Published February 2002

Report: Housing market remains rosy

By Mike Benbow
Herald Economy Editor

Who’d have thought you could become a savvy investor just by paying your monthly mortgage.

But following a year in which the stock market continued to head south — the S&P 500 lost 13 percent, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 7 percent and the Nasdaq composite index plunged 21 percent — home ownership is looking pretty good these days.

Statistics released in January by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service show that prices of homes sold in Snohomish County in December rose nearly 6.5 percent in comparison to the previous year.

The median price for single-family homes sold in the county in December 2001 was $212,913, compared to $199,950 in December 2000, according to the listing service, which represents real estate brokers in 13 Western Washington counties. Median means half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

While those figures don’t mean that an individual home grew in value by the same amount, they do show that the housing market remains one of the few bright spots in a Northwest economy mired by recession.

Vern Holden, who owns several Windermere brokerages, including the one in Mill Creek, said Realtors were apprehensive at the end of 2000, a year in which Snohomish County home prices were up 8 percent in December over 1999.

“It’s somewhat of an anomaly to us,” he said of last year’s home sales. “We were very apprehensive about what would happen in the business and the overall economy.”

Although the economy is down, Holden said sales for his company were up 10 percent in 2001.

Home sales were good throughout Snohomish County in December, but not as good as in 2000. Completed sales totaled 732, down from 827 a year ago. Pending sales were up slightly — from 690 a year ago to 707 in December.

The combined median price for both houses and condominiums was $205,000. For just condos, it was $148,550.

“It’s an old story, but I guess we continue to be a desirable area of the country to live, and interest rates have really taken the scare out of the business,” he said. “We haven’t seen interest rates hold so steady for so long.”

In addition to historically low interest rates, Holden also noted that those financing mortgages have made them easier and easier to get through a variety of new programs.

While home prices have risen significantly in the county for the past several years, Holden does expect them to be more realistic this year, with perhaps an increase of 3 to 5 percent.

“In the last 10 years, prices have been rising 6, 7 and 8 percent,” he said. “I think we’re heading back to a normal range. I think sellers are being more realistic, and I think we’re starting to see the appreciation of homes level off.”

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