Rental market slowly loosening in Grant County
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 2 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. | 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
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.”