South county home prices climb in April

Published 11:25 am Friday, May 10, 2024

LONG BEACH — Housing prices in south Pacific County notched a 3.7% year-over-year gain in April, while the number of sales was 14% more than in the same month last year, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Houses in the peninsula-Chinook-Naselle area sold for a median of $434,000 last month, up from $418,500 in April 2023, $340,000 in April 2022, $284,500 in April 2021 and $202,250 in April 2020. Median means half sold for more and half for less.

April is typically when sales begin to increase in south county. This was the case this year, with 25 houses changing hands, up from 22 in April 2023 and 22 this March.

In addition to the house sales, three south county condos changed hands in April for a median of $485,000.

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The median selling price of houses in south Pacific County increased to $434,000 last month, up nearly $232,000 since April 2020.

Elsewhere in the county, two houses sold in Raymond for an average of $305,500, compared to six in April 2023 for a median of $227,500. Three houses sold in South Bend for a median of $125,000, down from four for $264,500 the year before. Two houses in the vicinity of Bay Center sold for an average of $661,100.

The supply of houses remains roughly the same as it was last year at the same time, with 139 for sale countywide as April ended with 98 of those in south county, compared to 141 and 96 the year before. There continues to be a minor glut of south county condos, with 19 currently for sale, up from 10 last year.

Thirty-two house and two condo sales were pending in south county as the month ended — meaning there were mutually agreed-upon deals. The number of pending house sale was the same as a year before, while there were half as many pending condo sales this year.

The entire county’s median price for houses and condos combined was $342,200, a decline of 4.7% year-over-year. As is often true, this median was the lowest in western Washington. However, south county’s house-condo price of $437,000 was higher than the overall medians in the nearby counties of Grays Harbor ($365,000), Lewis ($401,500), Mason ($419,975) and Cowlitz ($393,000). NWMLS doesn’t report statistics for Wahkiakum.

In the listing service’s 26-county region — mostly in western Washington — the April median sales price was $651,000, a 7.9% annual increase.

“The real estate market has begun to pick up consistent with typical seasonal patterns, with further increases in activity expected over the next few months as we transition from spring to summer,” according to NWMLS’s monthly market report published May 6. “Interest rates have increased by 0.38 percentage points over the past month to 7.17%, continuing to constrain prospective buyers’ purchasing power and prospective sellers’ willingness to give up low interest rate mortgages. Nevertheless, for the 26 counties covered by NWMLS, April 2024 saw a nearly 10% increase in the number of closed sales year-over-year and an almost 8% increase in median sales prices year-over-year, signaling some market optimism.”

“The increase in year-over-year sales transactions signals that buyers and sellers are beginning to adjust to the higher interest rate environment,” said Mason Virant, associate director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington.