By Merri Ann Simonson

Managing Broker

Coldwell Banker San Juan Islands Inc

The first quarter results for San Juan Island were a puzzle to me and required extra analysis. San Juan Island’s dollar volume for the quarter reflected a decrease of 28 percent as compared to the same quarter in 2017. In 2017 the dollar volume was a 31 percent increase over 2016 which was a 20% decrease from 2015. Similar to a roller coaster for San Juan.

The County’s first quarter dollar volume reflected an increase of 3.3 percent in 2018 as compared to 2017. The transaction numbers for San Juan reflected a decrease of 27 percent compared to 2017. The County’s transaction number also reflected a decrease, however; it was only 7 percent.

The volume analysis clearly reports San Juan’s volume as lack luster and off to a slow start. The first quarter of every year is volatile and for San Juan, this year is no different.

The most obvious contributing factors to the differential of San Juan to the other island’s production are the average sales price and the other island’s increases in volume and transaction numbers. Historically, the islands that provide fewer goods and services are priced lower than the other islands which may be the increase in demand. For example, the lowest priced waterfront home on San Juan is $869,000 and it is $895,000 for Orcas. These prices are much higher than the starting prices on the other islands for a waterfront home.

As land sales are typically lower in price, I reviewed the number in the first quarter of 2018 as compared to 2017 for San Juan and Orcas; both periods and islands were very similar in transaction numbers so San Juan’s volume was not materially decreased by the number of land sales versus homes sales.

San Juan did have a decrease in sales in excess of $1M; in the first quarter of 2018 we closed 3 sales for $5.1M as compared to a total of five sales for $9.2M in 2017 for the same period. The highest sale during the first quarter of 2018 was on Orcas for $2.9M. San Juan currently has four sales pending in the over $1M category for a listed price total of $6.7M. Orcas has 5 sales pending for a total of $16.4M and Lopez, Shaw and the other islands have 3 sales pending for a total of $5.6M. In addition to the high-end pending properties we have a good level of property showings and other pending sales that will contribute to next quarter’s volume.

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