Mortgage rates, home prices decline in Bellingham and Whatcom County
Median home sale prices in Bellingham and Whatcom County decreased in September, as Washington remains one of the most expensive states in which to purchase a home.
Whatcom County
Whatcom County’s median home sale price reached an extreme high of $682,000 in July 2024, the highest price from 2012-2025, according to Redfin Metro Area Data. Redfin is a residential real estate brokerage that uses home listings to generate metro area data.
Whatcom County’s median sale price across all of September was $593,000, a 0.3% decrease compared with August and a 2.9% decrease compared with the same month last year, according to Jason Lee, a local broker with Windermere Real Estate in Bellingham.
“The two most notable metrics from summer 2025 was the slow decline of mortgage rates and the rise of days on market in September, which is normal,” Lee told The Herald.
“As we enter the last months of 2025, I expect to see Whatcom County’s active inventory of homes and condos drop below 1,000 sometime in early November.”
Bellingham
Bellingham’s median sale price was $668,000 in September, according to Lee. That’s a 4.8% decrease compared with August, and a 1.8% increase compared with September of last year, Lee said.
“Inventory, pendings and closings were all steady week-to-week from the start of summer into the end of September,” Lee said.
Statewide
Washington’s median home sale price in September was $630,700, a decrease of 0.6% compared to the same month last year, according to Redfin data.
Washington has been among the top five most expensive states in which to purchase a home in 2025, alongside California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Colorado.
“Nationwide, 29% of homebuyers searched to move to a different metro area between June and August 2025. The top 5 states homebuyers searched to move to were Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Carolina, while California, New York, Illinois, Maryland, and Washington were the top 5 states homebuyers searched to move from,” according to Redfin’s U.S. Migration Trends data.
