The Washington Center for Real Estate Research said that sales of existing homes grew slightly in Clallam County while prices dropped during the second quarter of 2009 compared to the first quarter of the year.
From April through June, 710 homes were resold in Clallam County, the center said in a report released Wednesday.
That figure is up 4.4 percent over the first quarter of the year, but down 26 percent when compared to the first six months last year, said the research center based at Washington State University.
In Clallam County, the price of a median home is $212,100, which is a drop of 15.2 percent, the center said.
The center bases its research on the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
It does not include information from the Olympic Listing Service, which lists sales figures from Diamond Point to Joyce, said Doc Reiss, associate broker at Windermere Real Estate in Port Angeles.
Reiss said the Olympic Listing Service also finds a rise in home sales, but lower numbers, from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2009.
The Olympic Listing Service shows 99 sales during the first quarter of 2009, and 156 sales in the second quarter, Reiss said.
It also shows the market as being down when comparing the first six months of 2008 and 2009. It lists 258 homes were sold from January through June 2009, while 325 were sold during the same time period in 2008, he said.
“That’s down 21 percent, as far as number of homes that have been sold,” Reiss said.
As for prices, the Olympic Listing Service shows a 32 percent drop in dollar volume from last year at this time, he added.
In first six months of 2008, sales totaled $170,241,306, according to the Olympic Listing Service, which does not include homes sold by owners, Reiss said. During the same period of 2009, sales totaled $115,837,936.
Jefferson County
The Washington Center for Real Estate Research said that sales were down in Jefferson County in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the first quarter.
Jefferson County saw 320 homes resold, which is down 3 percent over the first quarter and down 39.6 percent when compared to the same time period in 2008, the center said.
The median home price in Jefferson County is $217,500, the center added. That is a drop of 28.1 percent.
Both Clallam and Jefferson counties fall below the state average, according to the research center.
April through June saw an 11.6 percent increase from the first quarter on average in the number of existing homes sold statewide. Despite the increase, the state has seen those sales drop 15.6 percent from one year ago.
Other counties around the state are facing a decline just like the North Olympic Peninsula, but typically to a lesser degree.
Statewide, the median home price dropped 9.2 percent to $265,100.
Only four counties did not see a drop in median prices: Yakima, 3.6 percent; Grant, 1.1 percent; Benton, 0.2 percent; and Franklin, 0.2 percent.
Median prices fell the most in San Juan County at 38 percent to $350,000.
That drop has allowed King County to once again have the most expensive housing, with a median price of $387,000. That figure is a drop of 13.9 percent when compared to the same period last year.
The number of homes listed for sale throughout the state, about 50,000, is down 6.5 percent when compared to a year ago, according to the center.
But that still represents enough inventory to 10.6 months, the center said, which suggest that the housing market is still oversupplied.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
The Associated Presscontributed to this report.
