Tag Archives: kitsap

Real estate report: Supply of homes for sale is gradually increasing

After scraping bottom last winter, the supply of homes available for sale in Kitsap increased gradually since March.

Notably, the number of home listings active in September nearly matched the number reported in September of 2015 (see chart below). Concomitantly, this surge affected other housing sectors. For example, if you were to read a review of Liberty Home Guard, you’d know how much the cost of warranties has dwindled. This was one of the many effects of the surge in home listings.

There were 593 listings added last month, a 21 percent increase from the previous year, according to a report from Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Based on the stats, Kitsap remains squarely a seller’s market.

Real estate professionals consider a market balanced when it has a four- to six-month supply of homes, meaning it would take four to six months to sell off all the houses available if no new listings were added.

B0015078797--870950Kitsap had just a  2.15-month supply of homes in September. In other words, the market would need about 1,000 more active listings or a slowdown in sales to achieve some balance.

But even an incremental increase in supply could be good news, as sales activity didn’t cool off all that much in September.

Pending sales were down in the county from August to September — as is typical for the season — but were up 13 percent from September of 2015. The 448 deals closed in September marked a 15 percent increase from 2015.

Home prices remained elevated. The median price for houses and condominiums sold in September was $284,999, a 10 percent jump from last year.

Here’s a graphical look at Kitsap real estate trends.

And here’s a map showing real estate stats by submarket. Wave your clicker over each area to see details:

Home sales remained steady in October

Bremerton_Housing_Bay_Vista1_18516146_ver1.0_900_675

Kitsap County home sales remained strong in October, despite a dwindling supply of available houses.

A total of 473 sales were pending last month, according to Northwest Multiple Listing service. That was a 10 percent jump from October 2014, and 27 percent increase from October 2013.

Closed sales were also strong, with 422 transactions completed in October.

According to assessor’s records, Kitsap County had already broken the $1 billion mark for home sales by the end of September this year, easily outpacing sales volumes from the same period of 2014:

The already low inventory of homes continued to decline on October. The 888 homes for sale were 30 percent fewer than in October 2014. Here’s a graphical look at sales activity and listings through October:

The October median price for houses and condominiums in Kitsap was $258,500, nearly unchanged from September.

This graphic shows median month-by-month median home prices for Kitsap, and year-to-date home prices across the county:

Map: Walgreens, Rite Aid stores abound in Kitsap

News broke Tuesday that Walgreens has reached an agreement to buy Rite Aid, in a deal that would spawn a new pharmacy juggernaut.

The deal won’t close until the second half of 2016, so it’s too early to know what changes Walgreens has planned.

FILE- In this June 20, 2011, file photo, a woman exits a Rite Aid store, in Philadelphia. The Wall Street Journal said Walgreens Boots Alliance is in advanced talks to buy Rite Aid. Walgreens declined to comment Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, when contacted by The Associated Press. The deal would combine the largest and third-largest U.S. drugstore chains, based on store counts. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
AP photo

The company has already alluded to a “harmonized portfolio of stores and infrastructure,” a line that probably sounds nice to investors and ominous to employees.

With a merger on the horizon, it’s worth taking a look at where Walgreens and Rite Aid pharmacies are located in Kitsap, and where stores may be in direct competition.

The two chains have a combined 10 stores in Kitsap, as far as I can gather, with another Walgreens under construction on Bainbridge Island. The map embedded below shows the locations, with Rite Aids in blue and Walgreens in red.

Some of these stores are spaced so tightly you’ll have to zoom in to see them clearly:

As you can see, Rite Aid and Walgreens stores are close neighbors in West Bremerton, Port Orchard and Silverdale. The stores on Bainbridge Island will also be intimately situated once the Walgreens there is completed.

cvsThe green pin on the map represents the CVS pharmacy in Poulsbo, which opened a year ago.

Its presence is worth noting because CVS will be the only major standalone pharmacy chain left to compete with Walgreens/Rite Aid once the merger is approved.

CVS is a newcomer to Washington State, but nationally the chain commands a 58 percent market share based on revenue, according to USA Today. Walgreens has a 31 percent share and Rite Aid trails with 10 percent.

CVS recently bought all of Target’s in-store pharmacies and plans to begin operating them.

Kitsap pot businesses grossed $6M in first year

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Rachel Seymour photo

One year ago Wednesday, a shop in Bellingham sold the first bag of legal marijuana in Washington state.

The sale marked a milestone for Kitsap County too: That first bag of pot was grown Bremerton. 

In the year that followed, Washington recreational marijuana businesses recorded more than $250 million in gross sales, generating $62 million for the state in excise taxes. Add in other state and local taxes and the total tax bill topped $70 million.

Kitsap marijuana retailers, growers and processors grossed about $5.75 million, generating $1.44 million in excise tax, according to statistics made available by the Liquor Control Board. Nearly $5 million of gross revenue came from the retail side.

Kitsap’s busiest marijuana shop made $430,000 in sales in June alone.

The county can expect much higher sales totals in the coming year.

Ten Kitsap marijuana enterprises — four shops and six producer/processors — recorded sales between July 2014 and the end of June. As of this week the county had 16 licensed pot businesses, with several more in the works.

Relaxed taxes could also lure more customers to recreational shops.

During the first year of sales, marijuana was taxed 25 percent when sold between a producer and processor, another 25 percent when sold to the retailer, and a final 25 percent when sold to the consumer, resulting in an excise tax of up to 75 percent.

A law enacted this summer will reduce the overall tax to 37 percent.

And that’s not the only sweeping change ahead for the fledgling industry. At the direction of the Legislature, the state will essentially dismantle the existing medical marijuana system over the next year, and roll what’s left into the recreational system.

The expected closure of medical dispensaries will reduce competition for the licensed shops and drive up recreational pot sales.

Here’s a graphical look at the first year of marijuana sales in Kitsap:

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Real estate: 2015 begins with familiar trends

Kitsap County’s real estate market picked up in January right where it left off in December.

Sales activity was brisk. Inventory continued to scrape bottom.

According to Northwest Multiple Listing Service, there were 225 closed sales reported in Kitsap in January, the same number as in January 2014.

Pending sales, on the other hand, were up 16 percent from January 2014, promising a boost in closed sales early this year.

The number of available homes in the county just keeps dropping. There were 843 homes available in January, almost 30 percent fewer than in January 2014. Continue reading →

Kitsap saw gradual job growth in 2014

safeboatsKitsap’s employment picture became a little brighter in 2014.

Kitsap County employers added jobs for the second straight year in 2014, with hiring expected to accelerate through 2015.

Employment among the county’s residents, which has declined steadily since 2008, showed signs of stabilizing.

We’ll look at both trends, starting with job creation in Kitsap.

Jobs in Kitsap County

Employers are still digging out from the economic recession in many sectors.

home constrAfter years of local job losses, the county is finally seeing gradual job gains, according to data from the Employment Security Department.

There were an average of 85,100 jobs in Kitsap last year, compared with 83,800 in 2013, a 1.5 percent increase.

The county is still about 2,300 jobs short of its 2006 employment peak.

Margaret Hess of WorkSource Kitsap said hiring activity was noticeably improved last year. The WorkSource has been hosting frequent hiring events with employers. Job openings at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard drew a great deal of interest.

“We’re really positive,” Hess said. “Things are looking up.”

Regional state economist Jim Vleming said he expects hiring to accelerate in several sectors this year, including construction and recreation/leisure.

“We’re definitely going in the right direction,” he said.

Here’s a graphical look at longterm Kitsap job trends:

 

 
Continue reading →

Kitsap’s top commercial property sales of 2014

0729_KSLO_bethel copyResidential real estate sales surged in Kitsap County last year. The same was true for commercial sales, according to assessor’s records.

Across the county, 302 commercial parcels changed hands in 2014, about 13.5 percent more than in 2013. A total of 198 were sold in single-parcel sales, 18.5 percent more than in 2013.

Those sales included some high profile properties. Below I’ve listed the 20 biggest commercial real estate transactions of 2014 by sales price.

A couple of notes before we get started:

— We’re talking about sales of property, not the business tenants associated with the property.

— Most the sellers and buyers were generic holding companies. You can plug the names into the state’s corporation search to get more details.

1. Arbor Terrace Apartments, Port Orchard

Sale date: Dec. 22

Sale price: $28.6 million

Sold by: Heritage Communities LLC. to Sea 1800 Sydney Avenue LLC

Notes: Two parcels totaling about 18 acres and 280 units.

2. Bay Pointe Retirement Center, Bremerton

Sale date: June 16

Sale price: $21.9 million

Sold by: AEWSH Bay Pointe Senior Housing to ARCH BPBRMWA01 LLC

Notes: A 3.3 acre retirement center in West Bremerton.

3. Bethel Junction, Port Orchard

Sale date: July 22

Sale price: $20.8 million

Sold by: Tavitac Bethel LLC. to Bethel Garp LLC.

Notes: A two-parcel, 157,500-square-foot shopping center that includes a Safeway (soon to be Haggen), Starbucks and other businesses. Sold to a San Diego investment group. Earlier blog post here. Continue reading →

Kitsap employment up for the holidays

Shop1_9941910_ver1.0_640_480The holiday hiring season arrived in earnest in November.

About 2,200 more Kitsap residents were employed last month than in October, according to a monthly report from the Employment Security Department.

The jump isn’t unusual, as companies tend to hire seasonal workers during the holidays (the JCPenney in Silverdale, for example, told me they brought on 70 employees before Black Friday).

About 220 more people were listed as unemployed but actively seeking jobs November. Kitsap’s labor force (the total number of people employed or looking for jobs) grew by 2,450. The state’s labor force also grew significantly in November.

That’s a good sign to economists. If people are looking for work, it usually means they’re optimistic they’ll find work.

Growth in the labor force demonstrates “ongoing faith in a recovering economy,” state labor economist Paul Turek said.

Here’s a graphical look at labor trends in Kitsap over the last three years:

 

Kitsap marijuana revenue near $700k

Recreational marijuana businesses in Kitsap County generated $688,394 in revenue by the end of October, paying $172,099 in state excise tax, according to Liquor Control Board records.

Those figures included two producer/processor businesses and two retail stores that have recorded sales so far. One more store and and another producer processor are just coming online in the county.

Retail sales ($363,803) overtook wholesale marijuana sales ($324,591) by the end of October.

Follow business reporter Tad Sooter on Twitter at @tsooter. Contact him at tad.sooter@kitsapsun.com or leave a comment below.

Home sales tick up, prices down in August

Kitsap home prices surged but sales were slow in July. Activity flip flopped in August, with sales ticking up and median prices slipping.

According to Northwest Multiple Listing Service, the median price of a home in Kitsap dipped to $243,000 in August, after hitting a peak of $255,000 in July.

Closed sales recorded in August (400) were up compared with July (358) and August 2013 (383). Pending sales jumped as well.

Year-to-date closed sales for 2014 (2,154) are still slightly ahead of 2013 (2,408):

Sales this summer kept the county’s inventory of available homes low with a 3.89-month supply, down from 5.2 months at the start of the year.

A total of 512 homes came on the market in August and 1,555 listings were active, four fewer than at the same time in 2013.