The last six months have quietly reshaped what buyers are willing to pay per square foot in Pierce County, Bonney Lake, and the Lake Tapps area. Using rolling six-month MLS data for non-waterfront residential homes in East Bonney Lake / Lake Tapps, Pierce County, and King County, we can see where prices are holding, where they’re stretching, and where the real opportunities are. For local homeowners, the story is less about “Is the market up or down?” and more about “How does my neighborhood’s price per square foot compare to the rest of the region?” This breakdown is designed to give Bonney Lake, Lake Tapps, and Pierce County homeowners real numbers they can use when planning their next move.
Looking at the most recent six months (May through October 2025), Pierce County’s average residential price per square foot (non-waterfront) is sitting around $327 based on rolling MLS data. That’s up from roughly $321 per square foot over the same May–October period in 2024, a gain of about 1.9%. In other words, prices are still grinding higher, just at a slower, more sustainable pace than the wild spikes of 2021–2022. Redfin’s broader county data backs this up, showing a median October 2025 sale price of about $567,000 and a median sale price per square foot around $315, up 2.9% year over year.
Pierce County is in a “steady, not sprinting” phase. MLS price-per-square-foot trends (non-waterfront) show roughly a 7–8% climb from early 2022 to today (from about $303/sf in early 2022 to roughly $327/sf in the latest six-month window). Our local Pierce County numbers line up closely with what national portals like Realtor.com and Redfin report for median listing and sale price per square foot, which means the local data you’re seeing here is well-anchored to the larger market.
King County is still the heavyweight in our region when it comes to price per square foot. Over the same May–October 2025 period, our MLS six-month rolling data shows King County averaging about $542/sf for non-waterfront residential—compared to Pierce County’s $327/sf. That’s roughly a 66% premium for King. Public sources like Zillow and Realtor.com tell a similar story: median home values in King County hover in the mid-$800,000s, with median listing prices per square foot around $527 as of late summer 2025.
For Pierce County homeowners, this gap matters. If King County averages around $527–$540/sf and Pierce sits closer to $310–$330/sf, you’re living in the “affordable side of the metro” from a regional standpoint, but with easy access to King County jobs, shopping, and amenities.
That spread is exactly why move-up buyers are willing to push a little higher on price per square foot in Bonney Lake, Lake Tapps, Puyallup, and Edgewood—they’re trading a commute for more house, more yard, and a lower overall cost per square foot than they’d get in core King County.
Now for the hyper-local view. In our MLS data for East Bonney Lake / Lake Tapps (non-waterfront), the latest six-month rolling average is about $336/sf, versus Pierce County’s $327/sf over the same period. That means the East Bonney Lake / Lake Tapps corridor is carrying about a $9/sf premium over the broader county, even without including true waterfront homes. Year-over-year, October 2025 sits around $335/sf vs. $322/sf in October 2024—a 4% increase compared to Pierce County’s 2.2% gain over the same time frame.
What makes that premium believable is what we see in third-party data: Redfin reports that the median sale price in Lake Tapps hit about $1.07M in October 2025, with a median price per square foot near $329 and homes taking roughly 55 days to sell.
When a micro-market like East Bonney Lake / Lake Tapps is priced a bit above Pierce County as a whole, but still far below King County, it creates a “pressure-release valve” for buyers who want lake access, parks, and strong schools without paying King County pricing. That’s why you see steady, not frantic, appreciation in this pocket instead of boom-and-bust swings.
Because you’re looking at rolling six-month averages, you’re seeing the “true” underlying trend rather than one noisy month at a time. From early 2022 to the most recent six-month period, East Bonney Lake / Lake Tapps climbed from about $301/sf to roughly $336/sf—an 11–12% gain. Over the same window, Pierce County moved from about $303/sf to $327/sf (around 7–8%), and King County from roughly $512/sf to $542/sf (about 6%). The takeaway: our local Pierce County submarkets have outpaced King County in percentage growth, even if King still sits higher in raw dollars.
Layer that against current countywide stats and the narrative gets clearer. Redfin shows Pierce County’s median sale price down 1.4% year over year but price per square foot still up almost 3%, and King County’s median prices up around 2–3% with days on market rising from the mid-teens to the low-20s.
That combination—slower unit sales, longer days on market, but stable or rising price per square foot—is classic for a market normalizing after a hyper-competitive run. Prices are not crashing; they’re re-anchoring around actual, demonstrated value per square foot.
For buyers looking at homes for sale in Bonney Lake, Lake Tapps, Sumner, Buckley, and the rest of East Pierce, price per square foot is your compass—but it’s not the whole map. A non-waterfront home in East Bonney Lake might reasonably trade in the low-to-mid-$300s per square foot, while similar homes deeper into Pierce County sit closer to the low-$300s. Meanwhile, King County might be asking you to stretch into the $500s per square foot for something comparable. Public sites like Redfin, Zillow, and Realtor.com give you a quick reality check, but they don’t filter out water views, lot quirks, or condition the way a local MLS pull does.
Smart buyers in Pierce County and along Lake Tapps are doing three things:
For sellers in Bonney Lake, Lake Tapps, Sumner, Buckley, Auburn, Milton, Edgewood, and the rest of Pierce County, the strategy now is precision, not hype. With buyers watching price per square foot more than ever, you can’t just add your dream number to whatever your neighbor got. Our current data shows East Bonney Lake / Lake Tapps running around $336/sf, Pierce County around $327/sf, and King County around $540/sf for non-waterfront homes. That gives us a tight band to work from when we’re recommending list price in $25,000 brackets that match how buyers actually search online.
Here’s how that plays out in the real world: we’ll often start with your home’s likely price per square foot, then sanity-check it against regional numbers from sources like FRED and national portals, making sure we aren’t ignoring a sudden shift in demand or inventory.
From there, we zero in on your hyper-local story: school district, access to amenities like Allan Yorke Park and Lake Tapps recreation, and city services through Bonney Lake’s Public Works and utilities.
The end result is a pricing strategy that respects the data, positions you competitively against both Pierce and King County inventory, and still leaves room to attract multiple offers when the home is prepped and marketed correctly.
If you want a price-per-square-foot breakdown for your specific home in Bonney Lake, Lake Tapps, Sumner, Buckley, Auburn, Milton, Edgewood, or greater Pierce County—based on real MLS data, not just online estimates— call André & Cindie at 253-441-9764. The numbers are already there; the next step is applying them to your exact address.
