Okay now this is just weird. Remember how the Times and P-I articles about April home sales both had an inordinate focus on the sales of really expensive homes? Well guess who else joined the party? The Everett Herald, with a story ironically titled Worth every penny.
The dream of buying a million-dollar home is unattainable for most working families.
Yet 2005 saw a huge increase in luxury home sales throughout the Puget Sound area – including Snohomish County, where 83 homes valued at $1 million or more changed hands. That’s up from 23 in 2004.
Whether it’s a two-bedroom older rambler on acreage in Arlington or a posh condominium in Edmonds, there is something for everyone in the price range of our dreams – and more people are buying high-end homes than ever.
"I don’t necessarily think it’s a trend," said Greg Hoff, owner of the Edmonds Windermere Real Estate office. "I would call it just the general housing market."
What used to be a $500,000 home is now a $1 million home in many areas. Although Hoff is always a little surprised when he sees a home sell for seven figures, he’s no longer taken aback.
Perhaps Herald writer Christina Harper read the Times and P-I articles the day before and felt that Snohomish County needed similar coverage, perhaps it was a total coincidence, or perhaps "Christina Harper" is yet another pseudonym used by our favorite real estate reporter Elizabeth Rhodes. Who knows.
Whatever the case, one thing that the Herald article amazingly leaves out is the obligatory declaration by a local realtor that "the notion of a bubble is definitely dead."
(Christina Harper, Everett Herald, 05.07.2006)