The North Olympic Peninsula housing market is on the rebound, longtime real estate agents say.
Sales are up and prices are down in both Clallam and Jefferson counties.
It’s a buyer’s market, and investors are getting back into the game, said Doc Reiss, associate broker at Windermere Real Estate in Port Angeles.
“In general, prices went down 4.8 percent in 2010,” Reiss said.
The Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported that seven properties closed in Jefferson County last month, compared with three in January 2010.
The average home and condominium price fell from $468,333 in January 2010 to $219,954 this January.
Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval, owner of Windermere Real Estate in Port Townsend, said the housing market is beginning to stabilize.
Sandoval, who has been a Realtor in Port Townsend for 18 years, said the market is making “small but important steps” toward recovery.
The Northwest Multiple Listing Service said the median sales price for homes and condos in the 21 counties it serves was $243,500 last month, compared with $260,000 in January 2010.
It reported that four counties — Clallam, Cowlitz, Kitsap and Okanogan — saw over-the-year price gains.
But the NWMLS lists only about 40 percent of Clallam County properties.
Reiss provided more comprehensive statistics for the Port Angeles and Sequim housing markets, which span the area from Diamond Point to Joyce, that show gains in sales and drops in prices from January 2010 to January 2011.
Twenty-six properties were sold in the Port Angeles and Sequim markets in January 2010 at an average price of $218,912 and a median price of $221,000, Reiss said.
Thirty properties were sold in-house last month at an average price of $256,550 and a median price of $233,750.
Reiss said the average price was skewed by a $680,000 property that sold last month.
“Trying to study this stuff is really pretty hairy,” Reiss said.
Overall, Reiss said: “The market has reached its bottom, and it’s starting to come back.”
Sandoval said it is still very much a buyer’s market.
“Prices haven’t been this low in a long time,” Sandoval said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.