The median price for all homes topped $400,000 in Snohomish County for the first time ever in April, as the market continues to deal with too few homes for sale.
Single-family home and condos sold in April for a median price of $416,000, according to numbers released Thursday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
The median cost for single-family homes alone rose to $440,000, an increase of 17.3 percent over last year, when prices were $375,000. The median condo price rose to $292,975 or an increase of 6.73 percent.
The price of single-family homes has been on the rise for more than a year. Single-family homes bumped up against the $400,000 barrier last year, but never surpassed that number.
Single-family homes actually jumped to $425,000 in March for the first time. The highest that the median price for a single-family house reached before the recession was $382,500 in March 2007.
Just more than five years ago, the median price for a single-family house in the county was $243,000.
One of the reasons for the increase in prices is because there are too few homes for sale in the market. The county had 1,004 homes listed in April, compared with 1,462 homes for the same month a year ago. That’s 31.3 percent fewer homes on the market year-over-year.
That’s led to 16 percent fewer pending home sales in April, or 1,527 pending sales last month compared to 1,836 a year ago.
“The remarkably low number of homes for sale can be blamed for the drop in sales,” said OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate, in a statement. “The uptick in interest rates at the end of last year has clearly done nothing to slow things down.”
Home prices vary widely in the county based on location. Homes in some parts of south Snohomish County are selling for nearly $600,000. Home prices in parts of north Snohomish County are still selling for well under $400,000. But the highest year-over-year price increases are occurring in the north part of the county.
“Without a doubt this is the most frustrating market for both buyers and sellers that we’ve experienced in 24 years of business,” said George Moorhead of Bentley Properties.
He said the frustration of low inventory is prompting sellers who haven’t been able to find their next home to look into undertaking major remodels instead of moving. Still Moorhead said he believes offer prices are starting to plateau. “Educated buyers cannot justify many of the home prices,” he said.
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