Bang for the Buck

It’s time for this week’s local housing market update! Here’s what’s going on in the real estate world:

This last week in Whatcom County, 30 new homes come on the market, and 46 homes went under contract. 

Price per square foot is one way to compare houses to see your bang for the buck. In general, big houses will have a bit lower price per square foot than a smaller one. For example, homes under 1000 square feet in Whatcom County were at $370/sqft in October, while homes over 2500 square feet were around $233/sqft.  New construction homes of all sizes were around $250 per square foot.  

All of these numbers are medians of course, so they’ll vary by location, age, and condition of the home. 

Let’s zoom in on that classic 3 bedroom single family home. For all home sizes, Bellingham is at $292/sqft. Ferndale is at $269/sqft and Lynden is sitting at $247/sqft. Looking north, Blaine is at $260/sqft and Sumas is at $248/sqft.

It’s kind of granular information, and this is just scratching the surface! These numbers come into play when the Cohen Group NW is preparing a comparative market analysis - we’re looking at the specifics of 10 to 20 homes in your area that have similar characteristics. Including a price per square foot element in our analysis is one angle that helps justify our listing price recommendation so that, as always, it’s based on data.

Check out our Housing Market Update playlist for past episodes, and be sure to follow the Cohen Group NW on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube to see future episodes!