Interest rates hold back home sales in the Basin, statewide
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 49 minutes AGO
A home for sale in Palos Verdes’ Sandhill Place development in Moses Lake. The housing market is being held back by high interest rates, said Palos Verdes owner Angel Garza.
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. | May 15, 2026 3:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — High interest rates are slowing down sales in the Basin real estate market.
The average monthly rate for a 30-year mortgage was 6.37% on Tuesday, up from 6.30% a week ago but still lower than the 6.76% it was a year ago. The persistently high rates are slowing sales and forcing builders to scale down their offerings, Angel Garza, owner of Palos Verdes Homes, said last week at the opening of Palos Verdes’ Sand Hill development in Moses Lake.
“We’re down to a $375,000, $385,000 home, so people can qualify,” Garza said. “We had to go down to a 1,200-square-foot home to make sure that we have product that people can actually finance because of the interest being so high.”
Inventory was up across Washington in April compared to a year earlier, according to data released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks real estate trends in 27 of Washington’s 39 counties. Statewide active listings were up 28.4% year over year and up more than 23% from March, according to the NWMLS figures, but closed sales were down 3% year over year.
Grant County fared a little better, with active listings up 11.03% year-over year and closed sales up 3.75%. Adams County had 51 homes on the market in April 2025 and the same in April 2026, but closed sales on seven homes as opposed to three a year ago, according to the NWMLS data.
The median home price in Grant County was $366,300 in April 2026, a 7.74% increase from April 2025, according to the NWMLS data. Adams County had the second-lowest median home price in the state at $290,000, a drop of 6.45% year over year. Statewide, the median home price held steady at $650,000 compared to a year earlier, and was up 1.6% from March.
A decrease in interest rates would kick the market into a higher gear, Garza said.
“If it gets down to five (percent), five and a half … you could see that little boom of people buying houses,” he said. “That’s what they’re waiting for.”
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Repurpose old dishes into garden art
MOSES LAKE — Somewhere in everybody’s kitchen, there are dishes that just don’t match anything else in the house. So why not put them to work in the garden? “You can do it in any way, shape or form that you want to,” said Micha Goebig, PR and Communications Strategist for Evergreen Goodwill of Northwest Washington. “You can use your own stuff or get it secondhand at (a thrift store).” Thrifted garden art from mismatched dishes is easy to put together; the only thing you need is super glue, Goebig said. She recently led classes in thrift art at Goodwill stores on the west side, she said. “Some people did art pieces, like mushrooms,” Goebig said. “They (had) a broken lamp, so they used that as the stem of the mushroom and then replaced the top with a nice bowl that they turned (upside down).”
Interest rates hold back home sales in the Basin, statewide
MOSES LAKE — High interest rates are slowing down sales in the Basin real estate market. The average monthly rate for a 30-year mortgage was 6.37% Tuesday, up from 6.30% a week ago but still lower than the 6.76% it was a year ago. The persistently high rates are slowing sales and forcing builders to scale down their offerings, Angel Garza, owner of Palos Verdes Homes, said last week at the opening of Palos Verdes’ Sand Hill development in Moses Lake. “We’re down to a $375,000, $385,000 home, so people can qualify,” Garza said. “We had to go down to a 1,200-square-foot home to make sure that we have product that people can actually finance because of the interest being so high.”
BASIN EVENTS: May 15-23
COLUMBIA BASIN — There’s plenty happening in the Basin as we sneak up on Memorial Day weekend. Check out some of these goings-on. May 15 Spring Hiring Event Bring your resume and take the opportunity to talk to local employers looking to fill their available positions. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at WorkSource, 309 E. Fifth Ave., Moses Lake. Info: 509-766-2559. Live music with Owen Barnhart Country solo artist Owen Barnhart’s sets include soulful banjo, fingerpicking guitar and a crystal clear voice - covering everything from classic country and Americana to classic rock and folk tunes. 5 p.m. at Monkey N’ Around Pizza, 716 13th Ave. SW, Quincy. Info: www.owenbarnhart.com.