Olympia real estate experiences ups and downs

Although some areas in Thurston County were popular destinations for buyers last year, this year will be a year of transition for Washington’s housing market.
Depending on the pace of economic recovery and the future of some areas of the economy that still need to begin improving, some economists expect that the residential housing market will improve in 2011. Although there are high hopes for improvement in residential real estate, there are predictions that it could take until 2012 for the commercial real estate market to improve.

However, this all depends on a few factors, such as the easing of credit from community banks, consumer confidence and the absorption of excess housing.
While large, national banks have begun lending again, state-chartered community banks are still experiencing tight credit.

In addition to this downfall for local markets, consumers continue to be strongly influenced by unemployment rates and the price of gasoline; therefore there is still a lack of confidence on their end. According to state Employment Security Department data, this is largely due to Washington’s unemployment rate hitting 9.5 percent as of December.

As if the current housing market didn’t have enough problems, the formation of new households has also slowed due to college graduates moving back in with their parents due to a higher than usual unemployment rate. Economists say that this will have to change and excess housing will need to be absorbed before there is a self-sustained growth in residential real estate.

On the other hand though, certain areas of the Olympia real estate market saw increases in homes sold despite Thurston County home sales falling 7.5 percent in 2009.

According to preliminary year-end Northwest Multiple Listing Service data, of the 2,938 single-family homes and condos that sold in Thurston County last year, 1,425 were in suburbs of Olympia.

The Olympia metro area has spots that have done well recently in real estate sales as well. These are neighborhoods such as South Capitol, which has historically been a destination for government and other white-collar workers. In addition, the data shows that the median price in the Boston Harbor Road area of Olympia, which is popular due to its location near the water but has high prices due to the low quantity, increased in the past year, as did sales. The year-to-date median price for the area rose to $367,500 in 2009 from $354,950 in 2008. Sales, meanwhile, increased to 50 units last year from 40 in 2008.