Sitting pretty
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 8 months AGO
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | January 6, 2023 1:30 AM
COLUMBIA BASIN — Lots of homeowners are in good shape this year.
A recent study by analysis firm ATTOM Data Solutions indicates that nearly half of mortgaged residential properties in the U.S. were considered equity-rich, meaning that the amount owed on them was no more than half the estimated value, the report said.
“The way you make money on your home is your equity,” explained Jessie “Weno” Dominguez, CEO of Imagine Realty Group in Othello. “And the way you look at equity is as your savings account. So if I purchased a home, let's say, four years ago, right before the craziness, for $200,000, I put 5% down, I owed $190,000. I've been paying it for five years and owe now $170,000. I kept the house up, maintained it, kept it pretty nice. As home values rise, the prices continue to go up. That same home is now worth, let's say, $425,000, and I owe $170,000. So I'm equity-rich.”
The study indicated that in the third quarter of 2022, 48.5% of mortgaged homes were classed as equity-rich, compared to 48.1% in second quarter and 39.5% in the third quarter of 2021. In fact, the the third quarter of 2022 marked the 10th consecutive quarter in which the proportion of equity-rich homes increased, according to the ATTOM report.
The Spokane-Spokane Valley Metropolitan Statistical Area ranked ninth in the country for equity-rich properties, at 64.7%, according to the report. The Seattle-Tacoma area came in at 21st, with 61.7%. Grant County came in at 565.5%. Figures were not available for Adams County.
The strong equity doesn’t make it a good idea to sell right now, Dominguez said, because recent interest rate increases have turned the market quickly from favoring the seller to favoring the buyer. But that’s not to say that the added equity isn’t useful, Dominguez said.
“It's there, right? If you need to, you can do a cash-out (refinance),” he said. “So let's say that that same owner wanted to borrow 100 grand for renovations. They can do a home equity line of credit against their equity in their home. Let's say I want to undertake some some renovations. Obviously I'm out to pay a little higher (interest) rate, but I still can access usually 80% of the equity.”
The additional equity is also a hedge against inflation, Dominguez added. Money in the bank loses value, he explained, but money invested in a home tends to grow along with other prices. So an equity-rich home buyer who wants to upgrade needs to borrow less money, which offsets some of the cost added by higher interest rates.
At the same time, according to the ATTOM data, the number of properties that were seriously underwater – meaning that the amount owed was at least 25% more than the value of the property – has dropped significantly nationwide, 2.9% of homes compared to 3.4% at the same time in 2021. Washington state had the third-lowest rate of seriously underwater properties, with 1.2%.
In Grant County, only 1.6% of homes were seriously underwater, according to ATTOM figures.
“The Basin always holds very strong,” Dominguez said. And even if you look through ’08, ’09, we stayed very steady.”
Joel Martin can be reached via email at [email protected].
At a glance:
Moses Lake: 56.5% equity-rich, 1.2% seriously underwater
Wenatchee: 62.6 equity-rich, 1.6% seriously underwater
Benton County: 55.9% equity-rich, 1.1% seriously underwater
Spokane-Spokane Valley MSA: 64.7% equity-rich, 1.3% seriously underwater
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue MSA: 61.7% equity-rich, 1.0% seriously underwater
PULL QUOTE (can use Home equity 2.jpg for mug with quote): “The way you make money on your home is your equity. And the way you look at equity is as your savings account.” — Jessie “Weno” Dominguez, Imagine Realty Group
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.