Interest rates continue to drag down housing market in Washington
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 9 months AGO
This three-bedroom three-bath home in Moses Lake was listed at $285,000 Wednesday. Median home prices rose statewide a little over 4% over a year ago, but homes in Grant and Adams counties became more affordable.
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. | January 10, 2025 1:00 AM
KIRKLAND — 2024 ended with a disappointing housing market statewide, according to data released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks real estate across 26 of Washington’s 39 counties.
Interest rates were responsible for much of the gloom, according to the NWMLS. While potential home buyers and sellers had hoped for a reprieve, the Federal Reserve’s three interest rate cuts in 2024 failed to produce a significant increase in the market. Rather, in early January the average 30-year mortgage rate was 6.91%, the highest it’s been since last July.
Median home prices went up statewide by 4.3% between December 2023 and December 2024. In Grant County, however, the median price dropped very slightly from $360,950 to $356,582 over the last year, and in Adams County the median price dropped 10.3% from $322,500 to $292,300, the second-lowest median home price of any county.
On the positive side, active listings were up 25% between December 2023 and 2024 statewide, with 21 of 26 counties showing a two-digit increase, according to the NWMLS. Grant County had the second-highest increase in active listings at 39.9%, while Adams County rose 11.1%.
Closed sales also rose statewide. Homes sold in Washington totaled more than $3.69 billion in December 2024, according to the NWMLS, an increase of 24.8%, and the number of closed sales increased by 19.8% over December 2023. In Grant County, closed sales increased 43% between December 2023 and December 2024, while Adams County had 10 closed sales in December 2023 but only four in December 2024.
Months of inventory, or the amount of time it would take to sell all the homes on the market, remained fairly stagnant statewide, going from 1.9 in December 2023 to 2.0 in December 2024. In Adams County, that figure rose dramatically, up 179% to 9.5 months, while Grant County mirrored the rest of the state and held steady at 3.5.
“The 30-year mortgage interest rate was actually higher at the end of 2024 (6.85%) than at the end of 2023 (6.61%),” Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, wrote in the NWMLS data release. He anticipates that mortgage rates will continue to frustrate the market. “We may well be experiencing the pains of adjusting to a new normal, with persistent interest rates of 6% or higher.”
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.”