Take a look at Snohomish County’s most expensive home of 2014

WOODWAY — Yes, the house has five bedrooms, six-plus bathrooms, the chef’s kitchen and the Brazilian cherry hardwood floors.

What makes it the most expensive home sold last year in Snohomish County is some of the most fantastic views of the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains around.

“The house itself is breathtaking,” said Chris Doucet, the listing agent for the Woodway home. “Then you go outside and you see the view. And the view is expensive.”

The property with 2 acres in the 22000 block of Dogwood Lane comes with sights of blue water and sky that go on for miles. A rooftop deck and two fire pits allows the new owners to sit back and enjoy the horizon with the occasional ferry making its way across the water.

“There is a sense of relaxation when you’re surrounded by this kind of view and this amount of greenery,” said Doucet, who works for Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty in Seattle. “It’s almost like you decompress when you’re surrounded by this wonder.”

The 7,600-square-foot house sold for $2.93 million in August. That makes it the most expensive home sold last year in the county by any real estate agent affiliated with the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

The top five most expensive homes sold were all in south Snohomish County. The fifth most expensive home sold was a condo in Edmonds.

Tranquility on Dogwood Bluff — Realogics Sotheby’s names all of its homes — enjoys the perks the ultra-wealthy would expect from any home: Vaulted ceilings, a gated driveway, two master suites and a guest wing.

“The closets were huge,” Doucet said. “The master closet looked like it was a retail store.”

The house was shown about three to four times a month. Realogics Sotheby’s qualified each potential buyer before allowing them to visit, Doucet said.

“We were pretty discriminating about who we showed it to,” Doucet said. “That’s pretty typical. Most people don’t want to have looky loos tromping through their $3 million property.”

The property sat on the market for a year before selling in August. Doucet said that’s also typical of luxury homes where the customer base is limited.

“We anticipated that it might be someone from Asia or Europe, but it was a local buyer,” Doucet said.

The couple made an appointment to see the property by calling her directly, but she had another real estate agent in her office represent them.

The recession hit luxury homes much like it did other real estate, Doucet said. Now that the market has turned around, luxury homes are selling again as well.

Real estate sales are benefiting from several trends in the Puget Sound region, said Dean Jones, president and CEO of Realogics Sotheby’s.

First, people are moving out of rentals and buying homes or selling their homes and buying up, Jones said. Second, Washington is seeing an increase in population. Last year, the state added 85,000 new people and more are expected, according to the Office of Financial Management.

A third trend is helping specifically with the luxury home market: There’s a high number of foreign buyers mainly from China looking at the Puget Sound region.

“If you want to see what foreign demand can do to a market just go 150 miles to the north to Vancouver, B.C.,” Jones said.

In the past, Vancouver, Los Angeles and San Francisco were the markets of choice for foreign buyers. But the Seattle area and the Eastside are becoming more popular, Jones said.

Seattle offers easy access to Asia through Seatac Airport. The prices are better than the Bay Area, LA or Vancouver. And Washington lacks an income tax.

As more foreigners move into the market, more are willing to look at moving here, Jones said. “It’s a trend because it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he said.

Foreign buyers aren’t buying only luxury homes, Jones said. Some are buying condos and smaller homes for their children.

But many are buying homes for millions of dollars.

All of these trends are adding capital in the luxury real estate market at the moment, capital that wasn’t there during the recession.

“If nobody is able to sell, a lot of times nobody is able to buy,” Jones said.

Most expensive homes in Snohomish County

Here is the list of the top five most expensive homes sold in Snohomish County for 2014. All of the homes were located in the southern part of the county.