‘Put a sign on and it’s gone.’ No affordable Tri-Cities homes? One builder tries something new

Some Tri-Cities residents trying to buy a home are being shut out of the market by increasing prices that refuse to subside.

In September, the median sales price hit a high of $337,900, according to the Tri-City Association of Realtors. That’s up 60 percent in five years.

While there are few homes on the market costing less than $300,000, home purchases have been breaking records in Tri-Cities.

“It hasn’t slowed one bit,” said Tri-Cities homebuilder Stan Nuxall. “All you need to do is put a sign on it and it’s gone.”

Nuxall, owner of Greenplan Construction and SL Nuxall Real Estate Services, has been trying to fill a housing gap — affordability.

Nuxall’s developments have largely been high-end townhomes for people looking to retire or who want to do less maintenance.

His projects include homes in Dellacort at Columbia Point and Westhaven Townhomes in West Richland, which start in the mid-$300,000 range and go higher.

“I looked around and realized there was a big hole among developments,” he said.

Affordable homes

That’s when he switched gears to build Midtown Village, a Kennewick housing development that targets first-time homebuyers and investors with a starting price of $259,900

A search on Realtor.com showed last week just 147 single-family move-in ready homes listed in the Tri-Cities region for less than $300,000.

Of those, all but 39 were pending and just 21 were priced less than $250,000.

Midtown Village’s 1,500-square-foot-homes all have the same floorplan with 3 three bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and a single-car garage. But they all share an outside wall with a neighbor.

“A zero lot line is the way to serve the affordability aspect of our community,” Nuxall said.

A zero lot line home is when the homes are built with little or no space in between.

The completed project near Highlands Middle School will have eight buildings of four attached townhomes each, and one duplex.

“Land is getting so expensive that a zero lot line is the way to reduce cost,” he said. “I think you are going to start seeing more and more (townhomes),”

The increased density not only takes advantage of the lots to create more housing when the available inventory isn’t keeping up, but it also is one of the only ways to reduce prices to create an affordable price point.

The need has proved itself.

Nuxall said they’ve already sold all the units in the first building that’s just being finished and some units in the second.

“When we actually starting marketing, people all over the place wanted it,” Nuxall said. “One person bid $7,000 over just to get in.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.