Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

Golden Heart Awards were bestowed upon 7 individuals and 1 group during last Tuesday’s gathering at the Red Lion Hanford House in Richland. The award is based on exceptional service to the Tri-Cities community. The breakfast gathering was sponsored by Stevens Center Management with various awards being sponsored by multiple organizations. The award for a group in 2010 went to Safe Harbor Crisis Nursery’s Sails Outlet, which raises fund for the crisis nursery.  Seven individuals received the award for their unselfish commitment to service in the Tri-City area, and they were: Nancy Russell of Kennewick, Tabitha Johnson, Ronni Dreisbach, David Carl, Jean Stacy and Steve Haberman. Many congratulations to eveyone involved and our deepest appreciation for all that you do to make the Tri-Cities a wonderful place to live!

Goodwill Industries, partnered with Lourdes Wilson House is working to offer folks with a mental illness an opportunity to locate good jobs that will fill them with encouragement and dignity, thus bringing about meaning to their lives.  Goodwill was able to hand Lourdes a check for more than $50,000 as they met last week in Pasco.   The Lourdes Health Network gets almost no outside funding for Wilson House,  said CEO John Serle, because of the non-tradtional mental health services it provides. Healthy adults can take having a job for granted, but for these individuals with a mental illness, not having a job just adds other issues for them to overcome.  Goodwill officials in the Mid-Columbia stepped in to help and since both Goodwill and Wilson House had a previous relationship, it was a welcome gift. Both organizations allow people participating in Goodwill’s job training and placement program to work at the Wilson House clubhouse.

The annual KNDU Family Food Drive will take place on Saturday April 24th at the KNDU studio on Kennewick Avenue. 2nd Harvest Tri-Cities will be the recipient of all proceeds for this years food drive and the event will start at 8:00 am that morning, with food and cash donations accepted until 12:00 noon.  The drive last year collected an amount equivalant to over 600,000 pounds of food products, with many large Hanford companies donating $81,000 cash and over 20,000 pounds of food. 2nd Harvest is always in need of food and cash donations and partnering with KNDU allows them to get the word out to all of us in the Tri-Cities communties that there is a need here and they would be very appreciative of our support. For further information call 737-6725

With much credit going to the tax credit available to both first-time and previous homeowners and lots of affordable homes for sale, the housing market in the Tri-Cities is strong and on the increase.  With a 30 percent increase in March 2010 from the same month in 2009, sales are on the rise according to the Tri City Association of Realtors. The $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers and the $6,500 tax credit for previous homeowners becoming buyers again has really stirred anyone sitting on the fence about purchasing a home. Homes sold in March averaged $195,000 which was an increase of $10,00 from February, which is quite a jump for housing in any market!

Nationwide Open Houses

The above video highlights the Nationwide Open Houses that were done here in the Tri-Cities last weekend and highlights Distinctive Properties, Inc., agent Jackie O’Connor giving information about housing prices, absorption rates and   highlighting a current Distinctive listing in Kennewick.

Washington State University has diverse campuses throughout the state, however the Tri Cities branch campus is leading the group as the fastest growing, with the health and science fields seeing the most growth. Steadily rising enrollment numbers at the Richland campus have been seen with 1,507 student currently attending classes. Nursing programs are specifically up 30 percent over last fall and engineering programs are up 25 percent.  Officials at the university are envisioning a Wine Science Center with labs, a teaching vineyard and greenhouse.  Student government leaders also are hoping to find a way to bring together the diverse ages of students attenting the Tri Cities facility.  To read more information about upcoming plans – http://bit.ly/bpBW46