Home prices increase in Bellingham and Whatcom County; local broker weighs in
Median home sale prices in Bellingham and Whatcom County increased in May, and Washington remains one of the most expensive states in which to purchase a home.
Whatcom County
Whatcom County’s median sale price across all of May was $628,000, a 6.6% increase compared with April and a 4.1% increase compared with the same month last year, according to Jason Lee, a local broker with Windermere Real Estate in Bellingham.
In April, Whatcom County’s median sale price was $589,000.
“Year over year, May 2026 looked very similar to May 2025,” Lee told The Herald. ”Our inventory reached 1,000 homes and condos the first week of June. That’s right on track for our seasonal local market and about one week earlier than when we hit the 1,000 milestone in 2025.”
Whatcom County’s median home sale price reached a peak of $662,000 in July 2024, the highest price from 2012-26, according to Redfin Metro Area Data, a residential real estate brokerage that uses home listings to generate metro area data.
Bellingham
Bellingham’s median sale price was $649,000 in May, according to Lee. That’s a 3% increase compared with April and a 2.5% increase compared with May 2025, Lee said.
“Overall buyers are being patient, taking advantage of slightly longer days on market and sometimes waiting a little bit longer to see what other homes might come on the market,” Lee said.
In April, Bellingham’s median sale price decreased to $638,000.
Statewide
Washington’s median home sale price in May was $612,823, a decrease of 0.88% compared to the same month last year, according to Redfin data, and an increase of $5,546 compared to April’s median of $607,277.
Redfin lists Washington as the fifth most expensive state in which to purchase a home in 2025, following California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Colorado.
Many residents have also been looking to move out of the state, according to Redfin.
“Nationwide, 19% of homebuyers searched to move to a different metro area between January 2026 and March 2026. The top 5 states homebuyers searched to move to were Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Nevada while California, New York, Illinois, Washington, and Massachusetts were the top 5 states homebuyers searched to move from,” according to Redfin’s U.S. Migration Trends data.
