Home sales up despite higher interest rates
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 2 months AGO
This home for sale in Moses Lake was listed at $289,500 as of Wednesday, according to Realtor.com. Median home prices in Grant County rose more than 13% over the last year.
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. | May 10, 2024 1:45 AM
KIRKLAND — Activity in the housing market increased in April in spite of rising interest rates, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which compiles statistics from 26 of Washington’s 39 counties. Interest rates have increased by 0.38 percentage points over the past month to 7.17%, continuing to constrain prospective buyers’ purchasing power and prospective sellers’ willingness to give up low-interest-rate mortgages, according to the NWMLS.
Closed sales statewide increased 13.5% between March 2024 and April 2024, although Grant County saw a 13% decrease and Adams County dropped 20%. Closed sales in Washington were up nearly 10% over last April, according to the NWMLS. Closed sales in Grant County were up 12% year-over-year, but Adams County dropped by more than 50% year-over-year.
The number of homes on the market increased by almost 21% across the state, according to the NWMLS. Twenty-three counties saw an increase, including Grant County, which rose 16%. Adams County was virtually unchanged between April 2023 and April 2024. Active listings in Adams County rose between March and April 2024 by 29%, and in Grant County by about 4%.
The median price of homes rose by about 7% statewide between April 2023 and April 2024, according to the NMLS. Grant County median prices were up 13%, while Adams County dropped by about 1%. Grant and Adams counties had the second- and third-lowest median prices in Washington, at $340,000 and $331,500, respectively.
NWMLS also provided insights into consumer activities during April 2024:
· Keyboxes located at listed properties were accessed 152,999 times in April 2024, a 3% increase from activity in March 2024 when they were accessed 148,536 times.
· 122,975 property showings were scheduled in the NWMLS system in April 2024, similar to the 125,193 that were scheduled in March 2024.
· In April 2024, there were 13,761 listed properties that were eligible for financial assistance in the Down Payment Resource program, which made up 70.8% of all listings on NWMLS. The DPR program is directly integrated into NWMLS systems and provides buyers with a list of financial programs that could help them purchase a home.
“The increase in year-over-year sales transactions signals that buyers and sellers are beginning to adjust to the higher interest rate environment,” Mason Virant, associate director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, wrote in the NWMLS announcement.
By the numbers:
Changes are from April 2023 to April 2024
Active listings
Statewide 9,813 +20.94%
Grant County 244 +16.75%
Adams County 94 46.88%
Closed sales
Statewide 5,847 +9.54%
Grant County 66 +11.86%
Adams County 8 -52.94%
Median price
Statewide $651,000 +7.92%
Grant County $340,000 +13.33
Adams County 331,500 -1.34%
SOURCE: NWMLS
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ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Perfect blooms
Tips for entering flowers at the fair
MOSES LAKE — You’ve worked all year to make your flower garden a thing of beauty. What better way to show it off than to enter them in the fair? The Grant County Fair has divisions and classes for every kind of flower or flower arrangement under the sun. Valerie Parrott, president of the Columbia Basin Garden Club and a judge in the fair’s horticulture barn, has tips for making your flowers look the best they can. “Flowers are judged on how close they are to perfection,” Parrott said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re the smallest flower or the largest flower. It only matters how close to perfect the bloom is.” With that in mind, Parrott said, timing is crucial. Exhibits are dropped off Monday morning of fair week, which this year is Aug. 11, and judging begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday. That means the flower you’re entering needs to be perfect right then.
Civil Air Patrol cadets take to the skies over Ephrata
EPHRATA — There couldn’t have been a better climate to teach teenagers to fly in. “We’ve had really good weather,” said Civil Air Patrol Lt. Col. Kathy Maxwell. “Usually by now we’ve had a smoke day or a windy day, or an overcast day.” The CAP cadets are wrapping up the second week of this year’s Desert Eagle National Flight Academy, held every year at Camp Boucher at the Port of Ephrata. Nineteen cadets from around the country, plus one from Japan, came to Ephrata to learn the basics of flying: airplane systems, pre- and post-flight procedures, navigation. In between they’re flying around the Ephrata Airport, first with instructors, then finally solo. The skies between Ephrata and Moses Lake are pretty mellow for flying, but that doesn’t mean there will be no surprises, cadets said.
‘Everyone Has a Why’
Campaign seeks to bring opioid addiction out of the shadows
MOSES LAKE — The reasons for addiction are many, but everybody has one. That’s the point of a campaign by the Grant County Health District to highlight opioid addiction and overdoses. It’s part of a two-phase campaign to explain some of the reasons behind addiction, and encourage people to seek help. “It can be loss, or pain, or struggle, but everyone has a reason that they may start using substances,” said Lexi Smith, communications coordinator for the Grant County Health District. “But on the flip side of that, everyone has a reason that they don’t, or that they choose to help someone who does.” The tagline for the Everybody Has a Why campaign is “Make addiction a conversation, not a secret,” and removing the shame of seeking help is a primary aim.