The state of housing prices in Clark County and elsewhere should continue to serve as a cautionary tale.
As detailed recently by Columbian Business editor Gordon Oliver and staff writer Justin Runquist, home sale prices throughout the county remain far below pre-recession levels. For each ZIP code examined, prices range anywhere from 10 percent to 43 percent below what they were at their peak between April 2006 and April 2008. In Washougal’s 98671 ZIP code, for example, the median home price in September was $254,940 — 43 percent below the December 2006 peak of $450,000.
Of course, such methodology is not perfect for comparing home prices. Unless a specific home has sold multiple times within a couple years, there are other factors that could play a role in changing home prices. Yet the data is instructive for assessing the present and the future of the housing market.
To try to put a complex matter in simple terms, much of the economic downturn was triggered when the housing bubble collapsed. Easy money — loans provided to customers who likely should not have been eligible — led demand for houses to grow much more quickly than the supply, which drove up prices at an unsustainable speed. When that bubble popped, it reverberated throughout the economy.