In August 2026, the median closed price for a house in the Everett/Mukilteo market area came in at $740,000, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service. A year earlier it was $837,450, so that's an 11.6% drop. That made it one of the steepest declines in Snohomish County, where the residential median slipped just 2.66% over the same stretch.
If you're comparing Everett with Mill Creek or Lake Stevens, that number makes Everett look like the place where values are giving way. Look inside it and most of the drop comes from one change. Far fewer expensive new detached homes are closing, and the new homes that are closing are smaller and cheaper. The homes in the sample changed more than the homes themselves.
That matters on both sides of a deal. A seller who prices a three-bedroom rambler off the area median is pricing it against a mix of homes that has shifted under them. A buyer who reads the drop as a discount on every house may find that resale detached homes haven't moved nearly as much.
Half the New Houses Disappeared From the Sales Record
NWMLS area 740 covers Everett and Mukilteo together. Here's how its residential sales from January through August compare with the same months of 2025, along with the August pending numbers:
| Area 740, residential | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| All closed sales, Jan–Aug | 1,325 | 1,107 |
| New-construction closed sales, Jan–Aug | 310 | 151 |
| New-construction median, Jan–Aug | $852,500 | $639,995 |
| All-residential median, Jan–Aug | $815,000 | $749,998 |
| August pending sales, median list price | $754,500 | $750,000 |
Take the new homes out and the resale side looks steadier. By subtraction, resale house closings went from 1,015 in the first eight months of 2025 to 956 this year, a dip of roughly 6%. New-construction closings fell by more than half over the same period. In 2025, new homes were almost a quarter of all residential sales in the area. In 2026 they're closer to one in seven.
Through August 2025, those new homes carried a median of $852,500, well above the area's overall median. They were holding the 2025 figure up. This year there are fewer of them, and the ones that sold carried a year-to-date median of $639,995, below the overall number. So new construction went from lifting the median to pulling it down. A median can fall that way even if no individual house loses value.
The pending numbers back this up. In August 2026, the median list price on area 740 houses that went under contract was $750,000, compared with $754,500 a year earlier. That's essentially flat. List prices on pending deals aren't the same as sale prices, and this data doesn't prove resale values held exactly. It does make "Everett houses lost a tenth of their value" hard to defend.
The Fee Schedule Explains Where Builders Went
Builders didn't just happen to start building smaller. Everett's 2026 impact fee schedule gives them a reason.
In the Everett School District, the school impact fee is $12,556 for a detached single-family home. For a townhome or duplex unit, it's $4,257. The city's transportation fee is the same $6,231 whether the unit is a detached house or a townhome. Those charges are spelled out in Everett's published fee schedule. On the school fee alone, a builder in the Everett district pays $8,299 more for each detached home than for each townhome. In the Mukilteo School District portion of the city, the school fee for both is $0, so the gap only applies on the Everett district side.
Zoning opened the door in the same direction. In June 2025, the Everett City Council approved Everett 2044, which ended most single-family-only zoning and allowed townhouses, duplexes, triplexes and other middle housing in most of the areas that used to be single-family only. In its 2025 coverage of the plan, the Everett Herald described it as a broad rewrite of where denser housing types can go.
Put those together on a south Everett lot and the math favors attached homes. More units fit on the land, each one costs less in fees, and each one sells at a price more buyers can reach with today's rates.
What the New Product Looks Like on the Ground
The builder pipeline in Everett right now is mostly townhomes in the mid-$500s to high-$600s:
- Lockwood Lane Townhomes by Lennar, 9811 31st Ave SE. When we checked, the builder was advertising prices from about $555,000 to $613,000 with only a few homes left. Its own sales page didn't agree with itself on the exact count.
- The Pines by D.R. Horton, 12818 Avondale Way. A new townhome community with four plans from 1,495 to 1,909 square feet, starting in the mid-$500,000s and expected to open this fall.
- Towns at Riverbrook by Taylor Morrison, in the Everett Riverfront area. Townhomes from the high $600,000s with plans from 1,784 to 1,976 square feet, listed as coming in late 2026.
Builder pricing and release timing change often, so treat these as a snapshot, not a quote. Still, the pattern fits the data. A new home in Everett today is more likely to be a townhome near $600,000 than a detached house near $850,000. As more of these close, they'll keep pulling the area median down without telling you anything about what a resale detached house is worth.
The Condo Median Shows the Same Problem in Reverse
The sample-mix problem shows up on the condo side too, just in the opposite direction. In August 2026, area 740's condo median jumped 21.7% to $504,975 from $415,000. That would be a striking headline. The average condo sale price that month was $486,878, compared with $489,561 a year earlier, which is flat. Through the first eight months of the year, the condo median actually fell, to $455,000 from $476,500.
August had only 54 condo closings, and ten of them were new construction, compared with four a year earlier. With a sample that small, a handful of newer units can swing the median a long way. Buyers watching Everett condos should give more weight to the year-to-date trend than to any single month.
Large-scale condo building in Everett has been slow for years, and the reason is insurance. In September 2025, Mayor Cassie Franklin said, "It's still not quite to the threshold where people are wanting to build condominiums here, at least not large scale," and added that "Everett is more 'built out' than other areas around us." According to the Association of Washington Cities, testimony to the Legislature put insurance for a new condo unit at more than 10 times the cost of the same coverage for a new single-family home. The state passed HB 1403 in 2025 and a follow-up bill, HB 2304, which took effect June 11, 2026. It extends an express-warranty option to new or converted buildings of 12 or fewer units and four or fewer stories.
The big residential projects you can see from the water are rentals. The Port of Everett described Waterfront Place as having 266 apartment homes, with more residential units planned at Millwright, and none of them are identified as for-sale condos. So for an owner-occupied home under $600,000 in Everett, your options are mainly the resale condo market and the new townhome pipeline. The new state law may widen that over time. It's too early to see any effect in closed sales.
How to Read Everett Prices When You're the One Writing the Offer
Since the area median blends very different homes, compare homes of the same type. Here's how that works in practice:
- Selling a detached house: price it against resale detached homes that closed nearby, not the area 740 median. New townhomes selling around $600,000 aren't your competition, even though they pull the median down.
- Buying a detached house: don't count on the median's 11.6% drop showing up as an 11.6% discount on the house you want. Pending list prices on houses were flat year over year in August 2026.
- Choosing between a new townhome and a resale condo: compare monthly ownership costs, square footage and HOA terms side by side. New townhomes start in the mid-$500,000s, and the year-to-date condo median through August was $455,000.
- Checking the school district line: the $8,299 fee gap only applies in the Everett School District part of the city, which helps explain where builders are adding attached homes.
Quick Answers
Does area 740 mean Everett only? No. NWMLS combines Everett and Mukilteo into a single map area, so every figure here covers both cities.
How current are these numbers? They come from the NWMLS August 2026 Market Snapshot, released September 3, 2026. Before you write an offer, check NWMLS for anything newer.
Is the whole county seeing more inventory? Yes. In August 2026, Snohomish County had 2,875 active listings, up 39.3% from a year earlier, which works out to 3.64 months of inventory. In area 740, active listings rose 57%.
If you own a detached home in Everett or Mukilteo and the area median has you worried, the number that counts is what homes like yours have actually sold for. The WC Group will pull resale comps for your type of home and your part of town, with the new townhome sales taken out. Get Your Free Home Valuation and see where your home actually stands.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
