Tag Archives: median prices

Kitsap County home prices keep rising

Homes in Kitsap County sold for more last month than at any time in the past three years.

The median price for houses and condominiums sold in May was $265,000, a 15 percent gain from May 2014, according to numbers released Thursday by Northwest Multiple Listing Service. The May median price actually topped last year’s peak of $255,050, recorded in July.

The median price for a home on Bainbridge Island was $618,500 in May. West Bremerton remained the county’s most affordable enclave, with a median price of $142,500.

Here’s a graphical look at price trends in the county:

While prices kept climbing, pending sales (554) and closed sales (353) essentially leveled off between April and May.

The inventory of available homes remained low (about 28 percent lower than a year ago) but showed signs of improvement. The number of active listings climbed from 840 in April to 950 in May, marking the first noteworthy gain since August of last year.

The months supply of homes — the number of months it would take to sell off all available homes if no new properties were listed — jumped to 2.69. For comparison, King County’s reported a 1.2 months supply of homes. 

Kitsap real estate market ends 2014 with a bang

The Western Washington real estate market ended 2014 with fireworks.

Home sales logged in December 2014 outpaced sales made in December 2013 by double digits, according to numbers released by Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

The trend held true in Kitsap County, where December pending sales (306) were nearly 20 percent higher than at the same time in the previous year. Closed sales (324) jumped by 29 percent. Unseasonably high sales were seen in nearly every Kitsap community.

While sales surged, the available inventory of homes continued to plunge. Just 205 homes came on the market in Kitsap in December. Fewer than 900 homes were available for sale in the county, the first time the inventory has dipped below 1,000 in at least the past three years.

Hot sales and low inventory drove the months supply of homes (the number of months it would take to sell off all the homes available) down to 2.76. For comparison, King County’s months supply was a rock-bottom 1.44, while Pierce County’s was at 3.02.

Here’s a look at listing trends in Kitsap:

Despite dramatic swings in sales and inventory, Kitsap home prices remained virtually unchanged.

The median price for a closed sale in December ($235,000) was actually down from December 2013 ($244,000). The overall median home price for 2014 fell $200 short of the 2013 price: $239,250 to $239,450.

I’ll be writing a more in depth review of 2014 real estate trends later this month when NWMLS releases its annual report. In the meantime, here’s a big fat chart showing 2014 median home prices for various areas of the county: