Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

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.”

The Tri Cities is full of outstanding volunteers in many different fields of endeavor, and last week 18 of those individuals were honored by the Soroptomist International for their community service and education. The women honored, including a mother and daughter, were recognized at a ceremony where the Live Your Dream campaign was emphazied, which was developed to encourage women and girls to work towards the culmination of their dreams and in turn, “pay it forward” to others.

Many congratulations to all the women honored, and to the thousands of selfless volunteers in the Tri Cities and Mid-Columbia region.

The Tri Cities will play host to a pair of co-authors whose book Weird Washington will be presented at local libraries in West Richland, Benton City, Prosser, Othello and Kennewick (tonight at 7pm). The book is a traveler’s guide to unique, quirky, bizarre and strange places here in the state, along with the tall tales, legends, and unbelievable facts about happenings over the course of our state’s history.  Outside of Benton City/Kiona, the authors visited a babies cemetary set up in the hills which they felt was very eerie. Strange things happen…..

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!

March 4, 2010:  2010 Mid-Columbia Literary Festival, 7:00 pm HUB Main Stage, Columbia Basin College in Pasco. Featuring Jess Walter and Pete Fromm.  (509) 542-5531 for more info

March 9 & 23, 2010:  Wine Tasting – Monterosso’s Italian Restaurant, 5:00 pm, 1026 Lee Blvd, Richland.  (509) 946-4525 for more info.

March 10, 2010:  Quattrocelli – Community Concerts of the Tri-Cities present an ensemble of 4 cellists. 7:30 pm at 1800 N Rd 72, Pasco. (509) 547-6243 for more info.

March 11, 2010: Wayman Chapman, jazz and blues performance, 6 pm – 9 pm, Bookwalter Winery, 894 Tulip Lane, Richland. (509) 927-5000 for more info.

March 13, 2010: Romagossa Blu:  6 pm – 9 pm, Bookwalter Winery, 894 Tulip Lane, Richland. (509) 927-5000 for more info.

March 18, 2010:  Eleanor Roosevelt-No Ordinary Woman: 7pm CBC HUB Main Stage, Pasco. (509) 542-5531 for more info

March 20, 2010:  Mid-Columbia Symphony Concert exhibition, 8 p.m. Three Rivers Convention Center, Kennewick (509) 732-3722 for more info.

March 26, 2010:  27th Annual Quilt Show & Merchant Mall, 10 am – 6 pm, Three Rivers Convention Center, Kennewick, (509) 539-0422 for more info.

March 26-27, 2010:  Custer’s Spring Arts & Craft Show 2010, TRAC facility in Pasco, starts at 10 am each day. (509) 924-0588 for more info.

Preparations are being made by three Tri-City leaders to file a federal lawsuit stopping the Obama administration from eliminating the previously set in place plans to use Yucca Mountain, Nevada, a national repository for Hanford waste.  This is one of what is expected to be many lawsuits calling for the federal government to cease-and-desist abandonment of plans to use Yucca Mountain as a national repository for used fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and high-level radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production.

Tri-Citians Bob Ferguson, Bill Lampson and Gary Petersen had a letter delivered to the White House requesting a chance to have a dialogue regarding the issue.  Aiken County, S.C. has also filed a federal lawsuit as well because 13 states have weapons waste that by law must go to a national repository. Congress had previously designated Yucca Mountain as the national site for high-level waste, and that designation is in the law, and the administration is unilaterally changing the law.

If the plans are abandoned, Yucca would become a $10 billion hole in the ground, and it is believed that the decision is political rather than scientific . If Yucca Mountain used utilized, then Hanford waste could stay here indefinitely.