Seattle Bubble

Olympia is feeling the heat of the “real estate boom” in the form of more and more home prices jumping above the $400,000 mark.

Sales of South Sound’s most expensive homes are growing faster than any other price range, statistics from Olympic Multiple Listing Service show.

Through September, there were 109 sales of homes worth at least $500,000 compared with 39 last year, a gain of 179 percent. Last month alone, the sales of homes worth at least $400,000 were up 126 percent, according to the listing service.

It’s not that a horde of new millionaires has shown up to buy South Sound homes, said Dennis Adams, broker for Adams Real Estate Company.

Rather, high demand for South Sound homes has pushed the value of many homes higher than $500,000 in the past year, he said.

The median home sales price for the area is $238,000, which itself seems high for the area, but where are all the buyers of the $400,000 and $500,000 homes coming from? Who has $2,500 to $2,800 a month to spend on a home in Olympia? Are there really that many $80,000-$100,000 jobs down there? Hmm.

(Jim Szymanski, The Olympian, 10.06.2005)