Listings up, sales down in the Basin
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 weeks AGO
This house in Moses Lake was listed for $360,000 Wednesday. The median home price in Grant County was $376,450 last month, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
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. | September 18, 2026 3:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — Washington home buyers had more to choose from this year, according to data released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks real estate trends in 27 of Washington’s 39 counties.
Active listings in Washington increased 22% between August 2025 and August 2026, according to the NWMLS data. The growth during that time was much less in the Basin; Grant County active listings rose 10.98% and only 7.1% in Adams County. Compared to July 2026, August active listings held fairly steady in Grant County, rising 2.44%. Adams County active listings rose from 49 in July to 58 in August.
New listings were up 9.3% and closed sales down 7.6% statewide compared to a year ago, according to the NWMLS. In Grant County, new listings dropped from 148 in August 2025 to 128 in 2026. In Adams County, new listings held steady at 16. Grant County’s closed sales rose slightly, by 1.03%, and Adams County closed seven sales compared to 10 in 2025.
The median price of a home in Grant County was $376,450 in August, an increase year-over-year of 2.32% and of 4.5% compared to July. Adams County’s median price was $278,000 in August 2026, a 26.38% drop from August 2025 and 18.24% lower than in July 2026.
The average 30-year fixed-mortgage interest rate was 6.76% Wednesday, up from 6.71% a week earlier and 6.35% a year ago, according to Freddie Mac.
“High interest rates continued to put a damper on the housing market in August,” Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research, wrote in the NWMLS release. “Higher rates were reflected in significant declines in numbers of home sales."
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.”