Last year, first-time buyers Robyn Beutler and fiancé Todd Boughton searched for a home large enough to raise a family, but had little luck.

Even with declining market prices and two salaries, the young couple — and 2-year-old daughter — still couldn’t afford a three-bedroom house with a big yard in a friendly neighborhood. “We just didn’t make enough money to buy what we wanted and needed,” said Beutler, 28, a social worker.

Then, out of the blue, they tripped across a “short sale” home — one discounted below what the seller owed on it — and suddenly their dreams were within reach.

“It was wonderful,” said Beutler of the split-level, three-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot home with a double garage and fenced backyard. “It had everything and was priced at the amount we were approved for.”

Asking price? $248,000. Selling price? $189,000. Beutler and Boughton saved $59,000.

“That’s the flipside to a slumping market,” said Jamie Wallace, a Wenatchee Windermere agent who specializes in REOs, or “real estate owned” properties held by banks, investment groups, and government-sponsored companies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “Opportunities like that are everywhere. People just need to learn about them.”

Wallace, who handled Beutler and Boughton’s home purchase, is a former chairwoman of Wenatchee’s Affordable Housing Task Force, a teacher of first-time buyer workshops and a proponent of low-cost and bargain housing for median-wage workers.

She estimated that foreclosures make up as much as 5 percent of the Wenatchee market’s active listings, but add up to nearly 15 percent of final closings. “All the stats support this,” she said. “You can see that the great majority of homes selling here are below $250,000, with many at around $150,000.”

At present, Wallace has 46 listings. The least expensive is priced at $67,000; the highest priced is $380,000, down from $469,000. She sells from four to 10 houses per month in a sales territory that stretches from the Canadian border south to Yakima. Most of her properties in the Wenatchee market list between $100,000 and $200,000.

On average, a buyer can save 20 to 40 percent on the purchase of a foreclosure or short sale, she said. “And in rare cases, the selling price can be 50, 60, 70 percent of the original asking price.”

“Back in the boom time (2004-07), I was barely hanging on trying to sell these reduce-priced properties,” she said. “But now? I’m one of Windermere’s strongest listing agents. And it’s all because of distressed properties — the foreclosures and short sales that followed the boom.”

Wallace said she emphasizes “to anyone who’ll listen” that now’s the time for home buyers to consider the purchase of a foreclosure. “Everyone thinks it’s hard to get financing,” she said, “but that’s not true with many of the local foreclosures. They want you in the home and offer all kinds of incentives.”

Those include-low interest loans for purchase and renovations, said Wallace. “That’s right, they’ll loan you money to fix the roof, remodel a kitchen, install heaters and air-conditioning. It’s a heck of a deal. On some homes, we’ve added a lot of bling.”

The problem, she said, “is that buyers still aren’t catching on, and I’m not exactly sure why. These are missed opportunities to own really nice little homes. These are amazing opportunities for young families.”

She estimated that up to a third of all renters in the Wenatchee market could probably own one of the foreclosed properties for the same monthly payment as rent.

And, she added, bargain prices aside, these remodeled and updated homes provide “neighborhood stabilization — if you don’t mind me using that term — that improves a home’s exterior, the yard, the whole block if it’s done right.“

She smiled, “There’s a saying, ‘With these sweet deals, you can make applesauce out of sour apples.’ But I believe that — these are really sweet deals.”