Affordable Homes Vanishing In Olympia

Think you can move outside the Seattle area to find a reasonably priced home, but still stick around the Puget Sound? Think again.

South Sound's supply of affordable homes is vanishing.

Last year, home sales priced at between $140,000 and $200,000 dropped an average of 42 percent compared with the year before, while home sales priced at $400,000 or higher rose 125 percent, according to Olympic Multiple Listing Service data.

The data shows that the pickings are particularly slim for homes priced lower than $140,000.

Maybe it's just me (and I'm not meaning this as some kind of slight), but I don't really see what there is in the south sound / Olympia area to justify paying $245,000 for a home. In Seattle at least people can point to all the tech companies, the city attractions, the sports teams... What does Olympia have to attract those prices, other than proximity to Seattle?

"We're seeing some real erosion in that segment of the market, and trying to find anything under $200,000 is a real challenge," said Jeff Crandell, the designated broker with Lacey-based Abbey Realty Inc.

Jeff Pust, general manager of Van Dorm Realty Inc. of Olympia, said the lack of lower-priced homes is either eliminating first-time buyers from the market or forcing them to look for homes outside the county.

Ding. "Eliminating first-time buyers" is exactly what's happening all over the Puget Sound. I offer myself as anecdotal evidence of that fact.

(Rolf Boone, The Olympian, 01.13.2006)