Leavenworth Median Home Price At Record Levels for 2015
The Leavenworth real estate market was very strong in 2015 with significant growth in number of homes sold, average home price and median home price. When it comes to headlines, bigger is better and “Leavenworth Median Home Price at Record Levels” certainly tells an important part of the story. As we expected, strong demand for homes partnered with low inventory caused home prices to rise in Leavenworth in 2015. The number of homes that sold (159) was nearly on par with boom years like 2005 and 2006. The average price of $382,000 for a single family home in Leavenworth is now at it’s highest in five years. It’s still not at record levels, but continues to climb. The median price of $350,000 is a new record and eclipses pricing we saw in 2007 and 2008. (For a detailed look at median versus average prices, please see our earlier article.) As is often the case, some neighborhoods and niche markets did better in 2015 than others. We’ll break down the neighborhoods in detail in future articles, but here are some highlights. In modest neighborhoods near Plain like Chiwawa River Pines and Ponderosa Estates, there was a small increase in the number of cabins sold, but prices were down slightly year over year. Mostly this meant that lots of smaller cabins were selling and is not an indicator of a decrease in demand. Homes close to or within the city limits of Leavenworth did very well in 2015. The number of homes sold within the city limits jumped up 60% and the average home price increased 13%. Similarly, we saw a big jump in prices of homes on upper Ski Hill. Both the average and median home prices for 2015 were over $700,000. Only one million dollar home sale was recorded in 2015 in the Leavenworth area, but in general luxury homes above $700,000 have been selling more consistently. In 2015 the number of luxury sales in Leavenworth doubled from 6 homes sold in 2014 to 13 in 2015.
2016 Predictions for Leavenworth Home Prices
Home prices are affected by a number of variables. If we continue to see strong demand and low inventory like we have seen in the past two to three years, we can expect to see continued growth in both average and median home prices and probably we will surpass records broken in the boom years of 2005 to 2007. However, the overall economy is a big unknown and Chinese weakening economy and the low price of oil have sent some big shocks through the stock market in January of 2016. It’s been our experience that vacation home sales are tied to consumer confidence, so an uncertain stock market will not likely be good for the Leavenworth real estate market. In our opinion, there are no local factors that will cause a change in market trajectory for Leavenworth real estate. Forces on a global scale could certainly impact real estate markets, but it is probably too soon to tell. ********************************************************************************************************** Required Disclaimer NOTE: This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by the North Central Washington Association of Realtors or its Multiple Listing Service. Neither the Association nor its MLS guarantees or are in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the Market.
