It is very exciting to see another year of positive sales growth in the real estate market for 2014.
I will start with the recap of sales for Port Townsend, WA. If you look at the first chart you can see that residential home sales increased by almost 12%. We have now shifted to a sellers market with 3.3 months of inventory in Port Townsend. Sellers markets are defined by the fact of having less than 6 months of residential home inventory to sell. Median home price has increased to $280,000 or 11 percent. The other key point is that the average home sale is 96% of the last listed price.
Now to review Port Ludlow, WA. In the past few years the best values in Jefferson County have been in Port Ludlow. Port Ludlow is located 18 miles south of Port Townsend, just north of the Hood Canal Floating Bridge. An area of many very nice homes with 2 swimming pools, golf courses and marina. Residential home sales for 2014 increased by 51%. That is 69 homes sold for 2013 and 104 in 2014.
As a recap for Jefferson County. Total residential home sales in 2013 were 454 sales and in 2014, 509 sales, or 12%, the largest increase was in Port Ludlow, WA. Median prices for 2014 were at a break even. Days on market lowered from 6 months to just over 4 months, also becoming a sellers market. Total sales in the county increased by 5.8%. The disappointing sales are still vacant land, off by 5% in 2014. It is my opinion and in discussion with other Realtors. We have 2 main reasons for slow residential land sales. One is, it is less expensive to purchase an existing home than to build new. The second reason, many of the homes built across the United States are built by small contractors. Because the banks have tightened lending requirements those same small contractors are having a difficult time finding construction loan financing.
As a total overview, I am happy to see another year of positive growth in our local real estate market. Another way to look at our real estate market in future years. No large down turns and no large up swings. Just modest growth.
If you have any questions or comments about this information, please feel free to contact John Eissinger at 360-301-2378, email john@johneissinger.com or visit my web site www.johneissinger.com