PORT LUDLOW — When it comes to real estate sales, this resort community by Port Ludlow Bay could be crawling out of the Great Recession.
“When our county got hit in the recession, Port Ludlow was hit hardest,” Nancy Stelow, a longtime East Jefferson County real estate broker with Better Homes and Gardens.
She has sold homes from Port Townsend to Port Ludlow since 1996 and is a past president of the Jefferson County Association of Realtors, serving as Washington Realtors Association treasurer in 2010 where she has also served as a board director.
Calling it “California North,” Stelow said when the real estate bubble burst, Port Ludlow was the first real estate market to see a dramatic decline in Jefferson County.
It was almost as if when you went further north it was a little more insulated,” she said.
That was then. Now, she said, Port Ludlow prices are up.
“They dropped so low in 2008 and 2009 that I would say they hit rock bottom,” she said.
That, she said, can mainly be attributed to Port Ludlow as retirement community.
“Those that were to come in 2008, 2009 and 2010 didn’t,” Stelow said.
“People decided to work longer and delay retirement based of the economy, and from all over the U.S. They will return in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and 2011 will be a year of transition.”
The same could hold true for the rest of the county.
Sluggish sales led many to take their homes off the market, she said. Some were rented out instead.
Stelow points to a sign of a sluggish market — the average number of days a home is up for sale.
In the first quarter of 2010, Port Ludlow saw three homes sold for an average price of $333,333 after sitting on the market an average of 498 days.
During the first quarter this year, seven homes were sold in Ludlow for an average price of $348,577 after an average number of 141 days on the market.
In the first quarter of 2010, 90 Ludlow homes were on the market at an average price of $477,713 and an average of 182 days on the market.
That compares to a first quarter this year with 78 homes on the market for an average price of $421,764 and at 198 days on the market.
Further contrasting homes on the market in Port Ludlow, Stelow said the average was about two months in 1996.
In the portion of the East Jefferson County market that includes Ludlow and the communities of Port Townsend, Port Hadlock, Kala Point and Cape George on Discovery Bay, 44 homes were sold in the first quarter of 2010 at an average sales prices of $310,704 and 125 days on the market.
That compares to 64 in the first quarter of this year sold for an average price of $295,813 and 170 days on the market.
Port Townsend
Leading the East Jefferson County market during the first quarter was Port Townsend with 19 homes sold at an average price of $236,693 and 168 days on the market.
That compares to 11 Port Townsend homes sold during the first quarter of 2010 for an average price of $325,326 and an average of 89 days on the market.
Port Hadlock ended the first quarter of 2011 with seven homes sold for an average price of $201,099 and 157 days on the market.
The most-sold price range for homes today in East Jefferson County is from $250,000 to $300,000, Stelow said.
Price declines in Port Townsend generally follow the Port Hadlock-Port Ludlow market, she said.
“I think Port Townsend is in the middle of going down in prices,” she said.
“Buyers in Port Townsend know what they want and are picking and choosing,” she said, and deeply fear over-paying for a home.
People often go on the Internet before approaching a Realtor and come up with an exact list of preferences in a home, she said.
Foreclosures
During the first quarter, Stelow said, the 476 homes on the market included 28 real estate owned and 24 short sales.
A distressed sale can be one of three factors: bank-owned property known as real estate owned, or REO; a short sale meaning the asking price was less than the seller owes; or if the property went into foreclosure because the seller fell behind in mortgage payments and received a letter of default from the lender.
“In my opinion in the first quarter of 2011 we saw a larger number of foreclosures,” she said.
“The ones getting foreclosed now have held on as long as they can. The early foreclosures were cases of high-risk loans in which people were financially over-extended beyond their means.
Those being foreclosed on now have lost jobs, or are in other circumstances such as relatives letting a property go into foreclosure after a death of a family member.
Of the 76 homes sold in the first quarter, 15 were owned by banks and five were short sales. Twenty other properties were “in trouble” and were possibly facing foreclosure.
“They are driving down our average price,” she said.
The slower county market has thinned Jefferson County’s real estate sales force some.
Jefferson County Association of Realtors membership fell from a peak in 2005 of 155, to 98 today.
Quilcene-Brinnon
Northwest Multiple Listing Service first-quarter statistics show that the Quilcene-Brinnon market has 24 homes listed compared to 21 in 2010.
The average listing price in 2011 was $366,336 compared to $334,774 in 2010.
The first-quarter average price of a home sold this year in the Quilcene-Brinnon market was $216,166 for five homes sold compared to three homes sold in 2010 for an average price of $211,000.
Val Schindler, designated broker and owner of Windermere Real Estate in Quilcene and Brinnon and in the business 12 years, said the market bottom came in 2009 and she called 2010 “marginally better.”
“When looking at the activity level . . . there are more people out and about,” Schindler said, and she sees more offers being fielded.
Unsure what is driving that activity, possibly lower interest rates, she said, “Offers are coming in very low.”
“A lot of it I am dealing with are foreclosures and short sales. Those properties have attractive price points.”
The Brinnon half of the market is doing better than Quilcene, she said, because Brinnon has more retirement and second-home buyers from the greater Puget Sound area.
Homes under $200,000 moving the most quickly in the Quilcene-Brinnon market now, she said.
“Waterfront is at a price point that is not moving here,” she said.
“They’re looking for good deals.”
Stelow said if anything could stimulate the Jefferson County market now it would be the weather.
“If we have good weather this summer, God willing, hopefully that’s going to have an impact,” she said.
“A big question is whether investors are going to come back,” she said, with “screaming deals” and better weather in other states such as Arizona or Florida.