Rising home prices and sales volumes show the real estate market is heating up on the North Olympic Peninsula, brokers say.
Prices and volumes spiked in both Clallam and Jefferson counties from 2014 to 2015, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service statistics.
“The news is getting better,” said Doc Reiss, president of the Port Angeles Association of Realtors.
Port Angeles
In the Port Angeles market, which covers a wide area from McDonald Creek to the West End, the average home price climbed 7.2 percent from $189,479 in 2014 to $203,127 last year.
As of Wednesday, 523 homes had been sold in the market compared to 450 in 2014, a gain of 16.2 percent.
“We’ve been making progress, but this year [2015] is much stronger,” Reiss said in a Wednesday telephone interview.
“Part of it is the fact that the economy is better and people are realizing it.”
Sequim market
In the Sequim market from McDonald Creek to Jefferson County, home sales increased from 663 in 2014 to 757 in 2015, a 14.2 percent rise.
Although the average price for a Sequim-area home showed little change — $252,053 in 2014 compared to $252,532 last year — the net value of those sales jumped from $16.7 million to $19.2 million, or 15 percent.
The total value of Port Angeles-market sales increased from $85.3 million in 2014 to $106.2 million in 2015, or 24.5 percent.
“Loosely calculated, every home sale puts $17,000 into the economy in retail sales within six months of closing,” Reiss said in a news release.
“That means that from the Port Angeles real estate side we have generated an additional $1,241,000 in local retail growth over last year.”
Jefferson County’s real estate records are good through November.
Despite the absence of December data, the trend for real estate is similar across the North Olympic Peninsula.
Jefferson County
The average home price in Jefferson County was $290,359 through November 2014 compared to $311,273 through November 2015, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service statistics for residential properties.
The number of sales in Jefferson County rose from 460 to 566, or 23 percent, during that time.
The total value of Jefferson County’s sales went from $133.6 million to $176.2 million, a gain of 31.9 percent.
“The Port Townsend market has had a good, strong year,” said Valerie Schindler of Brinnon-based Windermere Hood Canal.
“Port Ludlow also had a good, strong year. I’d say that the rest of the county has seen the market come back, but not to levels that Port Townsend and Port Ludlow have seen.”
Forks
For the Multiple Listing Service area covering Forks, residential sales had increased from 25 through November 2014 to 41 through November 2015.
Forks-area home prices went from $145,610 in 2014 to $155,117 as of last November, according to year-to-date statistics.
The Northwest Multiple Listing Service will distribute its December report for all areas on Wednesday.
A year-end report is scheduled for circulation on Jan. 21, Northwest Multiple Listing Service representative Cheri Brennan said.
Looking ahead
Meanwhile, Schindler and Reiss said they expect more good news in 2016.
“Based on everything that I’m seeing, I think our market will continue to improve,” Schindler said.
As demand for real estate increased in 2015, fewer homes were available for sale.
“Some people decided to build and others decided to invest in spec homes or to buy land as an investment,” Reiss said in a news release.
Reiss added in a later interview that land transactions are a “bellwether of what’s going to be happening” because they represent future investment.
The Port Angeles market saw land sales climb last year from 64 to 72, or 12.5 percent.
Land sales were even more brisk in Sequim, where 126 parcels were sold in 2014 compared to 189 last year, a 50 percent change.
Comparable land sale records for Jefferson County were not available.
Homebuyer
Craig Hamilton, who made his first offer on a home Wednesday night, said it “hasn’t been terribly hard to find a house” in the current market.
He and his wife, Vickey Holland, looked at about 10 homes before they found a place that fit their needs in west Port Angeles.
Their broker, Victorya Rivera of JACE Real Estate, was “helping out every step of the way,” Hamilton said.
“For us, sometimes the houses were not in as good of shape as we’d like, and we have other particular requirements,” Hamilton said.
“It seems like most of the houses we’ve been looking at have been on the market for a little while.”
All told, Hamilton described his first home-buying experience as “pretty simple.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
