Home prices up, interest rates all over in 2024
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 7 months AGO
This home in the Cascade Valley area of Moses Lake was listed for $499,900 Wednesday. Cascade Valley saw some of the highest increases in median home prices in Grant County in 2024.
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 24, 2025 1:00 AM
KIRKLAND — Home prices and sales rose steadily in Washington in 2024 even as mortgage interest rates bounced up and down, according to data released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service on Jan. 17. The NWMLS tracks real estate trends in 26 of Washington’s 39 counties.
The average 30-year home mortgage began the year at 6.62%, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, commonly called Freddie Mac. The rate went to 7.44% in early May, dropped to 6.08% in September and finished the year at 6.85%. As of Jan. 18, 2025, the rate was 7.04%.
Those rates are comparatively recent, according to Freddie Mac’s data, stemming from a drastic jump in 2022 when the rate went from 3.45% in January to 7.08% in September. Interest rates have hovered in the 6-8% range since, frustrating buyers, sellers and real estate agents.
“In 2022 it was strictly a seller’s market,” Quincy real estate agent Tom Parrish told the Columbia Basin Herald in August. “Interest rates were still in that 4-5% (range) and they went up during this last couple of years, for a while even (to) 8% and now (have) come down to the upper sixes, sevens, in that area. That's been a big influence.”
“It’s harder for first-time home buyers because they’re seeing it as high, but if you look at the history, we’re still at a very affordable rate as opposed to 40 years ago,” Moses Lake agent Tami Canfield said in October. Rates were in double digits throughout the 1980s and dipped below the current rate for the first time in 1998, according to Freddie Mac.
Despite buyers’ hesitancy, median home prices were consistently up statewide in 2024 compared to 2023, a 12-month average increase of 6.7%. Prices in the Basin didn’t necessarily follow that trend, however: Adams County homes averaged only 2.38% higher and Grant County 2.99% higher. Home prices in the Cascade Valley and Mae Valley areas of Grant County showed the highest increase at 12.9% and 9.14% respectively, while homes in the Peninsula area of Moses Lake dropped 19.24%.
Active listings also increased statewide in 2024, coming in at 24.33% higher than 2023, according to the NWMLS. Grant County active listings rose by 30.18% overall, with the greatest increases in the rural central and western parts of the county. Active listings in Adams County dropped 4.8%.
The trend appears to be set for the foreseeable future, according to Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER) at the University of Washington.
“We may well be experiencing the pains of adjusting to a new normal, with persistent interest rates of 6% or higher,” Bourassa wrote in the NWMLS data.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.