The pace of Whatcom sales has slowed. Here’s what that has done to home appreciation
Home values are still rising in Whatcom County, but the pace is starting to slow down.
At the end of June homes in the Bellingham metro area appreciated 7.4% compared to the same period a year ago, according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. That’s the 34th highest increase in the 241 metro areas surveyed, according to the report.
While higher than most of the nation’s metro areas, Whatcom County’s home appreciation is lower than the double-digit percent increases this area has experienced in recent years. In the first quarter of 2019 home values rose 10%.
Seattle home values rose 1.4% in the second quarter, ranking it among metro areas with the lowest rate of appreciation.
Several Washington metro areas cracked the top 20 in terms of high home appreciation: Kennewick (up 11.9% in the second quarter compared to a year ago), Spokane (up 11.3%), Yakima (up 9.1%) and Olympia (up 8.6%).
Nationally home prices rose 5% year-over-year, but this is also a slower pace.
“The majority of states and cities are experiencing slower house price gains than they did a year ago, even with constrained housing supply and extremely attractive mortgage rates,” said William Doerner, an economist for the agency, in a news release accompanying the data.
Whatcom County’s slower valuation increase comes at a time when real estate sales activity appears to be returning to a more typical, steady pace. Whatcom home sales between April and July increased 2.4% compared to the previous year. That and other data indicate that Whatcom could be moving toward a more balanced market after years of being firmly tipped toward sellers. That’s according to Darin Stenvers, branch manager at the John L. Scott in Bellingham, in an interview for the Aug. 17 article.
According to the 2017 American Community Survey done by the U.S. Census, 61.8% of Whatcom County houses are owner occupied.
This story was originally published September 3, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
