MOSES LAKE — There’s a lot of activity going on in the real estate compared to a year ago, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks real estate trends in 26 Washington counties. According to the NWMLS, Grant and Adams counties had higher increases in active listings and closed sales in June 2025 over June 2024 than the rest of the state. But the activity on the ground only partly bears that out, said Brian Gentry, principal managing broker for Re/Max in Othello.

“Over the last year, yes,” Gentry said.  “Over three years ago, no. There’s a lot more inventory right now. Where we would typically on any given day see in Othello 11 or 12 things on the market, we’re in about the 35 range right now. Some of those are new construction, so they’re presales, but there are a lot of people putting their homes on the market.”

Active listings were up 46.5% in Adams County between June 2024 and June 2025, and 61.6% in Grant County, according to the NWMLS data. Statewide, the increase was 38.82%. New listings, however, increased 9.83% statewide in the same time frame. The increase was 18.6% in Grant County. Adams County new listings dropped by a third.

As has been true for the last couple of years, interest rates are a major factor. No matter how reasonably a home is priced, Gentry said, if the buyer can’t afford to make the payment because of the interest rate, they’re not going to buy.

“(With) many listings, the asking price is appropriate,” Gentry said. “The house is worth the price. But these properties are sitting on the market for a long time, longer than normal, not because the house is not worth that but because people can’t afford it.”

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage interest rate was 6.67% on Wednesday, according to Freddie Mac, which is close to the average over the last year. That’s an increase from the 2-3% interest rates in 2022, but still a far cry from the double-digit rates of the 1980s. Then again, Gentry said, home prices aren’t what they were either.

“People always bring up to me, ‘Well, when I bought my house in ’82, I paid 18% interest,’” he said. “I said, ‘You bought a house for $40,000. I would pay 18% interest for $40,000. I’d do it all day long.’”

Still, the interest rates appear to be what they are for the foreseeable future, according to Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research.

“The continued anticipation of inflation and concerns about increasing government debt suggest that mortgage interest rates are not likely to go down any time soon,” Bourassa wrote in the NWMLS release.

The interest has made investment buying impractical, Gentry said, because it’s hard to get enough rent to cover the mortgage payment. However, people are still buying homes to live in, he said, just not buying them as quickly.

“There was a time when you could count on having five to eight offers within two weeks, three or four years ago,” he said. “We just need one buyer, so … we’re just looking for one offer and when that comes in, hopefully it’s one that works.”

In the end, though, the human factor drives the market more than the numbers, Gentry said. He cited a sale he had made recently of a home with a monthly payment over $2,600 to a young family in which the husband works, and the wife stays home with their three children. He was concerned, he said, that the two were getting in over their heads.

“We’re out for the inspection and I just keep thinking that this is huge,” he said. “So, I said, ‘Can you really do this?’ …  She said, ‘It’ll be tight, but we can do it. You have to realize that we’re coming from a camper trailer, and the bathroom sink doesn’t work and it’s one bedroom. We’re hoping rates come down and we’ll (refinance), but in the meantime, this is a palace to us.”