Whatcom housing market changes after ‘dramatic effects’ of price and mortgage increase
Whatcom County’s median price of homes sold is still increasing, but the market seems to be slowing down, according to a local real estate report.
The median house price in Whatcom County increased 9.2% to $600,000 in 2022, “a good increase in any year except in comparison to 2021, when it soared 24.3%,” according to a report from Peter Ahn, co-owner of The Muljat Group, a Bellingham-based real estate group.
Bellingham has the highest median home sale price in the county at $712,000, followed by $629,000 in Ferndale and $595,250 in Lynden. Mount Baker had the lowest median home sale price in 2022 of $370,000.
Even as home sale prices decreased, the number of homes sold also decreased in 2022, dropping 10.4% to 2,928 in Whatcom County, the lowest number of sales in the county since 2014, according to Ahn.
At the start of 2022, a 30-year fixed mortgage rate was around 3%, and rose above 5% in late summer. This increase had a “dramatic effect” on monthly home payments and slowed down home sales, according to Ahn.
“We still have plenty of people wanting to live in Whatcom County, there’s more housing inventory and the 30-year mortgage rate has dipped somewhat to around 6.5%, so we now have more of a balanced market for buyers and sellers,” Ahn said in the report.
Most affordable
For those looking to purchase a home in the fluctuating market, the report ranked each Whatcom County city from most expensive average price to least.
Whatcom County’s average home sale price was $655,432 in 2022, according to the report.
Bellingham had the highest average home sale price in Whatcom County at $820,572, followed by:
▪ $649,151 in Lynden.
▪ $643,276 in Ferndale.
▪ $623,424 in Birch Bay and Blaine.
▪ $596,615 in Sudden Valley.
▪ $559,937 in Nooksack Valley.
▪ $386,710 in Mount Baker.
