Ramtha's School of Enlightenment

The Sunday Business section of The Olympian reports:

"Home and condo sales through May in Thurston County are down 6 percent compared with the same period last year but remain strong, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service home-sales data for the first five months of the year.

Still, Lacey, Hawks Prairie and Yelm continue to be popular destinations for South Sound home buyers.

The year-to-date home and condo sales data show:

• 351 units have sold in Lacey

• 125 units have sold in Hawks Prairie

• 284 units have sold in the Yelm and Rainier area

Communities such as Lacey and Yelm offer shorter commutes for military personnel stationed at Fort Lewis, and both have benefited from a wave of home construction, South Sound real-estate professionals say.

In 2006, Lacey officials issued more than 1,400 residential and multi-family building permits, and Yelm officials issued 173 residential building permits.

Yelm building official Gary Carlson said that until 2004, the city had never issued more than 100 residential building permits in a year.

Carlson said he continues to see military families move to the area, and a Yelm home still is a little cheaper than one in nearby Pierce County.

'If you can’t qualify (for a home) in Puyallup, you might be able to qualify here,' Carlson said....

At the time, Yelm was nothing more than 'several single-wide trailers' but now has plenty of commercial development and traffic, he said.

The Ramtha School of Enlightenment, which is near Yelm, also has contributed to the city’s profile, Crandell said.

'You can’t understate the impact that they have had on growth in Yelm,' he said."