Ferndale, Washington.
Typical home $610,926 (+0.8% in a year), asking rent $2,110 (+2.6%). Bellingham, WA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,707 (+114%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,066 +1%
- $605,859$610,926 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $71,358 +13%
- $539,567$610,926 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Ferndale$3,207
- Washington$3,084
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 28 years.
Typical home values in Ferndale, WA rose 0.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Ferndale, WA rose 2.6% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Owning the typical home in Ferndale runs $2,106/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $2,210 in Jan 2025.
That is $4,216 a month against $2,110 rent: a $3,207 mortgage payment, plus $355 property tax and $654 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Ferndale
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$4,216
- Renting$2,110
- Mortgage only$3,207
Property tax · $355/mo 0.70% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Whatcom County, WA
Insurance & upkeep · $654/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Ferndale, Whatcom County, Washington
Ferndale is a city of 15,048 people in Whatcom County. Half its households earn more than $87,579 a year and half less, against $81,784 across Whatcom County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. Unemployment in Whatcom County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then construction.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Ferndale is a small city in Whatcom County, with a population that skews somewhat younger than many American towns. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run a little above the county's, though homes here are not cheap and rents are steep. Winters are cool and wet, with highs well above freezing even in December, and summers stay mild, with the year's rain and melted snow spread through the cooler months.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in the building trades, in shops, and in manufacturing. The largest workplaces in Ferndale include the Ferndale School District, Cascade Dafo, which makes orthopedic devices, and Samson Rope. Unemployment across Whatcom County is about where it stood a year earlier, and the number of jobs in the county has barely changed.
Things to do. Hovander Homestead Park and Tenmile Creek are in or beside town, handy for a walk by the water. A short drive away are Birch Bay State Park, a protected area, and the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention. Peace Arch Park, a protected area near the border, is a longer drive.
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- 5,844households
- 37%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 15%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Whatcom County had 93,720 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 46° and lows near 34°; warmest in August, with highs near 73° and lows near 55°. About 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bellingham International Airport weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ferndale
- Ferndale School DistrictSchool district579FTE
- Cascade DafoOrthopedic devices manufacturing298
- Hempler Foods GroupMeats, cured or smoked, made from purchased carcasses292
- Samson RopeRopes manufacturing190
- Barron Heating and ACHeating, ventilation and air-conditioning contractors171
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores160
- Metrie Manufacturing - FerndaleMoldings, clear and finger joint wood, manufacturing128
- Superfeet HQ - FerndaleFootwear merchant wholesalers113
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 20 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,992 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ferndale’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Whatcom County and the Bellingham, WA metro.
Ferndale home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ferndale$610,926
- Washington$587,533
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Ferndale listings, and the typical home goes pending in 16 days — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Ferndale33.26%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Ferndale16
- United States21
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Ferndale129
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ferndale34
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Ferndale$618,771
- United States$371,553
Zip codes with a Ferndale address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ferndale — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.