The average price of a home in all of Kitsap County in
1992 it was 132k with the average days on market 86 days……. The end of a “boom”.
5 years later in
1997 it was 159k with the average days on market 151 days!
10 years later in
2002 it was 201k with the average days on the market 63 days.. Near the beginning of this last “boom”.
15 years later in
2007 the average is 349k with the average days on the market 90 days and increasing........................
Today 6-17-07, there are 707 homes on the market in South Kitsap! That is the highest number in over 5 years. Of the homes currently on the market last month buyers made acceptable offers on 109 of them. We actually closed 91; maintaining a loose average of 100 homes a month sold in South Kitsap County. The seller who did sell last month came down an average of 11k off asking price. Yet the average seller is asking 88k more than the average seller is actually selling for. In addition, there are unfortunately no statistics on how much of the buyers closing costs were paid by the seller, this is a very common practice right now and the lenders allow for up to 3% of the loan amount to be paid by the seller on behalf of the buyer. The homes that are selling are priced at or very near what they expect to actually sell for 98-99% – they are priced realistically based on the amount of competition. Those are the houses that are selling first each month. As long as 1 out of 7 homes come on the market priced fairly close to right, the remaining 6 out of 7 iare left behind……. So yes, the market is soft, very soft in South Kitsap right now. In spite of or because of all the optimistic sellers, it is still a great time to buy – as the average and median prices continue to increase just like they always have.
If you are thinking of selling – price it right
If you are thinking of buying – do it now while interest rates are low