December 2023: December marked the lowest number of new listings for all of 2023 in both the Stanwood and Camano Island markets. As a result, active inventory is the lowest that it has been since April. Seasonal patterns typical of this time of year and low inventory resulted in the lowest number of homes finding buyers this month as compared to the rest of the year. These factors persisted to pressure home prices upward month to month. Selma Hepp of CoreLogic was quoted as saying “strong home price gains over the course of the year indicate that home prices in most of Washington state markets have fully recovered from 2022 losses and are reaching new highs again.”

December brought some hopeful signs for both buyers and sellers as interest rates began incremental drops. Economists are predicting a continued decline in interest rates through 2024. This should stimulate pent-up buyer demand and allow sellers trapped in their low interest mortgages to reenter the real estate market.

New Listings: December had the lowest number of new listings for the year. Only 15 homes came on the market in Stanwood and 11 on Camano Island. This is typical for this time of year during the holidays.

Pending Sales: 24 homes went pending in the Stanwood market in December, 71% more than at the same time last year. In contrast, only 8 homes found a buyer, down by 38% from last year at this time.

Properties Sold: Our combined markets had 33 home sales close, 18% higher than last year when only 28 homes sold.

Sale Price: Average sales prices of properties sold in Stanwood and Camano Island have gone down since the same time last year by 4% and 7% respectively. We are seeing incremental price increases month over month resulting in the average sales price of $675,000 in Stanwood and $743,023 on Camano Island, up 19.3% from the beginning of the year.