April ’24 Housing Market Update: Sales Activity Jumps 33% in 1 Month

Things that go together: peanut butter and jelly, Batman and Robin, rhythm and blues…and in the Tri-Cities, the arrival of Spring and the housing market heating up.

We saw a big rise in home sales last month and a noticeable bump in home prices, too. Meanwhile, inventory is holding mostly steady. I’ll unpack that all in more detail below.

Homes Sold Last Month

There were 279 homes sold in March, a 33% jump from the month before. It’s also the busiest month of home sales that we’ve seen in seven months — since last September, when 334 homes closed.

This is like clockwork. Going back to at least 2019, we’ve seen a double-digit increase in home sales every March.

All of the big cities we track saw home sales rise last month. Only Benton City and Burbank, which had 1 and 2 fewer sales, respectively, saw activity go down.

Home are also starting to sell a little more quickly. Our median days on market dropped from 33 in February to 28 last month.

Tri-Cities Home Prices

The increase in activity also led to a rise in home prices. The median sales price last month across the area was $430,000, up from $405K in February. This is the first time since last September that our median price was at $430K or above. We’re now in a run of 18 straight months where median prices have stayed in between $399K and $430K. One year ago, the median sales price across the Tri-Cities was $415,000.

Every city we track saw prices go up with the exception of Pasco, where prices dropped by about 3% for the month — but remain in line with where Pasco home prices were last summer.

Available Homes for Sale (aka Home Inventory)

Despite the 33% jump in sales, our inventory of available homes is holding pretty strong. When we did our snapshot on April 5, there were 684 homes for sale — both existing homes and new construction. That’s down just 3% for the month. It’s also 21% more inventory than we had in April 2023.

Inventory has dropped five months in a row, but I’d expect that to change this month or next — at least if history is our guide.

And that’s a look at this month’s Tri-Cities housing market! As always, please drop us a note if you ever have questions about what’s happening around town or in your specific neighborhood.

(*Remember that days on market can sometimes be skewed by how new construction homes are processed in the MLS.)