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Whatcom County NewsWhatcom County home prices continue to remain among the most overvalued in the country, according to the latest quarterly update of a nationwide study. A housing valuation analysis by Global Insight Inc. and National City Corp. ranks the Bellingham/Whatcom County area as the 31st most overvalued housing market out of 317 metro areas, estimating that this area was 45 percent overvalued in the fourth quarter of 2006. That’s the highest in Washington state, ranking the area ahead of Mount Vernon (36.8 percent overvalued), Longview (35.1 percent overvalued) and Seattle (31.7 percent overvalued). The authors of the study consider anything above 35 percent to be extremely overvalued and a candidate for a market correction. The study also states that the overvaluation percentage is not meant to be an estimate of how far prices could fall. Bellingham has ranked high on this list since 2005, after real estate prices in this area surged. The study considers a variety of data, including house prices, household incomes, population densities and historical changes the area has seen over time. Local economists have offered a variety of reasons for Bellingham’s high ranking in previous study updates, such as a surge in higher-end home sales, skewing the median price (the midpoint of all sales), or wage and income statistics that are not as up to date. The most overvalued metro areas in the country, according to the report, are Naples, Fla. (79.9 percent overvalued); Bend, Ore. (75.1 percent overvalued) and Merced, Calif. (75.1 percent overvalued). Seven out of eight of the most undervalued metro areas are in Texas.
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