Tri-Cities home prices and sales continue to surge. The reason may surprise you

If you’re in the market to sell your home — now is the time.

“We are setting records — with number of sales, with pricing,” said Lola Franklin, CEO of the Tri-City Association of Realtors. “It’s not what we expected to see in global pandemic. It surprised all of us.”

In fact, more homes in July sold than any other single month since 2017. An average of about 450 houses a month typically sell in late summer in recent years. Last month, 530 homes sold.

In all, 2,665 homes were sold in the first six months of this year — or almost 8 percent more than the 2,475 during the first half of last year.

While it may seem that the market was playing catch up after months in coronavirus shutdowns, real estate officials say that’s not the whole story.

The forced time at home has more buyers looking harder at finding new and bigger places to live, said Franklin.

“People are staying home and spending so much with each other and working and doing school at home,” she said. “People want to carve out space for those things.”

Combined with historically low mortgages interest rates, people are jumping in before rates and housing prices climb.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed conventional loan on Aug. 20 was 3 percent, according to Bank Rate. Rates can be found even lower for products such as VA loans or 15-year loans.

“A lot of people have been in jobs long enough and they realize home ownership is one of the best things they can do for themselves,” said Jeff Smart, owner and broker of Smart Realtors in Kennewick. “They know that pricing continues to go up, and they want to get in before it goes up too high.”

Higher prices

The increased demand and the continuing low inventory of homes for sale is driving home prices higher.

On Aug. 20, Smart said there were only 297 active listings on the market, including in Benton City and West Richland.

The median price of a Tri-Cities home in July was $334,900.

That’s nearly $37,000 more than the median-priced home last July — and a jump of 34% since July 2017.

Smart and Franklin said any homes priced under $300,000 are getting multiple offers and are under contract quickly.

“If they are priced right, home are moving rapidly. Within a matter of days they’ll sell,” said Smart, adding that many times he’s seen houses selling for above asking prices.

Those listings were not just single-family homes, but also condos, townhomes and other move-in-ready listings.

Of the nearly 300 listings last week, just 73 homes were priced under $300,000.

Smart said the “healthy” number of listings for this area where the market favors neither sellers or buyers would be about 1,200 to 1,400 homes.

“Most of our inventory are in the higher-price point, and most of the buyers are in the lower-price point,” Smart said.

With so few listings, prices keep going up and often that makes it hard for buyers to land a house.

“A lot of people get frustrated,” Smart said.

He said that some of his clients were lucky and got the first house or two they bid on.

But many are having to make offers on four to six different homes.

“I think they big key is patience,” he said. “More houses will come on the market.”

He emphasized that buyers need to be ready to go — be preapproved on a loan, ready to look at a home and know what they want ahead of time by determining their low and high price points and deal breakers.

And they need to be ready to walk away if a home doesn’t check all the boxes.

However, he said buyers also should be willing to write a contract as soon as they find a home they like.

“Our market is so stable, it is practically impossible to lose money on a real estate investment,” Franklin said.