As I have posted before, it’s near impossible to get a rental here.  Apartments are at 99% occupancy.  Finding a house to rent is like finding a needle in a haystack.

KEPR-TV broadcast a story last night that shows how the problem isn’t going away, and in fact, is getting worse because, as the story relates…

At the end of a lease, many landlords have the ability to reevaluate apartment rental rates based on market demand. Since demand has been steadily increasing in the last year, most apartment managers have increased prices between $25 and $45 a month each time a lease is renewed.

So, not only can you not find a place to rent, if you do, you’re paying a premium for the privilege.

This is where buying a house comes in….

If you bought a house a 3-bedroom, 2 bath home with a garage for $150,000, at a fixed interest rate of 5% over a term of 30 years…

and put 3,5% cash down ($5,250)…

and taxes hovered in the $1700 range…

and your homeowners insurance was about $750 annually…

Your mortgage payment would be less than $1,000 a month!

(Calculations courtesy of the iPhone Mortgage Calculator application)

And you’d have more bedrooms than the apartment provides you with, and a yard for a pet or a BBQ AND you’d be building equity.  You’d be working toward owning something instead of supporting someone else’s ownership of property.

Of course, every person’s financial picture differs, and for some it might make more sense to rent.  However, this might just be the right time to buy since it costs so much to rent.

Matt mentioned to him that our Tri-Cities economy has weathered the storm and stayed pretty strong, and suggested he look for a job up in these parts. The friend was open to the idea — “I’ll move wherever the jobs are” — and so we put together this handy little guide to job-hunting in the Tri-Cities … even if you’re not living in the Tri-Cities.

Tri-Cities Economy

The Tri-Cities (Richland, Kennewick, Pasco) job growth and economy has consistently been ranked highly on a number of counts/lists. Our real estate market has remained much stronger than most other markets, too. We have the Hanford Nuclear Facility here, and that received a lot of stimulus money — adding more jobs to the situation. Here are some links:

• Tri-Cities beating the nation in adding new jobs (most recent)
• Tri-Cities, Yakima among best places to start over
• In similar counties, stimulus impact is miles apart
• Kennewick Real Estate Featured on CNNMoney

Those links set the stage for why the Tri-Cities job market is where it is today.

Tri-Cities Job Hunting Links

We also shared some links to actually begin looking for a job here.

General Job Listing Sites

• Tri-City Herald/CareerBuilder.com Job Listings
• Simply Hired: Tri-Cities Job Search
• WorkSource Washington Job Search (you have to start there and then choose “Pasco” and/or “Richland/Kennewick” from the drop-down list)
• Monster.com Tri-Cities Job Listings (using 99336 as the search area with a 20-mile outbound radius)
• Tri-Cities jobs listed on Craigslist, as suggested by Ryan in the comments – thanks!

Hanford-related Jobs

• PNNL Jobs
• Hanford Contractors
• Bechtel Hanford Vit Plant Jobs
• Energy Northwest Jobs
• USAJobs.gov, as suggested by Ben in the comments – thanks!

Other Tri-Cities Job Opportunities

The last link we sent to Matt’s friend was a link to the About Tri-Cities page here on my web site. I have links to the major hospitals, school districts, government web sites, and so forth — all of which should have easy-to-find job listings online.

What did we miss?

If you know of a great web site for finding Tri-Cities jobs, please leave a link to it in the comments and we’ll consider adding it to our list above. If you’re looking for a Tri-Cities job, we hope this is helpful! And if you’re relocating to the Tri-Cities, I’d be honored to help you find a home. Drop me a note if I can help.

The funniest part of last night is when we were driving away we actually saw a family with their pigs wrapped up in blankets putting them back in the car after the show. You’ve got to love Benton City

300 days of sunshine AND Pigs in a Blanket? Are you kidding me right now? I challenge you to find a better place to live!

If you’ve never seen the movie but think that someday you might, then stop reading this post and come back and finish reading after you’ve seen the movie.

For those of you who have seen it, I want you to remember the final scene. George, surrounded by his friends, is toasted as “the richest man in town.” He has money but, more than that, he has friends. Many, many friends. These friends, when told by George’s wife, Mary, that George needed help, “didn’t ask any questions.” They just set about helping.

I have a friend who is hesitant to ask for help. I understand that because I am, too. You can get all psychological if you want and say this means something about her psyche or my personality type or whatever. I just know that when she is in need, she exhausts herself first before reaching out to others.

She recently found herself in a situation where she needed help. She was moving out of a very large home into a smaller home with her three young sons. No husband or brothers to help. The movers she was thinking of hiring sufficiently creeped her out so that she nixed that plan.

“I can do this myself!,” she thought.

But another friend of hers, (we’ll call her Mary), said, “No, you won’t. I’ll get others to help. No biggie.” And Mary rallied the troops. She called and e-mailed and Facebook-posted “Our friend needs help!” She had a spreadsheet created, shifts posted, donuts and coffee procured, and she was ready.

AND WE SHOWED UP. Even one woman who had thrown her back out earlier in the week arrived and said, “I can carry things out one at a time!” And she did.

When I was there that VERY HOT Saturday morning, running up and down flights of stairs, bruising my legs all up and only eating one doughnut (those of you who know me know what a sacrifice that is!), I looked around me and saw the other thirty people helping out. Were we being paid? No. Someone needed our help, and without a question asked, we showed up. I realized that though my friend was moving out of a two-story with a basement which sported over 5,000 square feet and a swimming pool, on over a half-acre lot, into a two-story, 1942 sq. ft. home, with a storage shed and less than a third-acre lot, she was the richest person I knew.

She is the richest person I know. And even though it doesn’t feel like it to her right now, she is smack-dab-in-the-middle of a wonderful life.

This map is fascinating. You click on a county and you find where the people moved to when they left, or where the people moved from when they came to live there. For example, 462 people left King County, WA to move to Benton County, but 392 people moved from here to there. We netted a gain of 70 people from the west side. Woo-hoo! Maybe one of them won’t be able to live without a Krispy Kreme and will open one up here…

But I love it because I’m helping. I am contributing to the betterment of my community. I’m living out the Golden Rule that day (even if I flub it sometimes the other 364 in a year).

This year, we did some major landscaping at the old Police Station in downtown Kennewick. We removed the old shrubs and trees, lots of rocks, the old ground cover and some sod. We put in new borders, ground cover, flowers and trees, and spread new rock. The YMCA will be using this building and they were thrilled with the changes.

In a neat little twist, this year the Windermere Foundation got in to the act. If I tweeted and used the Twitter hashtag #wrecsd when writing about my Community Service Day activities, the Windermere Foundation contributed $1 for every tweet to the Windermere Kids at the Y fund – up to $25,000! I did not tweet twenty-five thousand times, but I did tweet about nine times, and added a picture, too, for most of them.

If you are on Twitter, follow me – http://twitter.com/carimcgee. Go back through the stuff on Friday the 18th and you can see some of what we did.

If you’re not on Twitter, then check out the KNDU story. At the 26-second mark, you can see me almost fall, but my coworker helped me out and spared me from future years of remembering the year I twisted my ankle!

This is a big problem for anyone looking to rent and not buy. As I detail in this post from almost a year ago, when the problem was the same, there is just nothing available. The problem is compounded when you add a family and a pet.

And, as this KNDU story illustrates, it’s bad news for people down on their luck looking for some shelter just for themselves, never mind 1.86 children and a dog or two.

Department Director for the BFCAC (Benton Franklin Community Action Committee), Debra Biondolillo says it’s not easy finding low income families places to live. Partly because there’s not as many vacant places as years before.

“They are in a position now where they have an over-flux of people applying for these apartments and can be choosy about who they put in these apartments,” said Biondolillo.

So, we need some new construction, which the Herald reported on Sunday, is on its way! Amen!!

As a Realtor, I can’t tell anyone where they should or shouldn’t live. I can’t tell you about the demographic breakdown of a neighborhood, which schools are best to attend or where you’re least likely to be the victim of a crime. For me to do so is against federal law. But, I can suggest you gather all the information available by contacting local law enforcement agencies, scouring the internet, checking out test scores for the schools you want to know more about, and keeping your eyes open when you are in any given area.

This is, in fact, my favorite line from the article, not just because it is good common sense, but because the writer tries to be all hip -

Also police suggest visiting the property during the day and night to see what you observe going down.

Ooooo, going down…very cool!

But they have a great point – if you’re interested in a home, then visit it at all times of the day. Take a look at the surrounding neighborhood. What’s the maintenance like? Does it appear to be an area on its way up or is it in decline? Just use your noodle, as my mom would say, and you’ll stay out of all kinds of housing trouble.

But, if we stop to think about it, of course there are people who need help all year. Just because the sun is shining and it’s 80 degrees at night, doesn’t mean that someone wouldn’t prefer to sleep with a roof over his or her head. Because it’s vacation season doesn’t mean people aren’t going to get seriously ill. And because stray dogs and cats can get spare bowls of water from people up and down a street, doesn’t mean that little puppy won’t need a home soon.

So I am thrilled to announce a major charity event Windermere and Toyota of Tri-Cities are co-sponsoring -

It’s Our Ship! with Mike Abrashoff is coming to the Tri-Cities!!

We’ve had leadership conferences (via simulcast) here before, and we’ve had major leaders speak as they’ve traveled through town (as part of a campaign stop), but nothing of this caliber has appeared in our fair burg.

Mr. Abrashoff worked for the US Navy, and instead of doing things the way they’d always been done, he decided to take a new approach. All kinds of good things followed.

Now he is coming to speak at the Toyota Center here in good ol’ Kennewick, WA. We’ll hear leadership stories and management techniques from someone who knows what he’s talking about.

All proceeds from the event will benefit -

U.S. Troop Care Package

The First Tee Columbia Basin

Benton/Franklin Volunteer Center

Domestic Violence Services of Benton and Franklin Counties

Tri-Cities Cancer Center

Benton-Franklin Humane Society

Boys and Girl Club of Benton and Franklin Counties

Catholic Family and Child Services

Elijah Family Homes

Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science and Technology (CREHST)

Tickets are $15.00 each, $12.00 if you buy a block of 25 or more. Be sure to snag your ticket fast This kind of thing doesn’t usually happen here in the Tri-Cities.

So, the reason for an information repeat is this new bit of news, brought to us courtesy of KEPR-TV’s story on the new flights.

…you’re charged $15 a person just for booking online.

It’s even more expensive if you call to book. To avoid those fees — park free at the Pasco airport for just a few minutes to book your ticket right at the Allegiant counter.

Awesome! California, here I come!!!