La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

March’s sold home prices were up 50% around La Conner, and dramatically throughout Skagit County, compared to 2020. The five La Conner area homes that closed last month had a median price of $487,500. That number is above the county’s $485,550 median price and is the second highest countywide, based on data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. The $600,200 median price on the 38 condominiums and homes in Anacortes is the county’s highest, with prices there jumping 33.2% from 2020. But the nine homes that sold in the “Concrete/Up River” region had the largest price increase as the median price rose over 300%, to $360,000 from $89,000 last March.

The median price of homes sold in Skagit County increased by 27.3% from last year.

The listing service reports eight pending sales for the La Conner area, down from 12 a year ago, and nine homes for sale, an estimated 48 day housing supply, meaning that all homes could be sold in less than two months if no new homes were listed. Countywide the housing supply is estimated at 20 days. A six month supply is considered a healthy market.

In March 2020, 14 homes sold in the La Conner listing area.

The trend is the same throughout Washington’s 26 western counties, with a 55.9% decline in total active listings and median prices system-wide up 19.5% compared to a year ago, based on NWMLS statistics.

“The drop in the number of active listings between now and last year is extraordinary,” stated James Young, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, in a NWMLS news release. “This collapsing active listing volume in the face of high demand is telling. As this was occurring, the number of pending transactions year-over-year increased markedly. Double digit price increases throughout the region are the natural result.”

“Most of the rapid price increases follow the familiar trend of late where the I-5 and I-90 corridors outside of King County are showing exceptional levels of house price growth,” Matthew Gardner, chief economist for Windermere Real Estate, said in the news release.