Interest down, inventory up in Basin housing market
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 months, 3 weeks AGO
This house in Moses Lake was listed at $397,000 Wednesday. Median home prices increased slightly in Grant County over the last year.
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. | November 15, 2025 8:05 AM
KIRKLAND — The prospects for home buyers in Washington are looking up, according to data released last week by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks real estate trends in 27 Washington counties.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage interest rate was 6.17% at the end of October, the lowest it’s been in more than a year, according to Freddie Mac. On Wednesday, it had risen slightly to 6.22%, still lower than any point since September 2024. At the same time, active listings are up 27% statewide between October 2024 and October 2025, according to the NWMLS data. The average months of inventory, or the amount of time it would take to sell all homes on the market, was up 32% year-over-year statewide to 3.02. Grant and Adams counties held steady at 4.8 and 8.7 months of inventory, respectively.
That combination gives buyers a little more freedom to pick and choose, Quincy Realtor Tom Parrish told the Columbia Basin Herald in October.
“If you have three to four months of inventory for people to look at, that means they've got more choices and then they're going to have the ability then to make an offer and have that offer accepted and not have to feel that they're out of the game,” Parrish said.
Active listings increased in Grant County by 23% between October 2024 and October 2025, according to the NWMLS data. Adams County’s active listings were up 17%.
The increase was most noticeable in the area of Grant County east of Moses Lake, including Wheeler, Ruff, Warden and the MarDon area, where active listings more than doubled from a year earlier.
Closed sales dropped statewide by 4% year-over-year, according to the NWMLS data, but in Grant County, the figure was up by 24.3%. Closed sales in Adams County dropped from 12 in October 2024 to 10 in October 2025.
Median home prices dropped in Adams County by 14% year-over-year to $317,740, according to the NWMLS data. Grant County’s median home price shows a slight increase, 3.7%, to $354,308. The median home price statewide was $640,000, a decrease of 1.5%.
Despite the positive moves, the long-term picture for potential home buyers isn’t necessarily rosier, Steven Bourassa, Director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, wrote in the NWMLS release.
“The year-over-year numbers suggest that potential buyers continue to be constrained by high interest rates,” Bourassa wrote. “While it might be tempting, it would be overreaching to attribute the latest month-over-month changes to lower interest rates. One month of data does not constitute a trend, and it is very difficult to predict whether the current moderating trend will continue.”
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.