WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. — Million-dollar homes are selling like crazy in western Washington and not just in the Seattle area. Hundreds of seven-figure houses have sold over the past year 90 miles to the north in Whatcom County.
While it's a huge payday for some, many more are seeing doors of opportunity slammed in their faces as the market grows increasingly unsustainable.
"Million-dollar homes are becoming much more commonplace," said Kena Greer Brashear, managing broker for the Muljat Group.
She currently has a listing on the market for $2.1 million.
"It sits on 5 acres," she said. "There's a pond on site that's stocked with fish and turtles."
You don't need your own fish pond, however, to hit seven figures in Whatcom County anymore.
Much more modest homes are hitting that price point with more than 260 of them selling over the past year alone, according to the Whatcom County Treasurer's Office.
People escaping rising prices in Seattle and California are fueling the boom, especially those who can now work from home.
Green Brashear says she hasn't seen anything like it in her 27 years in the industry
"So, a house that was $800,000 last year is going to be a million-plus in this market, at this point in time," she said. "A million dollars doesn't go as far as it did in previous years."
Prices are being pushed so high that Whatcom County just broke its own record for the most expensive property to ever sell.
It fetched $7.3 million -- shattering the previous record of $3.3 million more than a decade ago.
While many are cashing in, many more are finding it impossible to buy at all.
"It means the starter homes that working families could afford to buy no longer exist," said Dean Fearing of the Kulshan Community Land Trust.
The trust acquires land and turns it into affordable housing for people.
Fearing says low interest rates and even lower inventory have pushed the average home price in Whatcom County to more than $650,000.
The situation is pricing most people out of the market.
"If you're making $80,000 to $100,000, which is a good wage, you still aren't able to buy a home," he said.
The land trust is currently developing a piece of surplus land given to it by the City of Bellingham into a single-family home that it will sell at below-market rate to a deserving family.
But Fearing said the county needs at least 500 more just like it -- immediately.
"I'm not exaggerating," he said. "It's actually probably much more than that. I think we're short a couple thousand affordable units in Whatcom County."
Meantime, prices continue to climb -- up more than 20% since this time last year -- with no end in sight.
"We talk about this all the time," said Greer Brashear. "Have we hit the top? We have not. It just keeps going and going and going."
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