{"id":1405,"date":"2025-03-07T20:58:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T20:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2025-03-07T21:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T21:00:11","slug":"february-2025-market-update-whatcom-county-real-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/07\/february-2025-market-update-whatcom-county-real-estate\/","title":{"rendered":"February 2025 Market Update \u2013 Whatcom County Real Estate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Northwest MLS, the source for the most current, accurate market listing data in Washington state, today released its Market Snapshot for the month of February 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Market Recap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally a quiet month, February\u2019s market activity reflected consumer sentiment in two important areas: affordability and available inventory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30-year mortgage rates dropped slightly from 6.95% to 6.76%, but that may not be enough to encourage buyers when faced with continuing rising prices. The median price for residential homes and condominiums rose 2.4% from $615,000 in January 2025 to $630,000 in February 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the number of active listings is significantly higher than a year ago (39.4% greater), the annual growth in the number of transactions is much smaller (only 1.9%). \u201cOn balance relative to a year ago, more homeowners are wanting to sell,\u201d said Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER), \u201cbut buyers continue to be challenged by affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, inventory levels remain stubbornly low. Most industry experts consider a balanced market to have 4 to 6 months of inventory. However, at the current rate of sales, it would take less than two and a half months (2.45) to sell every home that is for sale in the NWMLS service area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, homebuilders are bracing themselves for increases in construction costs following the White House\u2019s announcement of tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico beginning March 4th<\/sup>. \u201cThe prices of materials will have a major impact on affordability,\u201d said Bourassa, \u201cand increases in construction costs will affect the prices of existing homes in addition to new homes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe values of existing structures are based on their replacement cost,\u201d he continued. \u201cCoreLogic has estimated that the tariffs might increase the cost of home construction by 4% to 6% across the country, while household fixtures, such as appliances and cabinets, could increase in price by 10% to 20%.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

February 2025 Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Active Listings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The number of homes for sale increased 39.4% year-over-year<\/strong> throughout the NWMLS service area. There were 10,448 active listings<\/strong> on the market at the end of February 2025, with 24 out of 26 counties seeing a double-digit<\/strong> increase <\/strong>compared to February 2024. When compared to the previous month, active inventory increased by 207 listings<\/strong> (+2%), up from 10,241 in January 2025.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The six counties with the highest increases in active inventory were Kittitas (+76.7%), Snohomish (+65.3%), Grant (+54.2%), King (+52%), Whatcom (+48.2%) and Chelan (+42.7%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Closed Sales<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • There were 4,268 closed sales of residential homes and condominium units in February 2025, an increase of 1.9%<\/strong> when compared to February 2024 (4,189). When compared to the previous month, the number of closed sales increased by 14.5%, up from 3,727 sales in January 2025.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The total dollar value of closed sales in February 2025 for residential homes was $2,856,599,410 and $463,877,754 for condominiums ($3,320,477,164 in total), an increase of 5%<\/strong> when compared to February 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Median Sales Price<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      • Overall, the median price for residential homes and condominiums sold in February 2025 was $630,000<\/strong>, an increase of 3.6%<\/strong> when compared to February 2024 ($608,111).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • The three counties with the highest median sale prices were San Juan ($880,000), King ($820,000) and Snohomish ($734,975), and the three counties with the lowest median sale prices were Columbia ($224,000), Pacific $292,500) and Okanogan ($322,500).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        New Construction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \n
        • NWMLS brokers reported 745 closed sales of new construction units in February 2025. This was a year-over-year decrease of 12.1% when compared to February 2024 (848 units).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • The median sales price for new construction units sold in February 2025 was $773,420, an increase of 5.9% from the February 2024 price of $730,000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

          Consumer and Broker Activity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

          NWMLS also provided insights into consumer activities during the month of February 2025:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \n
          • Keyboxes located at listed properties were accessed 115,611 times in February 2025, only a slight decrease from January 2025 when they were accessed 115,922 times. Keybox activity decreased by 3.9% year-over-year<\/strong>, with keyboxes being accessed 120,303 times in February 2024.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • The total number of property showings scheduled through NWMLS-provided software decreased 2.7% from 99,979 in January 2025 to 97,256 in February 2025. This was a year-over-year decrease of 8.3%<\/strong> from the number of showings in February 2024 (106,055).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • In February 2025, there were 13,537 listed properties that were eligible for the Down Payment Resource (DPR) program offered by NWMLS, a 14.3% year-over-year increase from February 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Northwest MLS, the source for the most current, accurate market listing data in Washington state, today released its Market Snapshot for the month of February 2025. Market Recap Traditionally a quiet month, February\u2019s market activity reflected consumer sentiment in two important areas: affordability and available inventory. 30-year mortgage rates dropped slightly from 6.95% to 6.76%, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Johnson-Team-Market-Update-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Johnson-Team-Market-Update-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"fawn","author_link":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/author\/fawn\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1409,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions\/1409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnsonteamrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}