Two of three four-plexes being built across my my house. 
(Click on the picture to enlarge)


The building boom is on.  You can't drive anywhere in the Wenatchee Valley without seeing it (and hearing it).  Although there is significant new construction on the Wenatchee side of the Columbia River (Chelan County), the majority of the new subdivision developments are on the East Wenatchee side of the  river (Douglas County), where there is more open land that is easier to develop and  more reasonably priced.  The Wenatchee side of the river is close to the surrounding  Foothills, and there is less open land available.    In some areas, fruit trees are being cut down to be "replanted" with homes.  Other developments are going in where there was open sage scrub land.    Besides all the new homes, there has been a proliferation of new multi-family units in the last year also. 

According to an article in the week-end edition of the Wenatchee World, the building permits issued in the East Wenatchee area have outpaced the Wenatchee area building permits by 2:1.    Much of the growth we are experiencing is from new people moving to the area, many of them retiring here from less desireable climates.  As much as 30% of our current home sale activity is attributed to new people moving to the area.    Most of these new homes are in the low 200,000  to low 300,000 price range... with some being lower and some being higher, of course. 

As a side note, there are a bunch of major street paving projects going on around the city of Wenatchee... so leave yourself extra time when travelling to appointments.