The data for 2018 is in and Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty has put together a comprehensive market report that covers eight key counties and 31 regional markets around the Puget Sound. Below, I’ve outlined trends from Kitsap County, Bainbridge Island and Poulsbo for you to consider as we move into the busiest sales season of the year in our real estate market.
Kitsap County
The quarterly number of residential sales in Kitsap County, which had risen continuously year-over-year since the third quarter of 2011, went flat in the forth quarter of 2017, and fell throughout 2018. The year ended with 7.4 percent fewer homes sold than in 2017.
Home sales in Kitsap County are overwhelmingly residential, with condominium sales comprising only 5.3 percent of the total in 2018.
Except in the first quarter, when median cumulative days on market shrank to 19 from 29 in the first quarter of 2017, quarterly market times in 2018 were virtually unchanged from those of the preceding two years.
Prices and market conditions on Bainbridge Island and at Poulsbo are outlined below. Among the smaller communities in Kitsap County, residential prices averaged $451,000 for 175 homes at Kingston, $461,000 for 83 homes at Seabeck, and $471,000 for 64 homes at Hansville.
Bainbridge Island
The 17.8 percent increase in 2017 home sales on Bainbridge Island, appears, in retrospect, to have reflected pulled-forward demand, as residential selling transactions declined by 8.7 percent in 2018. The number of sales in 2018 was still 5.0 percent and 7.6 percent greater than 2015 and 2016, respectively.
There were fewer condominium sales on Bainbridge Island in 2018, and their proportion of overall sales contracted to 21.5 percent—roughly equal to the average for the past five years. Median quarterly cumulative days on market flirted with the 30-day mark several times in recent years, before breaking through to 39 in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Residential selling prices averaged $1.08 million for 24 homes at Wing Point, $1.1 million for 20 homes at Port Madison, $1.12 million for 22 homes at Fletcher Bay and Crystal Springs, and $1.46 million for 19 homes at Battle Point.
The median residential price on Bainbridge Island rose at a compound annual growth rate of 10.0 percent from 2014 through 2018. In 2019, a modest decline of less than eight percent is forecast.
Poulsbo
As a second-home and retirement market, Poulsbo’s residential market has generated a relatively steady pattern of transactions since 2014. Fewer homes were sold year-over-year in 2017 and 2018, but only by single digits: 7.7 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively.
With conditions similar to those found at Anacortes, Poulsbo is overwhelmingly a residential market. Residential homes comprised 96.7 percent of all homes sold in 2018.
At a median cumulative days on market of 25, Poulsbo’s fourth quarter 2018 market time did not exceed that of 2015, as seen in so many other Puget Sound communities. However, similarly to Burien, that new ceiling comes with longer second- and third-quarter market times (respectively 31 and 21 cumulative days on market) that sellers should weigh carefully.
Poulsbo’s home-selling statistics include those of several distinctive small communities between Liberty Bay and Hood Canal. Selling prices among these communities averaged $457,000 for 38 homes at Finn Hill, $556,000 for 21 homes at Lofall, and $724,000 for seven homes at Scandia.
Poulsbo’s median residential price advanced at a compound annual growth rate of 10.7 percent from 2014 through 2018. A retracement of 8.5 percent is forecast for 2019.
