On the (house) hunt. Again.

After a quick flight to Spokane, as we scrambled to organize our schedule to view all the houses on our and our Realtors list, memories came flooding back of when we first began our search for a new home in California. When we had first moved to Taft we were fortunate indeed to find a cute little bungalow, on the very outskirts of downtown, with everything we required, including a back yard where I could do some gardening. In that first year we would drive into Bako (Bakersfield), just 40 minutes away, and where Rod was employed, checking out the housing market, thinking we’d invest in a property. Afterall we were looking at residing here for the next 10 years. Buying a home seemed prudent. However we were stunned to see the prices at that time, in 2005, were very high, to our eyes extremely inflated. What we could have purchased for $200K back in the area we came from in central Washington would run us $400K - $500K down here. And so we decided we wouldn’t be purchasing anything here, our rent was only $500 a month (as I said, we LUCKED out!) and was the cheaper and sounder option it seemed.

Then came 2007 and the Housing Crash, the worst in US history, and the cause of the financial crises that was soon to follow. There were a number of things that caused the housing bubble, deregulation brought about innovations in various types of loans and investment options, banks who had been restrained from investing and risking depositors money were free now to legally do so when the Glass Steagall Act was repealed. Low interest rates and propaganda that housing was the best investment one could make fueled the buying frenzy, as people saw housing prices continue to go up they clambered over each other to buy their piece of the American pie, and with or without money the banks and lendors always found a way to get them into a house, for many a house they couldn’t really afford. Here in California there were large areas where housing prices were going up 20% a year and over in Las Vegas, 40%!! From 2003 to 2007 the amount of subprime loans had increased a whopping 292% from 332 billion to 1.3 trillion.

And we all know what happened then, the House of Cards came tumbling down.

By 2010, with housing prices down by 50%, Rod and I decided to take a chance on a house investment. Long story short, the home we bought in January of that year was affordable and there was a good chance we could see the economy stabilize and our investment grow by the time we would be wanting to leave California. It was an anxious time as we saw housing prices continue to drop as foreclosures and short sales continued to flood the local market, and we wondered how long we’d have to live here to just recoup our investment. But then going into this year we slowly started seeing prices rise, with interest rates at rock bottom (0 to 2%) and news the economy was slowly stabilizing, people started buying homes again, in competition with Corporations and Investment Firms who were doing the same. We seemed to hit a ‘perfect storm’ as a home seller. With lots of demand, and not enough inventory (Contractors were scrambling to get their acts together to start building again to meet demand, there were fewer and fewer REO’s to be found) and buyers confidence starting to grow, when we contacted our Realtor in April re marketing our house her first words were “Be prepared for how fast it will sell!”. And she was right, much to our shock! The first day we had it on the market we had 12 offers, all but 4 at list price, and those 4 all well OVER list price! It left us scrambling to find a new temporary home for the remaining 6 months to 8 months we planned to remain in Bako, but the relief we felt was immeasurable!

And so we moved into our comfy little apartment in lovely central downtown Bako. We have been watching housing prices in Spokane the past two years, as that is where we will take up permanent residence once we make the move from California. The market took longer to fall in that part of the country, and didn’t fall as hard as down here, but we were seeing houses once out of our reach, well at least far more than we would be prepared to spend, now within our budget range. The past few months we took up, in earnest, the SEARCH once again. Last weekend saw us flying to Spokane to check out 20 or so houses on our, and our Realtors, LIST. I’d forgotten how much fun the experience is, to begin with, but then how tiring and yes, even disappointing, it starts to become. Homes that looked becoming and that excited us in the PICTURES, would turn out to be old and worn and in need of much work, OR they would be so close to their neighbors one had virtually no privacy outside the walls. But we did find a few, ultimately, that did check most all our boxes, and left Spokane with an offer made on one particular house. We await news, but have been told there were multiple offers, the sellers had JUST dropped the price the day we rode into town so there was clearly renewed interest!

We’ve started a new LIST, preparing to make another quick trip to Spokane in the near future, but now have a better “feel” for the different areas, sections of the city, where we would prefer to live, where we won’t live. Always helpful when scouting out homes online from a map! Google Earth and Google Maps are wonderful resources homebuyers have now, but until you are smack dab there on the street, in front of and IN the house, you can’t know its desirability.

Being back in Spokane was great fun, this time around I felt enthusiastic and optimistic about our lives moving forward there. In past visits I always would feel, at some point, that imposing dark cloud of the painful memories of our last year in Spokane prior to moving to California. A heaviness in my heart, a weight still on my shoulders. But they are right, time does heal many wounds, and I was relieved to see most of mine, at least as far as the CITY goes, have healed. I’ll never view the city quite the same as prior to our sons terrible year of arrest and incarceration there, I’ll carry those painful memories always, but after ten years, much has changed, visually at least, in this beautiful city, and I now believe we all, Corey included, can have a good life there.