A new high-speed ferry service connecting downtown Seattle with the city of Bremerton promises to make a number of more-affordable communities accessible to Seattle home shoppers. But because Bremerton isn’t part of the Greater Seattle market, some borrowers seeking even relatively affordable homes may need to do some potentially costly mortgage gymnastics to make their home purchase in and around Bremerton work.
A new high-speed ferry service connecting downtown Seattle with the city of Bremerton promises to make a number of more-affordable communities accessible to Seattle home shoppers. But because Bremerton isn’t part of the Greater Seattle market, some borrowers seeking even relatively affordable homes may need to do some potentially costly mortgage gymnastics to make their home purchase in and around Bremerton work.
The new ferry service from Kitsap Transit will cut the one-way trip time between Seattle and Bremerton in half, to around 30 minutes. For Seattle home shoppers struggling with high and rising home prices, Bremerton’s newfound proximity offers an attractive option. Home values in Bremerton are on par with those in Tacoma ($254,800), roughly an hour drive south of Seattle.
The median home value in Bremerton was $263,500 as of June 2017, less than half the median home value in the city of Seattle ($682,300) and about 25 percent cheaper than the most affordable Seattle-area cities, including Marysville ($329,400) and Tukwila ($342,700). Inventory in Bremerton is also not as tight as in the urban Seattle market: The number of homes for sale in Bremerton is down “only” 7.7 percent from June 2016 (and was actually increasing year-over-year throughout much of this past winter), compared to a 33 percent annual decline in the city of Seattle.
But there are complications for Seattleites considering buying in Kitsap County, where Bremerton is located. Kitsap County is not technically part of the Seattle metro, meaning the maximum loan amount for government-backed conforming loans is lower: $424,100 in Kitsap County, versus $592,250 in King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties. Depending how much they put down, home buyers considering a home priced above that $424k threshold should know their loan may be considered a jumbo mortgage. Qualifying for a jumbo mortgages can be more complicated, and loans may carry higher interest rates in Kitsap County than a loan for a similarly priced home in King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties.
Bainbridge Island, about halfway between Seattle and Bremerton in Puget Sound, offers a handy comparison. Bainbridge has long been a popular market for Seattle home shoppers, with a ferry crossing of about 30 to 35 minutes to downtown Seattle. Almost 40 percent of employed adults living on Bainbridge Island commute to work in Seattle, compared to just under 20 percent for Bremerton.[1] But with a median home value of $748,300, homes on Bainbridge Island are pricey (though since Bainbridge Island homes tend to be very large, on a per square foot basis, it is about 20 percent cheaper than the city).
Bringing Bremerton within the same roughly half-hour commute window, but with homes at a fraction of the cost of Bainbridge, looks set to make the Western Puget Sound region far more attractive to Seattle-bound commuters. It remains to be seen if and how would-be Bremerton home shoppers respond to the higher home financing hurdles that come along with the territory.
Related:
[1] Zillow analysis of data from the Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) data. Estimates for 2014, the most recent year of LEHD data currently available. For the purposes of this analysis, Bremerton includes the adjacent communities of Enetai, Tracyton, and Rocky Point.
