The Real Cost of Owning Property in Hoodsport, WA
Hoodsport is a genuinely small, thin real estate market -- a few hundred year-round residents, a limited number of annual sales, and price figures that visibly disagree between sources depending on the month they were pulled. This page lays out the real cost categories a buyer should budget for here, states plainly where this research found solid numbers and where it didn't, and points to the right place to get a current figure rather than guessing one.
Purchase Price: A Thin Market With Disagreeing Snapshots
Two recent price snapshots for Hoodsport point in different directions, and both are worth knowing rather than picking one. Redfin reported a $388,000 median sale price for June 2025, up 10.7% year-over-year, with homes selling in a reported 15 days. A separate snapshot from June 2026 cited a $350,000 median list price -- an 8% decline from the prior month and a 7% decline from the same month a year earlier. That's not necessarily a contradiction: a median sale price and a median list price measure different things, and a market this small can swing meaningfully on a handful of transactions in either direction. What it does mean is that neither figure should be treated as a stable, load-bearing number for a purchase budget.
Because Hoodsport's total inventory is small -- listings in the low dozens at any given time across sites like Zillow and Trulia -- a single unusually large or unusually modest property selling in a given month can move the reported median noticeably. A buyer should ask a local agent for the actual comparable-sales list behind any number quoted, not just the headline figure, and should expect that list to be short.
Property Tax: Confirm With the Mason County Assessor, Not This Page
Washington has no state income tax, which means property tax carries more of the local funding load than it would in a state that also taxes wages -- covered in full on this site's Property Tax Guide page. Hoodsport is unincorporated Mason County, so a property here is taxed by the county's own levy plus separate school-district (Hood Canal School District), fire-district, and any other applicable special-district levies, rather than by a city government layer on top of those, since Hoodsport has no city of its own.
This page does not state a specific current combined levy rate or a typical annual tax bill for a Hoodsport property, because no figure found in researching this page was confirmed against a fully-loaded primary source for this specific tax year. Get the assessed value and current combined rate for a specific parcel directly from the Mason County Assessor's office before budgeting a purchase around any number seen elsewhere.
Insurance: Earthquake and Windstorm, Not a Hurricane Wind Pool
Standard Washington homeowners insurance does not generally cover earthquake damage as a default inclusion -- a separate policy or endorsement is the norm here, as it is across every Washington market on this site, and Mason County's real, modeled seismic exposure (covered in depth on the Hurricane & Storm Risk page) makes that a genuine consideration rather than a formality. Windstorm coverage, by contrast, typically runs through an ordinary homeowners policy rather than a specialized coastal wind pool of the kind a Gulf Coast or Atlantic buyer might expect -- but Mason County PUD 3's own reporting of roughly 6,200 customers losing power at the peak of an October 2025 windstorm, and as many as 9,729 during a December 2025 storm, is a real, dated reminder that outages and storm damage are a recurring, not hypothetical, local risk.
No Hoodsport-specific homeowners or earthquake insurance premium was confirmed this research pass. Get a current quote from a Washington-licensed insurance agent for the specific property, and see this site's Coastal Insurance page for the fuller state-level framework.
Well and Septic: The Real Cost Category a City-Water Buyer Might Not Expect
A meaningful share of Hoodsport-area properties, being outside any municipal water and sewer system, rely on a private well and an on-site septic system rather than connected city utilities -- a normal condition for unincorporated Mason County but a genuinely different cost and maintenance category for a buyer relocating from a market where those services come from a city utility bill. Well and septic systems carry their own inspection, permitting, and periodic maintenance or replacement costs that a buyer should budget for as part of total ownership cost, not as an afterthought discovered during due diligence.
This page does not state specific current well-drilling, septic-installation, or septic-inspection costs for Mason County, since no confirmed current figure was found this research pass. A buyer should get a specific property's well and septic system inspected by a licensed Washington professional before closing, and ask directly about system age, capacity, and any documented repair history.
Utilities: Mason County PUD and the Realities of Rural Hood Canal Power
Electric service in the Hoodsport area runs through Mason County's public utility district system, and that system's own news releases document real, recurring windstorm-driven outages -- the October 2025 and December 2025 events cited above are specific, dated, sourced examples, not a generic claim about rural power being unreliable somewhere. A buyer relying on well pump power, a septic system's pump (if applicable), or home heating that depends on electricity should factor outage resilience -- a generator, battery backup, or simply a realistic expectation of periodic multi-hour outages in storm season -- into total cost of ownership here.
This page does not have confirmed current PUD rate schedules or average monthly electric costs for a Hoodsport-area home, since no verified current figure was found this research pass. Confirm current rates directly with Mason County PUD before budgeting.
What This Page Does Not Know
This page does not have a confirmed current Mason County combined property tax rate, a confirmed Hoodsport-specific insurance premium, confirmed current well/septic installation or maintenance costs, or confirmed current PUD electric rates. It also does not have a large enough confirmed sample of recent Hoodsport transactions to state a reliable price-per-square-foot figure, given how thin this specific market is.
For current, specific numbers, contact the Mason County Assessor's office, a Washington-licensed insurance agent, a licensed well/septic contractor, Mason County PUD, and a local buyer's agent directly -- and ask each for a number specific to the parcel under consideration, not a county-wide average.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Home price snapshots are drawn from Redfin (June 2025 median sale price, $388,000, up 10.7% year-over-year) and a separate June 2026 aggregator snapshot (median list price, $350,000, down from the prior month and prior year), explicitly flagged here as disagreeing with each other in a thin market. Washington's lack of a state income tax and its resulting reliance on property tax is confirmed via the Washington State Department of Revenue's own materials, consistent with this site's other Washington market pages. Mason County PUD No. 3's own news releases document the October 2025 (~6,200 customers) and December 2025 (up to 9,729 customers) windstorm outage figures cited here. Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here include: a specific current Mason County combined property tax rate for a Hoodsport parcel; a Hoodsport-specific insurance premium; current well/septic installation and maintenance costs; and current Mason County PUD electric rates. Confirm all current figures directly with the Mason County Assessor's office, a licensed Washington insurance agent, a licensed well/septic contractor, Mason County PUD, and a local buyer's agent before making a purchase decision. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, financial, or insurance advice.