GRANT COUNTY — If you’re considering a home purchase, touring properties in Grant County could be a good use of your time this weekend.

Instead of only a few homes available for viewing, hundreds of homes will be open from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, according to LeRae Redal, president of the Moses Lake-Othello Association of Realtors.

In Moses Lake, the viewing schedule is as follows: west portion of town, noon to 1 p.m., central and south part of town, 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and east and north side of town, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., according to Redal.

For more information, call her at 509-760-4125. For a list of open homes in Moses Lake, Ephrata and the outlying area, see the insert in today’s edition of the Columbia Basin Herald. Maps can also be found in the insert.

In Ephrata, open house times are from noon to 1 p.m., 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., and from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., both Saturday and Sunday, according to Alan DuPuy, secretary of the Grant County Association of Realtors.

Gary Mann, owner of Gary Mann Real Estate, said the event is being done as an awareness-type project.

Statewide, 275 open houses will occur in other areas this weekend.

“We’re getting people aware that interest rates are lower than normal,” Mann commented. “Statewide, they want people to realize property is selling and what the prices are doing.”

On Thursday, different quotes showed interest rates at 5.3 percent and 5.5 percent, he said.

“They seem to be bouncing around quite a bit,” Mann says. “They were under 5 percent a while back and a year ago, they were closer to 7 percent. So interest rates are a lot better than a year ago.”

Mann said his office will show about 20 homes this weekend.

“The one thing nice about it is, if you sit there for three hours, it can be pretty boring,” he said. “If there’s houses you specifically want to see, it will be easier to see a bunch of them.”

Mann said there will be many signs posted in Moses Lake about the event.

Realtors can also answer questions about an $8,000 federal tax credit for people who haven’t owned a home for three years.