Housing Market in Lewis County, Western Washington Sees Stabilization as Supply and Demand Become More Balanced

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In a statement released on May 6, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) said the Western Washington housing market is becoming more balanced due to a large increase in listings and a slowdown in sales.

Mike Larson, a member of the NWMLS board of directors who serves as the managing broker at Compass in Tacoma, described the housing market in Western Washington as “more balanced and not so crazy, and that’s a good thing. Buyers are getting a little relief — not much, but a little as we’re slowly easing back into the kind of market we had pre-COVID.”

According to the NWMLS statement, there were 8,798 listings across the region at the end of May, an increase of 59% from one year ago.

In Lewis County, there were 190 active listings, an increase of 61.02% from a year ago and 46.15% from April. There were 149 pending sales in May, an increase of eight from April, and 119 closed sales, down four from March. The median closed sales price in May was $406,000, a 16% increase from a year ago and $7,000 higher compared to April’s $389,000.

While Lewis County’s 16% annual median price increase was significant, surpassing King County’s 14.82% and Thurston County’s 15.04%, the increase was less than half of San Juan County, which saw the highest increase of any Western Washington county at a 41.33% increase.



Greg Lund, with Century21 Lund Realty, said home prices were flattening in Lewis County as the number of houses on the market has increased and demand has fallen.

“The market (in Lewis County) is starting to edge back toward more balance between buyer and seller. Sellers have been more in control due to lack of inventory and high demand, that’s slowly changing. We’ve seen a little bit of increase in housing coming on the market and a slight decrease in buyer demand due to interest rates increasing. I think becoming more balanced overall is better for the market (and) for consumers in the long run so they don’t make mistakes or bad decisions,” Lund said

According to Lund, listing prices for houses have seen a “considerable reduction,” though he added the reduction could be because the agent or seller set the price optimistically and had to adjust the asking price to a more realistic level. However, Lund said a reduction in listing prices doesn’t mean sale prices are going down as well.

Lund told The Chronicle it is difficult to determine where the housing market is headed in Lewis County, though he said if businesses looking at the area continue to move in that could make demand stronger.

When asked if there are certain areas of Lewis County where the housing market is busier than others, Lund said Winlock has been slightly more active due to high levels of building, though in general there aren’t any major differences in the area.