this classic give and take between supply and demand.

 

 

As of May 2009, there are 5 Kahler Glen Condos for sale in addition to one of the newer Natapoc units. The condos range in price from $279,900 to $300,000, down from their high of $325,000.

As I said in the title oversupply = time to buy.

Contact me or your real estate agent for more info or click here to go directly to the Kahler Glen Real Estate Search