Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

This is the time of year when we lose an hour of sleep (darn) but we know that spring is on its way and that means sunshine and warmer weather here in the beautiful Tri Cities! Just as a reminder, this Saturday night before you head to bed, make sure that you set your clocks ahead 1 hour for daylight savings time.  (Those of us that forget to do this invariably end up being clueless as to why we end up late to everything on Sunday….speaking from experience here..LOL)

So Saturday night – spring forward!

According to Smartmoney.com, the Tri Cities is listed as number 1 among the top 5 communities in the nation that will see increases in home prices for the 4th quarter of 2010, with increases just under 4 percent.  The Tri Cities has seen a stable real estate market and continued job growth throughout the period of time that the rest of the country has been experiencing major decline in housing and job markets. Construction permits in Kennewick, Pasco and Richland have grown with Kennewick seeing increases over over 100 in the same period from 2009. CNN money.com reports that Kennewick appears to have gone against the tide with a slight gain in comparison to other communities. “The biggest winner will be in the Kennewick metro area where home prices ramped up 8.9 percent over the past three years and are expected to go up 3.4 percent by June 2010.”

Tonight March 8th at 6:30 pm in the Richland Public Library gallery room will be a meeting for Richland residents and business representatives to meet and discuss potential ideas for the Master Plan being developed for future changes to John Dam Plaza, located along George Washington wya and Jadwin Avenue. The Richland Parks and Recreation Department will be sponsoring the meeting.

Venture capitalism has gone through some rough patches over the last few years, needing to change the types of businesses to invest in, and with that change from software and biotechnology comes the shift into the fields of clean energy technology. That shift feeds right into the hands of many wonderful companies here in the Tri Cities, which is quickly becoming a nexus for this field, and that in itself is potentially attracting new business to the area.  Pacific Northwest National Labs has involved itself in the field of virtualization and visualization as a type of search technology, which can “Capture, analyze and understand data at volumes and rates that push the frontiers of current technologies.”  According to PNNL leaders, the sky’s the limit with this technology which makes it very attractive to investors, and that bodes well for continuing growth of the Tri Cities.

Imagine yourself in another space in time, dressed in your best bib and tucker, stepping onto the gangplank of a sternwheeler as she gets ready to push away from the dock and chug down the river for a scenic view of the Columbia River. Ah yes, those were the days. …..

 Well that opportunity awaits you in this time space in time, in April as a matter of fact! The Portland Spirit sternwheeler will be docking in the Tri Cities on April 16th through the 25th at the Clover Island Inn. This replica 1800s ship carries 499 passengers and will be offering various lunch, dinner and sightseeing cruises, including a special cruise up to Ice Harbor Dam on the 21st.

See www.portlandspirit.com for more information.

The words “jobless recovery” and “recession” have been tossed around a great deal over the past year or so, but here in the Tri Cities community leaders are delighted to announce that our area leads the nation in job growth during these difficult times. Garner Economics, a consulting firm from Atlanta published a report for March indicating that the Tri Cities is at the top of the list for the nation as far as job growth is concerned.  From January to June 2009, the Tri Cities was one of 9 metrolpolitan areas compared for positive job growth. The report also indicates that the Tri Cities actually was a top performing economy for the entire year 2009. This writer believes that this proves that the folks who have worked so diligently over the past couple of decades to diversify the Tri Cities, have been very successful and kudos to them!