Every couple of weeks, we share what we’re seeing across the Puget Sound custom-home market — the trends, costs, and shifts that actually affect a build in Snohomish County and across the greater Puget Sound. This issue covers two decisions made on paper long before a house exists — how it stands up to fire and how it keeps the lights on — and what the Federal Reserve just did to the cost of carrying a build.
Washington has no wildfire building code right now, so fire-hardening a new home is your call
Washington’s construction rules for wildfire-prone areas were rescinded effective April 17, 2026, to wait for new statewide wildfire hazard maps from the Department of Natural Resources. Those maps were still in draft and out for public comment through August, and the State Building Code Council lists the replacement code as reserved until the mapping is done. There is no date for either.
Insurance hasn’t waited for the code. Washington home insurance base rates rose 16.6% in 2023, 21.7% in 2024 and 8.9% in 2025, according to the Insurance Commissioner’s office. Requests for 2026 are roughly flat, but the fires that destroyed roughly 700 structures in Spokane in early August arrived before insurers file for 2027. The Commissioner has described “pockets” of wildfire-driven non-renewals around the state, and the risk scores insurers use to make those calls are not public. A bill to require their disclosure passed the Senate 48–1 this year and died in a House committee.
What does exist is a voluntary standard insurers pay attention to. Since April, Washington homes can earn the IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home designation, verified by a third-party assessor; the Commissioner’s office says hardening a home to that standard “drives insurer confidence.” The base requirements are specific and mostly unglamorous: a Class A roof, vents screened with metal mesh no coarser than 1/8 inch, metal gutters, six inches of noncombustible material at the base of the walls, and a five-foot noncombustible zone around the house, decks included. The Plus tier adds enclosed eaves, noncombustible siding and dual-tempered glazing.
West of the Cascades the risk is lower than in Spokane. The reason to care on a wooded acreage lot in Snohomish County or on Whidbey isn’t the odds of a fire; it’s that your insurability is decided by a score you can’t see. On a new house, nearly everything on that list is a specification chosen during design. On an existing house, it’s a retrofit.
Backup power is now a design question, not a tax-credit question
The federal credit that covered 30% of a home battery or solar system ended for anything completed after December 31, 2025. For a new home the IRS counts the expense when you begin living in the house, so nothing in design today qualifies. Meanwhile Puget Sound Energy, which serves Whidbey and parts of Snohomish County, has asked regulators for a 16.75% residential electric increase in 2027, with more in 2028 and 2029; the request is pending. Snohomish PUD, which serves most of the county, raised rates a more modest 2.5% in April. And anyone here in November 2024 remembers the bomb cyclone, when PSE alone had more than 474,000 customers without power and warned of a multiple-day outage.
So the case for backup power is now resilience and rates, not a subsidy, and that changes how to budget for it. A battery bank, or a standby generator with an automatic transfer switch, is one of the few large line items that can be deferred without touching the design of the house, and deferring it is a legitimate way to bring a budget in. What can’t be deferred cheaply is the house’s ability to take it later: service and panel capacity, a location for the transfer switch, a pad and gas line or a wall for batteries, and conduit run while the walls are open. Those cost little on a drawing and a great deal after drywall.
The Fed raised rates, and jumbo money costs more than conforming
On September 16 the Federal Reserve raised its target range a quarter point to 3.75–4.00%, unanimously. It was the first increase since July 2023, and 16 of 18 officials projected at least one more this year. Mortgage rates were already climbing: Freddie Mac’s 30-year average reached 6.95% on September 17, up from 6.26% a year earlier. Jumbo loans averaged 7.15% in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest weekly survey, slightly above conforming loans at 7.12%.
On a build, the permanent mortgage is the second rate that matters. The first is the construction loan, which is usually variable and tied to the prime rate — and prime moves with the Fed. Over a twelve- to eighteen-month build, interest during construction is a real line in the budget, and it just went up. Ask a lender now how its construction product is priced and when a construction-to-permanent loan lets you lock the long-term rate; that answer varies more between lenders than the headline rates do.
Lumber is flat; a cabinet deadline is not
Framing lumber closed the week of September 18 at $514 per thousand board feet, down 2% on the week after a brief bounce and essentially flat for a month. The date to know is on the finish side: the 25% federal duty on imported kitchen cabinets and vanities is scheduled to rise to 50% on January 1, 2027 for countries without a trade agreement, Canada among them. If your cabinetry is coming from outside the U.S., when it’s ordered and shipped is now a budget decision.
What This Means for Prospective Clients
A Class A roof, the right vent product, a transfer-switch location and a conduit run are nearly free as lines on a drawing and expensive once the house exists — and right now neither the building code nor the tax code will make those decisions for you. Money also got more expensive, which makes the carrying cost of a build something to plan for rather than discover. None of this is a reason to hurry. It’s a reason to make these calls early and in the design.
Correction — Our September 9 post said 50% tariffs apply to Canadian cabinetry, millwork and plywood. Plywood is subject to the 50% duty; kitchen cabinets and vanities fall under a separate 25% duty scheduled to rise to 50% on January 1, 2027, and we have not confirmed how millwork is treated. The same post said the Building Code Council would vote on the energy code September 25; the Council now targets November 20 for final adoption. The May 3, 2027 effective date is unchanged. Corrected September 23, 2026.
We’re a small firm by design. We work with a limited number of clients each year, and we take the time to get the project right. If you’re curious about what custom design-build actually looks like — the process, the timeline, the decisions — we’re happy to talk.
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