Home prices up, interest rates all over in 2024
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 8 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
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.”