Richmond Beach's Median Price Is Telling Two Different Stories
September 3, 2026
September 3, 2026
Pull up two well-known real estate data sites side by side for Richmond Beach and you will find two numbers that cannot both be describing the same neighborhood. One shows the median sale price falling nearly 9 percent over the past year. The other shows it climbing 14 percent over roughly the same stretch. Neither site made an error. Both are measuring something real. The disagreement itself is the most useful piece of information a buyer or seller can have about this market right now, because it points to why comparing Richmond Beach to anywhere else on the strength of a single "median price" headline is a mistake.
Here is what each source actually reported. Redfin's currently published Richmond Beach figures put the median sale price at $775,000, down 8.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, with price per square foot at $615, up 27.9 percent year over year. Homes.com's April 2026 data, using a trailing 12-month window, put the median at $1,258,000, up 14 percent from the prior year, with an average sale price of $1,350,552. Those are not typos. They are two different measuring instruments pointed at two different slices of time, applied to a neighborhood where the transaction count is small enough that a handful of sales can swing the result in either direction.
Richmond Beach is not a large market. Redfin's own listing data has shown as few as 11 to 13 homes closing in a given month, with condo counts sometimes as thin as two active listings at a time. When your sample size for "the median" is a dozen closings, one waterfront trophy sale or one run of smaller starter condos can move the needle by six figures without reflecting any actual shift in what a typical Richmond Beach home is worth.
Consider the gap between what a condo buyer and a single-family buyer experienced in the same season. Homes.com's April 2026 data showed condos in Richmond Beach ranging from $690,000 to $750,000, while the broader single-family median that same month sat well north of $1 million. A month where more condos than usual close will drag the blended median down even if every individual home sold at a fair, rising price. A month where a couple of Sound-view estates close will pull it sharply up. Redfin's price-per-square-foot figure, which is less sensitive to that kind of mix shift, is arguably the more honest number here, and it was still climbing at nearly 28 percent year over year in Redfin's own reporting.
Add to that the fact these two sources are not even measuring the same calendar window. Redfin's figures reflect a rolling spot check against the most recent closings. Homes.com's figures are a trailing 12 months ending in April 2026. Comparing them directly is comparing a single recent snapshot to a fruit basket collected over the prior year. That is not a flaw unique to Richmond Beach. It is what happens whenever a hyper-local market gets forced into the same reporting format used for a city ten times its size.
| Source | Window | Reported figure |
|---|---|---|
| Redfin | Rolling spot check, 2026 | Median sale price $775,000, down 8.8% YoY; price per sq ft $615, up 27.9% YoY |
| Homes.com | Trailing 12 months, April 2026 | Median sale price $1,258,000, up 14% YoY; median list price $1,199,000 |
If you are shopping Richmond Beach against a neighborhood like Innis Arden, both of which sit at the premium end of Shoreline's market with Puget Sound views and larger lots, the safer move is to stop trusting any single published median. Pull the trailing 12 months for both neighborhoods, cross-check that against price per square foot, and then ask your agent for the actual closed comps in the specific block you are considering. A neighborhood-wide number this thin will not tell you what a home three streets from the water is really worth compared to one that backs up to the bluff itself.
Neither price feed accounts for the one variable that could matter more to long-term value than any month's median: Point Wells.
Point Wells is a 60-acre former marine fuel and asphalt terminal sitting directly north of Richmond Beach, and the only vehicle access to it runs through the neighborhood itself, along the two-lane Richmond Beach Drive. The Town of Woodway annexed the site in May 2024 after decades of litigation over what could be built there. That annexation did not settle the site's future. It reopened it.
As of the most recent public reporting in March 2026, a Snohomish County hearing examiner had issued a code interpretation in January of that year favoring the property owner, Paramount, on the question of whether commercial operations at the site's asphalt plant, run under the name Alon Asphalt, could be restarted. Neither side was fully satisfied with the reasoning. Paramount appealed elements of it. The City of Shoreline and a Richmond Beach resident named Tom McCormick appealed the decision itself. Both sides went back before the hearing examiner on March 2, 2026, agreed to narrow the questions still in dispute, and scheduled another round of discussion for mid-April. Separately, and with a much longer history, a large-scale mixed-use condominium redevelopment proposal for the same site, once put forward by a group called Blue Square Real Estate, has been resubmitted and stalled multiple times over more than a decade and remains unresolved.
None of that shows up in a median price chart. It would not move Redfin's number up or down next month. But it is the kind of fact that changes how a buyer should read any Richmond Beach comp, because it represents a genuinely open question about the character of the road that connects the neighborhood to the rest of Shoreline, not a seasonal fluctuation that will smooth itself out.
If you are seriously comparing homes in Richmond Beach, here is what is worth asking before you treat any listing as a clean comparison to another neighborhood:
None of this is legal or financial advice, and the right people to answer the disclosure and insurance questions are a real estate attorney, your lender, and your title company. But knowing the questions exist before you are three weeks into a transaction is the difference between negotiating from strength and finding out too late.
Richmond Beach still earns its premium-tier status inside Shoreline. Homes close in days rather than weeks in most reporting periods, price per square foot has been climbing steadily, and the lifestyle draw around Richmond Beach Saltwater Park and the walkable stretch near Richmond Beach Coffee House is real and not something either data feed captures. But a buyer weighing Richmond Beach against Innis Arden, or against a mid-century pocket like Ridgecrest, should treat the published median as a rough sketch, not a verdict. In a market this small, the useful number is rarely the headline. It's the trailing 12-month figure, cross-checked against price per square foot, checked against the specific block, and weighed against anything unresolved just north of the neighborhood line.
Does the situation at Point Wells affect insurance or financing for nearby homes? Nothing in the current public record points to a blanket effect on insurability or lending across Richmond Beach, and the matter is still in front of a hearing examiner rather than settled. The safest approach is to ask your lender and insurer directly about any property near the Point Wells access corridor and to review whatever environmental disclosures accompany the specific listing.
If I'm comparing Richmond Beach to another Shoreline neighborhood, which price should I use? Use the trailing 12-month median for both neighborhoods rather than a single-month spot check, and confirm it against price per square foot. Then ask for closed comps from the specific streets you're considering. A neighborhood-wide median in a market this thin can hide more than it reveals.
If you are trying to make sense of what a specific Richmond Beach property is actually worth, or how it stacks up against homes in Innis Arden, Edmonds, or elsewhere in the North Puget Sound corridor, that is exactly the kind of block-by-block reading a published median can't give you. Adam Cobb & Team works these micro-markets daily. Request your complimentary home valuation and get a comp analysis built around the sales that actually match your address, not a citywide average.
With an unwavering commitment to client satisfaction, Adam's approach is both approachable and highly responsive, earning praise for his ability to exceed expectations. Let Adam Cobb and his team guide you through a seamless real estate experience. With us, your goals are always our priority, and our expertise is your advantage.