Written by Team Leader Andy Elliott
Today I'm going to be taking a look at the Brush Prairie and Hockinson Area in Clark County. I'll be diving into different areas over the next 30 days and looking at how they are doing on an individual basis. The reason I'm doing this is because just like the weather real estate is really a local market.
Think about this, what if you were to turn on the news and someone gave you a report that it was going to be 90 degrees today across the globe? That wouldn't really make much sense and it wouldn't make any more sense to say it would be 90 degrees across the United States. Looking even closer at the weather you may find yourself being rained on in Vancouver, Washington while someone else is enjoying a clear day 20 minutes away in Camas Washington.
This is very similar to real estate in that there are different areas of the world, country, state, cities, and yes even neighborhoods that may be doing very well while others are not doing so well. This is why I'll be breaking down different areas of Clark County and giving you a picture of how that market is doing. So let's get started with the Brush Prairie and Hockinson area.
The Hockinson area currently has 232 active detached (not a condo or townhome) homes for sale on the RMLS with an average list price of $477,914 and average days on market of 171. That's what is active and available for buyers to buy. So is that good or bad? Well let's take a look at the number of pending and sold homes and see how long that inventory would last if no new homes came on the market.
While there are 232 active properties there were 18 that sold over the last month. That's about a 13 month inventory which is terrible for sellers and heaven for buyers. However there is one telling sign that things may be turning around in the area for sellers. While there are only 18 that sold there are 52 properties pending. That's a pretty large number and if even half of them close that would be about 30% increase in sales over a one month period. That may not hold up through the winter but it does show that there are a significant number of motivated buyers still shopping late into the summer selling season.
Of the properties that went pending and sold the average was just under $400k which is about 20% less than the average price of the active homes. At first glance you'd get the impression that you will get 20% less for your home than what you list it for but that would be a bit of a misunderstanding of how to read the market. The reality is that on many of the pending and sold homes the final price was very close to what the sellers were asking and in reality it's the homes that are well over priced that tend to sit on the market.
For example the average home sold at about $400,000 and was listed at approximately $420,000. This is only a 5% difference as opposed to the 20% difference in the average actively listed home and sold home. Also the average days on market for active homes are 171 and the average days on market for pending and sold homes were only about 90 days.
What this tells us is that we don't want to make the mistake of "pricing the home with room to negotiate" because in the Hockinson area buyers will pay close to asking price on a reasonably priced home and simply ignore the overpriced homes.
Don't be mistaken there were plenty of homes that sold in this area that would be affordable for first time buyers too. In fact the pending and sold homes ranged from a low of $136,000 to a high of 1.3 million. That's an incredible spread. What I notice as one of the most encouraging signs about the Brush Prairie and Hockinson areas in Clark County is that there are good numbers of homes that are selling above the $500,000 mark. There are currently 14 properties that are pending or that sold in the last month for $500,000 or more in the Brush Prairie and Hockinson areas compared to only one in the Battle Ground area of Clark County. If you know this area then that is probably a pretty shocking stat and you'll be able to really appreciate how encouraging it is to see the Brush Prairie and Hockinson areas holding the higher values. Because with higher top end value there is more room underneath for the lesser homes to keep there value. The farther down in price the nicer homes come the more damage is done to the value of all the homes underneath them, it's like smashing the top of a sandwich and watching the whole sandwich shrink down.
As a local market Hockinson looks to be a great place to have bought a home and a decent place to ride out the market storm that we have been experiencing over the last 3 years. If you bought a home in this area you have likely done better at holding value than those that bought in other areas and this means you can likely still do pretty well selling your home and buyers would be fairly smart to look at buying there next home in an area like this that holds its value better than others.
For more information on the Brush Prairie and Hockinson areas or to request a specific area for my next market review please email me at marketreview@sieboldandcombs.com
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