Housing market dips, but less than last year
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 10 months AGO
The housing market in Washington is taking its usual seasonal dip, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, but not nearly as much so as a year ago. This home on Balsam Street in Moses Lake was listed for $350,000 as of Wednesday afternoon according to Realtor.com.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
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. | December 13, 2024 3:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — ’Tis the season for a sluggish housing market, according to data released last week by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks real estate trends in 26 of Washington’s 39 counties.
Active listings were down 15.1% in Washington between October and November of this year, according to the NWMLS. The decrease in Grant County was only 7.5% in the same time, and Adams County's active listings remained almost the same. Closed sales, too, dropped off in Washington by 18.9% between October and November. Grant County closed sales decreased by 14.4%. Adams County again held steady, decreasing only 2% in the same time.
The picture is rather different when it comes to year-over-year change, however: Grant County active listings rose by 47%, the highest of any Washington county, between November 2023 and November 2024. Adams County had a less drastic rise, with 48 active listings in November 2024 compared to 45 a year earlier. Statewide, active listings were up 23.4% year-over-year.
Closed sales increased statewide year-over-year as well, according to the NWMLS, rising by 24.7%. Adams County, again, held steady in closed sales between November 2023 and November 2024, and Grant County lost a little bit of ground, with 69 closed sales in November 2024 compared to 75 last year.
Affordability seems to be a crucial factor, according to the NWMLS data. The median home price of a home rose 16.7% in Grant County and 39.6% in Adams County between November 2023 and 2024, compared to only a 7% increase statewide.
Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, suggested that recent developments in the Washington Legislature intended to promote the production of more housing boded well for home prices in the future, according to the NWMLS. Among the new laws coming into effect in the next couple of years will be an increase in density in residential areas and the promotion of accessory dwelling units.
“It will take time for these new laws to actually produce new housing,” Bourassa wrote, “but the expectation is that they will help in an important way to moderate the cost of homeownership.”
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”