Rental market slowly loosening in Grant County
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 months, 3 weeks 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. | August 1, 2025 3:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — The rental market in Grant County is slowly thawing as more inventory comes into the market.
“Vacancies have slowly risen in the first and second quarters of 2025 in the apartment segment,” said Jeff Foster, designated broker at Windermere Property Management in Moses Lake. “Properly priced houses are renting as fast as we can get them on the market.”
Vacancy rates in Washington and nationwide have fluctuated slightly but generally decreased between 2005 and 2023, according to U.S. Census data tabulated by Eastern Washington University’s Grant County Trends website. Grant County’s vacancy rate, however, has bounced from a high of 14.2% in 2009 to 0.8% in 2021, according to that data.
The vacancy rate for apartments in Grant County was 4.9% for the first quarter of 2025, according to a study by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research, a research arm of the University of Washington. That represents a 0.2% increase over a year earlier, according to WCRER data. No data was available for Adams County, nor did WCRER give data for single-family rental units.
Statistics can vary widely depending on the source of the data, Foster cautioned. He estimated Windermere’s vacancy rate at about 8.5% for both apartments and single-family dwellings Wednesday, although it could be lower because some units were in various states of repair, he said. Windermere manages 700-plus units, according to Property Manager Cherie Demmer.
Rent costs have risen faster than vacancy rates, according to the WCRER information. Average rent in Grant County was $1.34 per square foot, an increase of 0.8% from the same time last year but a significant decrease from $1.47 per square foot in the third quarter of 2022, the first year in which separate Grant County data was available. The rest of the state did not fare as well; the average rent level in the first quarter of 2025 was 2.03% higher than the same time in 2024. The highest average rent per square foot in 2025 was in King County, at $2.73, and the median price statewide is $1.76 per square foot according to rentdata.com.
Windermere’s vacancies have seen some increase lately, Foster said, though not huge. In large part, he said, the increase is simply because construction has boomed in Moses Lake.
“The demand catches up as they’re being built,” Foster said.
FOSTERARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Hard-earned success
BBCC students step into the world armed with diplomas and courage
MOSES LAKE — Genuine success is neither quick nor easy, as the students who graduated Thursday from Big Bend Community College attested. There's a simple story I remember when I was younger,” Associated Student Body President Pedro Lopez said, alternating between English and Spanish. “It's about a kid who plants a seed. At first nothing happens. They water it every day, but the ground still looks the same. They start to wonder if anything is happening at all. They think about digging it up to check, that maybe it didn't work. Maybe nothing is growing. But they keep watering anyway.
Flags, fireworks and parades
Basin communities gear up for the Fourth of July
MOSES LAKE — The United States only turns 250 years old once, and Basin communities are preparing to celebrate in a big way. Moses Lake starts the festivities a day early, with its Red, White and Boom celebration on July 3. There will be food vendors in McCosh Park and a live performance by the 133d Army National Guard Band, followed by fireworks at 10 p.m. The town named for the Father of our Country will host festivities all day, including a fun run, parade, patriotic program and the world’s largest cherry pie at the George Community Hall. The Quincy Valley Historical Society will bring its American History Mobile Museum, and Jeremy McComb’s Honky-Tonk Circus will perform, sponsored by Veterans Operation Creation. The day will finish with fireworks at dusk.
MLCC to host conversational town hall Thursday
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Community Coalition will try to kick-start some conversations Thursday at a town hall titled “What's Troubling You, Moses Lake?” “The feedback that we've gotten for all of our prior town halls is people enjoyed them, but they wish there was more of an opportunity to talk,” said Coalition Coordinator Megan Watson. “So we (said), ‘Let's create a town hall event where that's the point – where you come and talk in small groups.’” The coalition holds town hall meetings every year, Watson said, and in the past they’ve focused on specific issues, like gangs or addiction, with local experts on those subjects giving information to the community. This time, Watson said, the MLCC is partnering with Braver Angels, a national organization dedicated to helping Americans practice courageous citizenship across political differences, according to its website. The event, which will take place at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center, is free and open to the public.