County homes depreciate slightly

Don't let the title, "County home depreciate slightly," fool you. This is a headline from the Bellingham Herald in Bellingham, WA. Why share this article for the Wenatchee and North Central Washington real estate market? Read the bold/red paragraph in the article below to see why!

REAL ESTATE
County homes depreciate slightly
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/117/story/50330.html
2007 prices likely to remain flat, local expert says
DAVE GALLAGHERTHE BELLINGHAM HERALD

A federal report released Thursday confirmed what many in the local real estate industry already suspected - home appreciation has been slowing in Whatcom County.

According to a report from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Whatcom County homes actually depreciated 0.45 percent between the third quarter and the fourth quarter of 2006, making it the only Washington metro area surveyed to see a drop in home price.

Between December 2005 and December 2006, however, Whatcom County homes appreciated 7.97 percent, ranking the area 78th out of 282 metro areas nationally in terms of highest appreciation rates. Over the past five years, Whatcom County homes have appreciated 86.63 percent, according to the report.

Julie Hansen, an economics professor at Western Washington University and editor of the Whatcom County Real Estate Research Report, said the federal report indicates that home prices were basically flat for the past quarter.

"The numbers weren't surprising and are in line with what we're seeing with median prices locally," Hansen said. "I think we'll see a similar trend in the coming year. After experiencing years of dramatic appreciation, I would expect this area to see a flat period at least through this year."

Across the country, home price appreciation remained steady, rising 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter over the previous quarter.

"These data show that, on the whole, prices are still rising, albeit at a much slower pace," said James Lockhart, director of the office that produced the report. "This suggests that house price appreciation is, for now, more in line with historical norms."

The report showed some interesting trends in other Washington state metro areas. The Wenatchee area saw home prices appreciate 3.46 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 over the previous quarter, which was one of the largest jumps across the country. Wenatchee's year-over-year appreciation was 20.94, ranking it second in the U.S.

Seattle metro area homes appreciated 1.52 percent over the quarter, while the Mount Vernon area saw a 2.96 percent rise for the same period.

The metro area that had the highest appreciation rate for that 12-month period was Bend, Ore., which jumped 21.39 percent.

Washington state saw one of the greatest rates of appreciation over the past 12 months, according to the report. Washington's homes appreciated 13.7 percent over the past 12 months, and only trailed Utah (17.6 percent), Wyoming (14.3 percent) and Idaho (14 percent).

The states with the lowest rates of appreciation for the same period were Michigan (minus 0.4 percent), Massachusetts (0.5 percent), Indiana (2.3 percent) and Minnesota (2.5 percent).