Thursday, May 17, 2007
Prowse and Company Donates to Poulsbo Noon Lions and WSU Foundation
Brenda recently donated $984 to the Poulsbo Noon Lions Club and $1248 to the Washington State University Foundation on behalf of her client and Lions Club member Karl Ostheller and his wife Pauline, who recently purchased and sold homes through Prowse & Company. Brenda presented the donation to Mr. Ostheller at the Lions Club’s weekly meeting on May 17th. Prowse and Company is proud to support the Lions, who do much to improve our community, as well as to support higher education programs at Washington State University.
Since it was established in 1942, the Poulsbo Noon Lions Club has accomplished numerous community service projects, including construction of Lions Park and the waterfront boardwalk in Poulsbo. The club chartered the NK Vikings L.E.O. Club at North Kitsap High School in 1999. Lions tackle tough problems like blindness, drug abuse prevention, diabetes awareness, and disaster relief. Lions strive to improve the quality of life in their communities by building parks, supporting hospitals, and establishing water treatment programs.
Private contributions to WSU fund scholarships for deserving undergraduate and graduate students, attract and retain top faculty, build world-class facilities, and enable cutting-edge research and educational programs to flourish.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Kitsap Real Estate Market Breakdown by Area
The Kitsap County real estate market has some significant variation between regions. The hot market in Bremerton has cooled and inventory has risen dramatically, while the Poulsbo inventory is actually lower now than last year and the market looks pretty good; however, facts can be deceiving. Silverdale real estate prices have dropped more than 4% from a year ago, which has actually helped sales revive. Read on for more details.
Bainbridge Island Real Estate
Homes on Bainbridge Island were selling for a median price of about $653,450 at the end of April, up about 10% from a year ago but down about 1% from the beginning of 2007. Kitsap County median prices were up 8% over the past year. The YTD number of closed sales is up 2% from a year ago, and the YTD number of pending sales is up 22%. These are comparatively good numbers - the number of closed sales is down 9% Countywide from a year ago. The number of active listings (205) is up 44% from a year ago, and the inventory turnover (total homes on the market divided by number sold last month) is 8.2 months. Despite the relative improvement in sales this year, this is a buyers market.
Bremerton Real Estate
Homes in Bremerton were selling for a median price of about $207,250 at the end of April, up about 12% from a year ago. Kitsap County median prices were up 8% over the past year. The YTD number of closed sales is down 20% from a year ago, and the YTD number of pending sales is down 13%. One must recall that the Bremerton real estate market was much better than most other parts of the County last year - essentially it had the same numbers as in 2005 with 10% appreciation - so the decline in Bremerton still represents a healthier market than in some other parts of the County. The number of active listings (211) is up 74% from a year ago, and the inventory turnover (total homes on the market divided by number sold last month) is 7.5 months. Bremerton is now a buyers market.
North Kitsap Real Estate
Using the example of Kingston - the largest housing market in North Kitsap - homes were selling for a median price of about $357,500 at the end of April, up about 16% from a year ago. Kitsap County median prices were up 8% over the past year. The YTD number of closed sales is up 38% from a year ago, and the YTD number of pending sales is up 5%. These are comparatively good numbers - the number of closed sales is down 9% Countywide from a year ago. The number of active listings (205) is up 15% from a year ago, and the inventory turnover (total homes on the market divided by number sold last month) is 5.3 months. The Kingston market is fairing relatively better than most parts of the County - though with relatively small numbers of listings and sales, large swings in the data will be possible.
Poulsbo Real Estate
Homes in Poulsbo were selling for a median price of about $356,500 at the end of April, up about 15% from a year ago. Kitsap County median prices were only up 8% over the past year. While Poulsbo had the 2nd highest median sales price in the County at the start of 2007, other areas have now moved ahead, and the relatively lower prices in Poulsbo have resulted in more sales. The number of closed sales YTD has increased 34% compared to last year, and the number of YTD pending sales has increased 41%. The listing inventory has fallen by 3% compared to a year ago - everywhere else inventory is rising. This can be misleading because Poulsbo also has one significant new constuction presale development where 40 homes show as pending sales, but none of these appeared as active listings. The inventory turnover (total homes on the market divided by number sold last month) is 7 months, better than some other areas but still a buyers market.
Silverdale Real Estate
Homes in Silverdale were selling for a median price of about $299,975 at the end of April, down 4.3% from a year ago. Most other areas still show an increase in sales price from the previous year (up 8% overall), so the market pressure has been taking more of a toll in Silverdale. The number of YTD closed sales was 19% higher than a year ago, compared to a drop in closed sales of 9% for the County as a whole. The number of pending sales YTD is up 7% compared to a year ago. The number of active listings is up 72% compared to a year ago, and and the inventory turnover (total homes on the market divided by number sold last month) is 4.69 months, better than most other parts of the County.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Kitsap Real Estate Market Report - April 2007
The listing inventory has risen sharply and inventory turnover has fallen. Pending sales remained nearly the same and the number of closed sales dropped somewhat. Pending and closed sales in Poulsbo are booming, with a significant portion of these coming from new construction.
Residential Highlights
Kitsap County residential inventory in April (1960 listings) was up 13% from March. The April inventory was 49% higher than last year, up from 47% last month. The number of year to date pending sales was down 2% compared to a year ago - slightly down from last month. Poulsbo YTD pending sales are up 41% compared to a year ago - 35% of the current pendings are new construction presales. Bainbridge Island year to date pending sales are up 2% from a year ago (they were up 21% last month). The number of YTD closed sales is down by 9% compared to a year ago - down from minus 5% last month. Poulsbo YTD closed sales are up 35% from a year ago. 20% of this year’s closed sales are new construction - mostly at Poulsbo Place II. Bainbridge Island closed sales were up 2% from a year ago after being plus 17% last month. Bainbridge was off to a hot start but appears to be slowing.
Prices are steady…
The YTD median sales price of $285,000 remained the same as in March. This is up 8.2% from a year ago. It’s still important for sellers to be striving to be most competitively priced among their competition.
Seller expectations…
The median list price for the year remained steady at $350,000, about the same as the last 3 months - list prices are not going up. This is about 6% higher than a year ago. The inventory turnover (total homes on the market divided by number sold last month) is 6.64 months, up from 5.22 months in March. A year ago this number was 3.65 months, and that was already reflecting a market slowdown from its 2005 levels. Today a seller has a 15% chance of selling his/her home in a given month, and that percentage is even lower if you come from a community with new construction, since new construction sales tend to displace residential resales. Competitive pricing is essential, and most offers we see presented are negotiating on price.
The distribution of pending sales increases varied widely in the County. Areas where sales were depressed the most last year (Bainbridge, Poulsbo) appear to have benefited most from the spurt in sales. Here is a snapshot:
Bainbridge Island +2% (+22% last month)
Poulsbo +41% (+19% last month) - 15 new construction presales in April
Bremerton -13% (-10% last month)
Kingston +13% (+45% last month)
Silverdale +7% (-6% last month)
Port Orchard +8% (+9% last month)
Olalla -28% (-30% last month)
Statistics not compiled or published by NWMLS
