Bellingham, Washington Housing Market

How much more is for sale in Bellingham than before the pandemic?

There are 418 homes for sale in Bellingham, 50% more than in 2017–2019 at this time of year. That count is up 9% on last year, with 116 new listings this month. The build-up is biggest in 98225 (126 for sale, 97% above its 2017–2019 level) and 98226 (174 for sale, 57% above its 2017–2019 level). More choice means you can walk away from any home priced for the market of three years ago.

How much can you negotiate in Bellingham?

For every 100 homes still for sale, 30 are under contract. In 2017–2019 at this time of year it was 38. The rest are still waiting for a buyer. About 1 in 5 sellers has already dropped their price. Each one has learned their first price was too high. Start your offer below their new price.

Bellingham listings spend a median 50 days on the market. That is 6% shorter than a year ago. There are 418 homes for sale in Bellingham. That is the most in ten years. It is 10 times the low of Jan 2022. Every one of them competes with the house you want.

What to do about it

• Search Bellingham homes listed 60+ days ago that have already cut their price.
• Offer below the reduced price.
• Keep your inspection and financing contingencies.
• Ask the seller to pay closing costs.
• You can lose a few offers here and still win.

How does Bellingham compare with other Washington markets?

Ranked among the 25 Washington markets we track:

• Asking price: 9th priciest of 25. Bellingham is at $648,839. Closest: Marysville and Kent.
• Buyer competition: 11th least competitive of 23. Bellingham is at 0.30 buyers per home. Closest: Redmond and Renton.
• Time on market: 8th shortest time on market of 25. Bellingham is at a median of 50 days on market. Closest: Spokane and Bremerton.
• Price cuts: 5th fewest price cuts of 25. Bellingham is at 21% of sellers cutting. Closest: Edmonds and Seattle.

Is now a good time to buy in Bellingham?

The median asking price is 24.7% below its Apr 2024 peak. Per square foot the gap is smaller: 7.6% below the Mar 2025 high. Part of the drop is smaller homes coming to market. Prices stopped falling about a year ago. They are flat now. Waiting will not get you a cheaper house. It might still get you a more motivated seller. Bellingham prices have risen in 91 of the last 111 months. Drops here have been short and shallow. Buying in a slow month has rarely hurt a long hold.

The discount is already here. It is not getting bigger. Buy now while sellers are still weak. Waiting for a lower price stopped working a year ago.

Who will rent from you in Bellingham?

In Bellingham, 45 out of every 100 households rent. That is nearly half. The renter share is shrinking. Five years ago it was 46 in 100. Bellingham added about 1,400 renter households in five years. Renter households average 2.1 people. Singles and couples rent here. Two bedrooms beat four.

Households grew 9% in five years. The housing stock grew 7%. Demand is outrunning supply. Just 5.6% of homes sit empty. A well-priced rental fills fast here.

The median Bellingham household earns $75,998 a year. Incomes here have grown 4.7% a year since 2019. Incomes are rising faster than home prices. Affordability is improving. A typical home costs 8.5 times the median income. Most locals cannot buy. That keeps rental demand deep. It also caps the rent they can pay. At 30% of income, a tenant on the median income can pay about $1,900 a month.

To see what one Bellingham address would rent for and cash flow, run it through the app.

What numbers should you underwrite a Bellingham deal with?

• Price growth to assume — +2.6%/yr. Bellingham grew 7.2% a year over the decade. Ignore that rate. Most of it landed in the 2020 and 2021 boom. Without the boom, Bellingham grows about 2.6% a year. That is the number to type in. Prices rose 1.2% over the last year. Use it for timing. The five-year rate is the better guide.
• Comp on price per square foot — $417/sqft. The typical Bellingham listing shrank from 2,032 to 1,697 sqft since Jul 2016. So median price hides real growth: 95% per sqft versus 47% on the median. Comp on median price and you will overpay for small homes.
• Competition when you exit — +9%. Homes for sale in Bellingham are up 9% on last year, so your resale faces more competition than today's comps did.

Read what days on market tells you about leverage and how we read these numbers, then run the numbers on a deal.

What is the median home price in Bellingham?

The median asking price in Bellingham is about $649,000 as of Sep 2026, down 5.9% from a year ago. Asking price per square foot is up 1.2%, so read the median with care: it moves with which homes happen to be listed. This is the asking price on homes listed for sale. Sites that report sold prices or estimated home values will show a different number. Our Bellingham figures cover the 5 ZIP codes with a Bellingham mailing address, which can reach past city limits.

Is Bellingham a buyer's or seller's market in 2026?

Buyers have more room in Bellingham than usual. We compare Bellingham with 2017–2019 at this time of year: there are 50% more homes for sale; there are 30 pending sales per 100 listings, against 38 then; listings spend 21% more days on the market.

Are Bellingham home prices going up or down?

The median asking price is 24.7% below its Apr 2024 peak. Per square foot the gap is smaller: 7.6% below the Mar 2025 high. Part of the drop is smaller homes coming to market. Prices stopped falling about a year ago. They are flat now. Waiting will not get you a cheaper house. It might still get you a more motivated seller.

What is the best month to buy a house in Bellingham?

Across 9 full years, Bellingham asking prices ran lowest in February, about 4.1% below the year's average. They peaked in April. The most homes for sale show up in August, about 31% above the yearly average.

What is the fair market rent in Bellingham?

HUD's fiscal year 2026 fair market rent for Whatcom County is $1,794 a month for 2 bedrooms and $2,495 for 3 bedrooms. The figures include tenant-paid utilities and cover the whole county.