Land on Bainbridge Island~

My folks always believed in the value of land. I grew up on a farm that had been in the family since my great-grandfather homesteaded it in the 1800s, and I watched its value appreciate in my lifetime in an incredible fashion. "Take care of the land," my dad always said. "They're not making any more of it." True words unless you live where accretion makes you its lucky beneficiary--remembering always that Nature gives and can take away.

Here on our island rock, that's not likely to happen. The trees grow taller and the ocean's force is mostly tempered. Every so often the eastern cliffs along Puget Sound grow a little steeper, but satellite maps show clearly that we've been here since glaciers scraped their way south. (That's why our hills and valleys tend to run east to west. If you want a flat walk, head north or south.)

The value of vacant land on Bainbridge Island isn't doing very well right now, however. That's consistent with the trends, of course, but land is particularly struggling. I did a price analysis on some property this week, and decided that we've had so few sales that the only way anyone can gage the value of a piece of land is to see what shakes out in a negotiation.

The driving force for land sales on Bainbridge has always been builders looking for a place to build their next custom or "spec" home. For now, those days are over. Builders are unable to sell what they have built, and they aren’t buying land. The MLS shows over 40 homes currently listed on Bainbridge in various stages of construction. Some houses are being sold as is, only partially completed, and several more are being offered as presales. Other builders have put renters into their unsold properties.

A buyer for vacant land or new construction could do very well right now. Prices are low and dropping, and one builder is even offering to pay a buyer's mortgage for the first year.

Someday they'll be building more homes, but we still aren't making any more land. It seems like a good time to buy.