Clark County sees high demand for large, expensive houses

Clark County’s housing market is booming, with surging demand for resale houses and new custom homes at every size and every price point. Even houses in the $1 million-or-more range are receiving quick offers, bucking the usual patterns that limit higher activity to lower price brackets.

So is there still a ceiling? Is there any home for sale in Clark County that won’t get a half dozen offers in a matter of days?

The answer is yes, but a few million dollars is a mere down payment.

The Dawson Ridge Estate, a cliffside mansion perched above the Columbia River west of Camas, is currently on the market for a cool $18,997,000 – the biggest and most expensive house for sale in the county, according to listing agent Ali Wise of Cascade Sotheby’s International Realty.

The 11,649-square-foot house, built in 1989, includes six bedrooms and nine full or partial bathrooms, along with a four-car garage (with lifts for additional vehicles) and a barn with horse stables on 10.6 acres. Nearly every direction features a spectacular view.

“The views are pretty much what sells the house,” Wise said. “You can see basically all of the Columbia River and any given mountain range from anywhere in the house.”

The home is owned by entrepreneur Brandon Dawson, who purchased it about 10 years ago and invested $5 million in remodeling, according to Wise.

The surrounding acreage was originally much larger, but Dawson sold a significant portion of it to be developed as the Dawson’s Ridge community, the site of the 2019 Northwest Natural Parade of Homes.

Like many other real estate agents in Clark County, Wise said she’s seen $1 million and $2 million houses fly off the market in record time in recent months. But the $19 million Dawson Ridge Estate is “in a completely different world.”

The house has been listed since September and remains on the market, although Wise said she’s seen a few interested parties “come and go” in the past six months. The eventual buyer is probably going to be someone who learns about the house through word of mouth rather than conventional advertising, she said.

“You can’t just throw up a Facebook ad and hope that anyone of stature is going to see it,” she said.

— Anthony Macuk