Grant Co. listings highest in the western part of the county
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 5 months AGO
The part of Grant County that includes Mattawa, shown here, had the most active housing market in the county in March.
FILE PHOTO
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. | May 2, 2025 2:35 AM
MOSES LAKE — The western part of Grant County had the most active housing market in March, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
The strip that includes Quincy, Desert Aire, Sunland Estates and Crescent Bar had 79 active listings in March 2025, according to the NWMLS, a 44% increase over March 2024. That region also led the county in new listings, with 13. At the opposite end of the spectrum was the Royal City area, with only three new listings and eight active. No sales closed in that area during March, according to the NWMLS data.
The median home prices told a different story. The area that includes Wheeler, Warden and MarDon, south and east of Moses Lake, had four closed sales in March at a median price of $641,000. That’s more than double the median price in March 2024,which was $310,500. The median price countywide was $375,499, an increase of 15.54%.
Across Washington, the median home price was $629,600 at the end of February, the most recent month for which data was available, according to the real estate website Redfin. That represents a 1.8% increase year-over-year. Closed sales were up statewide by 2.2% and homes were spending 35 days on the market on average, an increase of four days from a year earlier.
The top 10 areas of Washington with the fastest-growing home prices were al on the west side of the state, according to Redfin, except for Yakima, which came in fourth at 18.8%. 31.6% of homes sold above list price in February, according to Redfin, while 22.5% had price decreases.
According to Redfin’s search data, Washington ranked fourth among states people wanted to move away from between February and March of this year. Sixteen thousand more people in Washington searched for homes outside of the state than searched for Washington homes from elsewhere.
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.”