The Market Trends Toward Spring

With the increase in mortgage rates, the real estate market sees a surge in new listings, reaching a level not seen in nearly three years, says Realtor.com.

Mortgage rates climbed this week after the Federal Reserve opted to maintain its benchmark borrowing rates unchanged. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 30-year fixed home loan rose from 6.74% to 6.87% for the week ending March 21. Despite this uptick, homebuilders remain optimistic about the housing market due to pent-up demand, supply shortages, and expectations of future rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

Spring has brought positive news for the housing market as well, with a significant increase in new listings. Compared to last year, there was a notable 17.8% surge in sellers listing their homes in the week ending March 16, marking the highest year-over-year growth rate since May 2021. This influx of new listings provides buyers with more options as they enter the spring homebuying season.

Setting Records in Kitsap County: So Many Buyers. So Few Homes.

According to real estate experts, record low-interest rates combined with a robust demand for homes in Kitsap County despite a pandemic-fueled economic downturn are making available homes a highly coveted commodity. That frenzy is pushing the market to record territory. Kitsap's median single-family home price surged from $383,500 last year to $428,193 in July, the highest level ever. Homes for sale now average less than one month on the market. In many cases, they sell far more quickly.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s mindboggling. If you’re a buyer, you need to be prepared to compete for homes. If you’re a seller, you better be ready to move quickly.”

— Irene Garcia, President of the Kitsap Association of Realtors

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Slow Summer Days | Millenials May Drive the Market

Forbes has 6 expert predictions for the second half of 2019:

·         Millennials will drive the market
·         Inventory will improve but not by much
·         Home prices are headed up
·         Mortgage rates will stay low
·         Buyers can take their time in this market
·         Some markets will provide better home buying opportunities than others 

37%

Of All Homebuyers Last Year Were Millennials

This is a prime home buying season for millennials. According to National Association of Realtors (NAR), 37% of all home buyers last year were made up of millennials. The slow down of the housing market has given millennials the opportunity to afford home ownership. According to Forbes’ predictions, housing prices are still expected to rise, but the current low mortgage rates have helped improve the affordability for home buyers. The housing market has become less competitive, and bidding wars have decreased drastically compared to the last several years. Now, buyers don’t feel rushed to close on a deal. Housing conditions continue to vary by market.  Depending on what kind of house you’re looking for and the location, some cities might offer home buyers more affordable bargains due to the change in the regional housing markets. 

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Been Thinking of a Summertime Move?

If you’ve been considering buying a home, now’s the time to connect with a real estate agent who really gets the local market. Give me a call if you’d like to grab a cup of coffee and chat about your options!”

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Happy 4th of July!!

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!!

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Bainbridge Island won’t be offering a fireworks show this year, according to the Bainbridge Review. But Kitsap County is still flush with places to find your sparkly lights; just remember to bring warm clothes, something to sit on, comfy blankets and some of your favorite people!

The Incredible Edible....Garden

I never understood why Mary in the Mother Goose rhyme was so contrary, but even she put some planning into it.

This month, Houzz.com contributor, Rebecca Cuttler, writes about getting your hands into the soil and growing beautiful plants that are edible too! Whether you’re starting a new garden or returning to a well-established one, here in the Pacific Northwest, the planting and reaping seasons are year round and planning is very necessary. And a beautiful garden makes for luxurious curb appeal and pride of ownership - a worthy investment in any home!

Market Spotlight: Bainbridge Island

Bainbridge Island in Kitsap County includes Port Madison, Rolling Bay, and dozens of other small communities, as well as the historic town of Winslow. The island’s Bainbridge High School and Eagle Harbor High School are both ranked among the top public high schools in the state by U.S.News & World Report.85 The population has held relatively steady at just over 23,000 since 2010.86 Despite its proximity to Seattle by ferry, Bainbridge Island’s 27.6 square miles available as living space render a population density of only 847 persons per square mile (psm). This is 59 percent less concentrated than Tiburon in California’s San Francisco Bay Area (2,065 psm), and even 39 percent less dense than Anacortes in Skagit County (1,388 psm). Accordingly, 80.8 percent of Bainbridge Island’s housing stock remains single-family.

The island has been a seller’s market since October 2014, and monthly supply spent most of 2015 below two months. The months in inventory As in many other exurban locations, prices tend to be more volatile on Bainbridge Island, as seen in these charts. Yet here again, the island benefits as a bedroom community to Seattle: the median price rose by double digits in each of the past two years, and in 2015 was 137.9 percent higher than the Kitsap County median. In 2014, seller price concessions were more common on Bainbridge Island than later in the past year, underscoring the need for a comparative market analysis and professional guidance when pricing a property for sale.

Market Spotlight: Kitsap County

By a short ferry ride across Puget Sound, the Kitsap Peninsula and its adjacent islands offer waterfront homes; stunning city, sound, and mountain views; and an easy getaway to bucolic scenes westward toward Hood Canal and the Olympic Peninsula. Areas in Kitsap County selected for community profiles include Bainbridge Island and Poulsbo. The former’s proximity to Seattle means that Bainbridge Island in particular enjoys the best of exurban and rural lifestyles: for some, a place of refreshment after the daily commute. For others, a weekend hideaway or reward for retirement. Kitsap County is also home to military families and contractors at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton.

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Like Pierce County, this year Kitsap County shifted from a balanced market to a seller’s market, with average monthly supply tightening to 2.7 from 4.1 in 2014 and 4.9 in 2013. The monthly median home price of all homes on the peninsula reached $285,000 in June 2015, and the annual median settled at $258,500, a 7.71 percent increase year-over-year. The county is sufficiently remote that new construction is more speculatively priced than that found in markets closer in. As a result, monthly median price changes for newly built homes in Kitsap County have seen more volatility over the past two years than new homes in the three counties of the Seattle MSA; nevertheless, the trend in 2015 was higher. New construction peaked in November 2015 at $356,005, and the annual median was $318,100—12.4 percent higher than in 2014, the largest year-over-year increase in central Puget Sound.

At 0.9 percent year-over-year, population growth in Kitsap County was the second slowest among the seven counties surveyed, and 21st among Washington’s 39 counties.19 Nearly 71 percent of homes in Kitsap County are SFRs, compared with 56.7 percent in King County. Slightly less than two-thirds (65.2 percent) of the former’s housing stock is on unincorporated land.20 This is six times the proportion in King County, but not as much as in Island or Jefferson counties—markets that are beyond the reach of most commuters, but provide remote workers and retirees with a soulful refuge from the city.

These markets also provide insight on a commonly heard story of the last two years: the notorious bidding wars for real estate among buyers in western Washington. This was primarily a King County phenomenon—and within King County, it observably varied from one area to the next. Of the other six counties, only Snohomish saw significant amounts of such bidding. Markets further from Seattle were less likely to see bidding wars than seller price concessions as a result of their owners mispricing properties for sale.