Interest rates down, active listings up in Basin
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 1 month 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. | September 13, 2024 3:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — With lower mortgage rates, listings are up from a year ago in the Basin, as well as statewide, but closed sales are still staying put, according to data released Sept. 6 by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks real estate trends in 26 of Washington’s 39 counties.
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage was 6.35% at the end of August, the lowest since March, according to NMLS statistics.
Active listings were up 28.7% in Grant County and 27.5% in Adams County in August 2024 compared to August 2023, according to the NMLS. The increase statewide was 34%. The two counties with the greatest increase were Ferry at 83.3% and Douglas at 45.5%.
Pending sales were up 4.7% statewide, but down slightly locally, from 98 last August in Grant County to 95, and from 9 to 8 in Adams County. Sold listings remained virtually unchanged across the board, at 6,727 in August 2024 compared to 6,734 in August 2023. Grant County went from 81 closed sales to 87, while Adams County went from 13 to 14.
The Columbia Basin fared rather better than the state as a whole when it came to months of inventory, or the amount of time it would take to sell all the homes listed in a particular market. Adams County showed 3.6 MOI in August 2024 and Grant County showed 4.2, while statewide MOI was 2.3, still an increase from the 1.7 of a year ago. The counties with the lowest MOI were all in the Puget Sound area, the lowest being Snohomish County with 1.41 months of inventory.
Median home prices rose somewhat across the state from this time last year, up 4.9% from $615,000 to 645,000. Grant and Adams Counties had much less expensive housing, with the median sale price in Adams County at $307,475 and in Grant County at $350,000.
“Mortgage interest rates have already started to moderate, dropping to 6.35% (for 30-year terms) at the end of August from this year’s high of 7.22% at the beginning of May,” Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, wrote for the NMLS. “Unfortunately, lack of supply is going to continue to be an issue affecting house prices. Single- and multi-family permitting dropped off noticeably in 2022 as interest rates ramped upwards, and single-family home prices will likely continue to increase as interest rates drop.”
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.”