Homebuyers hoping to cash in on a federal tax credit that expires next month gave a boost to the housing market in Clallam County and across most of the state last quarter.
Home resales — which exclude the sale of new homes — increased by 43.8 percent in Clallam County when compared with the same time period last year, and 12.9 percent when compared with the first quarter of this year, according to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research.
Statewide, home resales were up by 27.5 percent when compared with the year before, and 3.5 percent from the first quarter.
Tax credit
Glenn Crellin, director of the center based at Washington State University, attributed the increases to homebuyers taking advantage of the $8,000 tax credit before it expires Sept. 30. The credit is only available to first-time homebuyers.
But a few counties did not follow that trend.
One of them was Jefferson County.
Last quarter, home resales there merely inched up by 6.5 percent when compared with the same time period the year before. They also dropped by 21.4 percent in Jefferson County when compared with the first quarter.
Retirement population has effect
Crellin attributed the discrepancies to Jefferson County’s growing retirement population.
“Jefferson County is a market in transition,” he said.
“Certainly, first-time homebuyers are not as big an influx in [that] market, which is increasingly becoming retirement-oriented.”
Crellin also noted that, due to the county’s small population, percentage changes tend to be more dramatic than in other counties.
Clallam County also has a significant retirement community, particularly in Sequim, but that has less of an effect on real estate figures since it is a smaller percentage of the population, he said.
“Clallam has some of the same drivers Jefferson County has,” Crellin said.
“Sequim has been a retirement mecca for some time.”
But, he added, the rest of Clallam County, including Port Angeles, is more of a “traditional marketplace.”
Good time to buy
Even without the tax credit, now is a good time to buy, Crellin said, due to “incredibly low interest rates” and declining home prices.
The housing affordability index in Clallam County, for instance, was at 119 last quarter, according to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research.
That means, when compared with the year before, that the median income family had 19 percent more income than the minimum required to buy a median price home with a 20 percent down payment and a 30-year mortgage.
Clallam County’s median home price of $209,800 last quarter is down 1.1 percent when compared with the same time period one year ago, according to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research.
The statewide median home price of $246,800 is down 6.9 percent from a year ago.
Jefferson County also bucked that trend.
Its median home price was $281,000 last quarter. That is 29.2 percent higher than one year ago.
Crellin said most counties will see a drop in home sales at the end of this quarter due to the expiration of the tax credit.
To qualify for the credit, home purchases must be closed by the deadline.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
