Are houses getting smaller? There have been many articles written about how retirees are building smaller, more energy efficient homes. Of course, “energy efficient” and “green” does not necessarily mean smaller, but less square footage does facilitate the two. Another factor that has been an inducement to build smaller homes is the increasing cost of land development and home construction. With higher price tags, mortgage payments have grown dramatically, and the mortgage debacle and record foreclosures are more than a shot across the bow for retirees.
The real estate market in Sequim and Port Angeles continues to set its own pace, and while we are certainly connected with the real estate markets in California, Nevada, and Arizona, we are a bit slow to react to national trends. And so it is with the trend toward smaller homes. After reviewing the data for thousands of home sales in Sequim and Port Angeles back to 2000, here is a bird’s eye view of a few selected years.
| Year | Avg Price | Avg DOM | Avg Sq.Ft. |
| 2000 | $171,822.00 | 193 | 1839 |
| 2005 | $310,915.00 | 105 | 1933 |
| 2008 | $299,549.00 | 121 | 1900 |
| 2009 | $265,074.00 | 130 | 1876 |
My interest in looking at the data was to look at the trend, if any, in Clallam County of homes getting smaller. The data isn’t conclusive, and these numbers include sales of all homes (existing and newly built), but it is still interesting to note a small change in the average square feet of a home. There was an increase from 2000 to 2005 as homes got bigger all around the country, but from 2005 we begin to see a small reduction in the size of homes. Unfortunately, we don’t have data for new construction only, but I think if we did, the trend would be more pronounced.
While I was combing through the data, I thought you might find it of some value to note the change in the average price of homes and the days on market (DOM). DOM represents the number of days from the first day the home was listed until it sold.
I did some minor weighting of the data to reduce the skewing effect of extreme or inaccurate data. It’s no surprise that the average sales price of a home is less in 2009, but it is a small surprise that DOM have not increased much over 2005, our peak year here.
[The data only includes single family homes and does not include homes under 1,000 square feet. Source of data: Olympic Listing Service MLS.]
Last Updated on July 27, 2012 by Chuck Marunde
