PORT TOWNSEND — Sequim real estate broker Dan Erickson pulled his real estate interests out of East Jefferson County on Friday, closing the Port Townsend Coldwell Banker Town & Country Real Estate office.
Erickson on June 30 sold the Port Ludlow Coldwell Banker office to longtime Ludlow real estate professional Karen Best.
The news leaves between 16 and 18 Port Townsend agents looking for or joining other agencies.
Eight remain in the Port Ludlow office.
“This didn’t work out, but we look forward to doing business on the Olympic Peninsula for a long time to come,” he said Friday just before the Port Townsend Coldwell office closed at the end of the day.
Erickson declined to comment when asked to elaborate on why the Port Townsend office closed, but it is no secret that the real estate industry is in distress with the rest of the flagging economy, with home sales tumbling over than past five years.
Home sales in Jefferson County were down 1.43 percent in June compared with June 2009, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
In Clallam County, there has been no change in sales, comparable June figures show.
In 2005, Erickson bought out longtime East Jefferson real estate broker Forrest Aldrich, who founded and built the Port Townsend Coldwell Banker office that closed.
Erickson stressed that he will remain in business at the South Sequim Avenue and SunLand Coldwell Banker offices in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley.
There are about 20 agents working at the Sequim and SunLand Coldwell Banker Town & Country offices, Erickson said.
Best, who has been the branch manager for Coldwell Banker in Port Ludlow and worked there since 1992, has hired Aldrich, her uncle, to join her office as branch manager.
“Keep it in the family,” Best said with a laugh Friday.
“I used to work for him as his branch manager years ago. Now we’re reversing the roles.
“Now we are definitely going countywide because we are the only Coldwell Banker [office] in Jefferson County.”