Lacey VS Tumwater

 

Lacey and Tumwater may be viewed by some as Olympia’s two little nephews once removed. However, many home buyers consider them a legitimate and slightly less expensive option to buying a home in Olympia. So, which is the better option? There are a million different personal reasons why someone would choose one over the other (i.e. location of family, commute time, school, etc.), so let’s focus on the real estate markets.

 

First up: Number of homes currently on the market.

With 207 homes and condos available for sale, Lacey has about three times the inventory as Tumwater. If we dig a bit deeper, new construction really stands out. Lacey currently has 72 new homes for sale by builders, whereas Tumwater has 17. Lacey is the clear winner when it comes to choices and amount of inventory a buyer has to choose from. 

 

Up Next: Price per square foot: 

As of this writing, a house in Lacey sells for $134.57 per square foot while a house in Tumwater sells at $127.83 per square foot. This is based on the average of sold homes over the last 90 days. It is fairly straight forward: if you are a buyer, it’s better to have a lower price per square foot.  The winner here is Tumwater 

*Something interesting to note:  the average price per square foot on homes currently for sale shows Lacey at $297,404 and Tumwater at $287,072. This is quite a bit higher than the average sold price per square footage, but still shows Lacey as being a bit more expensive. The discrepancy between the list price and the sold price per square foot can be attributed to homes currently on the market that are overpriced. An overpriced home will not sell and, therefore, will not be included in the sold price per square foot figure.  

 

Next up: Months of inventory on the market.

The concept of “months of inventory” refers to the number of months it would take to sell all of the homes currently listed as “for sale” on the market if no new listings were added. Tumwater stands at 1.63 months of inventory and Lacey stands at 2.3 months of inventory.  In other words, if no new homes were added to the market, Lacey would sell its entire current inventory in 2.3 months. Tumwater would take slightly less at 1.63 months. This means that Tumwater is a bit more of a seller’s market than Lacey. To put this in to perspective, neutral markets are somewhere between the 4 and 6 month range. 

So the winner is Lacey, if you are a buyer, and Tumwater, if you are a seller.  

 

Lastly: Sale price to list price ratio:

Tumwater: .994  Lacey: .997

The sale price to list price ratio (sale to list ratio) indicates how much a seller is willing to negotiate with a buyer. For example, if a buyer and seller come to agreement for the exact list price of the home, then the list to sell ratio would be exactly 1.00. The lower the number, the more the buyer was able to negotiate off of the listed price. As the number rises above 1.00, the buyer is paying above the current listed price of the property. This can be an indication of a bidding war. As a reference, Seattle is currently at a sale to list ratio of 1.041. This means that, on average, people are paying 4.1% more than the listed price of a home! (And when prices for a home can reach X, that means spending X more dollars). 

So, on average home buyers in Tumwater are able to negotiate more off of the list price than home buyers in Lacey. The winner here is Tumwater (if you are a buyer). 

 

What does this all mean? Lacey has more inventory to choose from, especially when it comes to new construction. However, in Tumwater, buyers are able to negotiate a bit more with sellers. Pricing is a bit higher in Lacey, and homes are selling quicker in Tumwater. Lacey won two and Tumwater won two. Probably not the clear and decisive answer everyone was looking for, but, it’s important to realize that Lacey and Tumwater are not the same when it comes to their real estate market.   

 

Make sure to check out the current stats and available homes in Lacey, Tumwater and even Olympia!