The College of Business Washington Center for Real Estate at Washington State University compiles real estate statistics that are available at their website: http://www.wcrer.wsu.edu/WSHM/WSHM.html
The fourth quarter 2010 Housing Market Snapshot is now available. Compared to the state-wide statistics, San Juan County is doing relatively well. Our home resales Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) is up 58.3% compared to the previous quarter. State-wide, the SAAR is up only 17.7%. Compared to one year ago, San Juan County’s SAAR is unchanged at 0%, while the state-wide SAAR is down 21.5%.
The median resale price of homes in San Juan County is $495,000. This is up 15.8% over a year ago. State-wide this metric is down 2%.
I find the building permit data very interesting. In San Juan County, the number of building permits issued in the final quarter of 2010 is down 62.5% compared to one year ago. State-wide, building permits are up 16.4%. There are rumors that building permit activity is increasing due to property owner panic about the CAO Update. If so, this is a very slow-moving panic. The Common Sense Alliance (CSA) fear campaign has been in high gear for several years, but property owners have not responded by flooding the CDPD with building permit applications that would vest their plans under the current regulations.
It is more likely that market forces (the great recession) have driven building permit activity in San Juan County. If permit applications are finally increasing in this first quarter of 2011, then the change is likely due to broader changes in our state and national economy. I truly hope that the great recession is ending.
These hard data from the Washington Center for Real Estate show that the rhetoric over the necessity of the mini-vesting initiative is much ado about nothing.

Janet Alderton
Deer Harbor