Bainbridge Island Real Estate Market Report: March 2020

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

Home means comfort – a haven for you and yours. Now, more than perhaps any time in the last hundred years, homes are our most essential place.

 

My wife Mairead and I moved into our new home on Bainbridge last June. At first, it didn't feel like a perfect fit until returning from an extended family vacation in December. After the past couple of months, I had truly fallen in love with where we live. Living in a too-small home for far too long gave us a whole new appreciation for the relationship between a floorplan and family dynamics. We're doing as well as can be expected with three young ones while sheltering-in-place. If you have kids, you probably can relate.

 

And just because we are social distancing, that doesn’t mean we have to be distant. I would love to hear from you and how you're coping and adjusting to our emerging new normal.

 

COVID-19 UPDATE

 

To help you keep up to date on what’s happening with local real estate market activity, I’ve created a weekly update that keeps a thumb on the pulse of our rapidly changing market activity. You can find this page refreshed every Friday afternoon. Specifically, you’ll find the number of new listings, new pending sales, and recently closed sales within the last seven days.

 

Governor Inslee has deemed real estate an essential service but in a limited capacity. The mortgage market has disrupted some borrowers' plans while others haven’t been impacted. The legal team that serves Windermere Real Estate, Demco Law Firm, has been busy putting together new forms for us to use as tools in a marketplace to address new circumstances to protect everyone.

 

Send me an email if you have any questions about COVD-19 and the real estate market.

 

MARKET REPORT

 

Real estate sales activity started slowing in early March as health concerns increased. But listings/pendings/closings were still occurring at a reasonable pace for the rest of the month; the 2020 housing market was heating up exceptionally well before COVID-19.

 

However, this last week the new listing activity dropped significantly (down 50% week over week). I believe this is the ripple effect of the Stay Home Stay Healthy proclamation effective March 25th, two weeks ago. One issue impacting home sales is the availability of contractors to assist home sellers in preparing their homes to list for sale. This affected one of my sellers who had hoped to list their home this last week. We are delayed as a result.

 

Check out the new 99-second infographic below for all the stats and analysis on March's housing market activity on Bainbridge.

 

From our home to yours,

Jason