Bellingham Building Bonanza
This story is a bit outside of my normal geographical range, plus it was covered by Ben on Saturday, but I wanted to at least touch on it here. Up in Bellingham building is far outpacing population growth:
It has become almost conventional wisdom that Bellingham and Whatcom County have been growing fast in recent years. But that growth appears to be more in homes than people.I'm putting Bellingham on my "places to watch" list for when things finally settle down. I imagine there will be some killer deals up there.
From 2000 to 2005 Whatcom County gained a new home for every 1.58 new people - 30 percent fewer people per home than the county total in 2000, according to the state Office of Financial Management.
"I keep telling people I don't see explosive population growth," said Hart Hodges, director of Western Washington University's Center for Economic and Business Research. "I do see a heck of a lot of building."
(Aubrey Cohen, Bellingham Herald, 01.15.2006)
2 comments:
Having spent some time at WWU, I can say most students liked the area alot. But few grads were able to find good paying jobs that allowed them to stay. I don't see any indication that this has changed significantly in the last few years.
Bellingham is very high on the national lists of "over-valued" housing.
I've seen quotes as "low" as 43% overvalued and one as high as 61% overvalued.
Looks like Bellingham has qite a ways to drop.
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