Ground-Up Construction in Bellingham

$11,386.91 before permit and plan review fees, on the city's own current schedules. That is $4,133.00 for schools, $4,014.57 for parks and $3,239.34 for transportation, per unit, for a single-family or duplex lot. Projects in the Downtown or Fairhaven urban villages get a 20% discount on the transportation fee, and 15% applies in the city's other urban villages. Do not budget to the $3,487.16 transportation figure some cross-city comparisons cite. That number restates Bellingham's fee on a different standardized basis and is not what the city actually charges.

65, 100 or 170 days from the completeness determination, depending on whether the project needs public notice or a hearing, and the city owes money if it misses the deadline. Under RCW 36.70B.080, effective statewide since 2025-01-01, a permit needing no public notice gets a decision within 65 days, one needing notice gets 100 days, and one needing notice plus a hearing gets 170 days. An overrun triggers an application-fee refund of 10% if it is 20% or less over the allowed period, and 20% if it exceeds that. Bellingham does not publish its own average review times, so build your carry schedule off the statutory clock, not a rumored typical timeline.

Bellingham's own single-family permitting is falling while the county's edges are building detached homes at a higher cost per unit. The city of Bellingham permitted 231 single-family units in 2025, down from 261 in 2024, at a construction value of $268,466 per unit, while its 5-plus unit count rose from 230 to 422 over the same year: the city is densifying, not spreading. Ferndale's single-family permits ran a construction value of $407,320 per unit in 2025, the highest in the county; Blaine was estimated at $340,369 per unit and unincorporated Whatcom County at $335,168 (both Census estimates built out from partial-year reporting, not full counts). If your strategy is a detached spec build rather than infill, budget for the higher per-unit construction cost that comes with building outside Bellingham proper.

Yes, by a wide margin on the fee schedule alone. An accessory dwelling unit pays no school impact fee, a park impact fee of $1,470.93, and a transportation impact fee capped at 50% of the principal unit's charge, $1,619.50 on a single-family lot, for a total of roughly $3,090 in impact fees against $11,386.91 for a new detached house. That is before comparing actual construction cost per square foot. For a builder deciding between adding a unit to an existing lot and a ground-up new build, the fee schedule itself is telling you which one costs less to permit.

At least four on most residential lots, and six on some, under a code the city adopted 2025-12-08. Bellingham updated its development regulations to comply with the state's middle-housing law (HB 1110) and ADU law (HB 1337). The statute behind it, RCW 36.70A.635, requires a city of Bellingham's size (population at least 75,000; Bellingham's OFM count is 99,030) to allow at least four units per lot on lots zoned predominantly residential, and at least six units per lot within a quarter mile of a major transit stop or where at least two of the units are affordable housing under a 50-year deed restriction. Design review, where it applies to middle housing, is limited to administrative review only. The permit record already shows the shift: Bellingham permitted 58 duplex units and 26 units in three- and four-unit buildings in 2025, up from 34 and 10 in 2024 and from 4 and 0 in 2023. Read the city's adopted ordinance before you underwrite a specific lot; the exact units-per-lot outcome for that parcel depends on its zoning and transit proximity.

About 15% of total cost. We lend up to 85% of cost and up to 70% of value, whichever binds first, to a ceiling of $5,000,000. On a $700,000 Bellingham project cost that is $595,000 from us and $105,000 from you (700,000 x 85% = 595,000). Budget the fee stack inside that cost, not beside it: impact fees run $11,386.91 per single-family unit before permit and plan review. Draws follow the build schedule over a 12 to 24 month term. Subject to underwriting.

We run it, and there is no minimum score on this program. Construction is asset-based, so the lot, the budget, the schedule and the finished value carry the file, and credit carries far less weight than it would at a bank. A weaker file is usually offset with lower leverage rather than a decline. No hard pull to start, and no W-2s or pay stubs. Subject to underwriting.

No, but it moves your leverage. Experienced builders can access higher leverage inside the same up to 70% LTV and 85% LTC ceiling, and a first project gets a harder look at the budget and the schedule. Build that schedule off the statutory permit clock, 65, 100 or 170 days from the completeness determination, rather than an assumed local timeline. Subject to underwriting.