In part two in our ongoing recap of the 2016 Bainbridge Island real estate market, we explore price trends, inventory and sales. You can read my summary here and view the report in its entirety at the bottom.
Historical Sales Price
Price increases continued their 5 year upward trend with the median single family price rising 10% in 2016 to $740,000, the highest on record. Strong demand coupled with persistently low inventory will continue to put upward pressure on prices in the near future. Our climb from the bottom in 2011 has been even more impressive from a low of $493k in 2011 to $740k today, a 50% increase.
Sales by Price Category
With the price increases in 2016 came a significant increase of sales in the $1-1.5M range. From 2014 to 2016, this segment more than doubled from 30 to 68 homes sold as price increases pushed many homes over the $1M threshold. At the same time, the $0-500k category collapsed, down 55% during the same time period and bringing fresh concerns around affordability for some families.
Sales - Closings
There were 474 closed sales in 2016, with 370 residential units and 104 condo units sold. Condo sales were a slightly larger percentage of overall sales compared to 2015 and overall market activity was historically strong, repeating the records of last year. Even with high demand, low inventory has constrained the number of sales in 2016.
Inventory
Inventory started 2016 at very low levels and continued throughout the year, with an average of 2 months of inventory. Bainbridge Island has experienced lower than average inventory for over four years and Q1 2015 had the lowest number of houses listed on record. Average days on the market have dropped another 17% year-over-year, to 41 days in 2016. This continues to present a significant problem for potential buyers looking to take advantage of low but rising interest rates.
Read the full report:
