August 2026 Housing Market Update: Sales Slip After Last Month’s Surge

You’ve heard the phrase, “what goes up must come down.” Well, that’s a good description of what happened this month in the Tri-Cities housing market. After active listings, sales, and home prices all rose last month — some to levels we haven’t seen in years — some of those numbers slipped back this month.

It’s not surprising. You might recall what I said in last month’s update: “When you have a month like this one, with so many market stats hitting levels we haven’t seen in several months or several years, it makes sense that we might take a step back soon. There are even a couple signs that suggest it’s a real possibility.”

That’s what happened this month, so let’s take a look at the numbers.

Tri-Cities Home Sales Down

Last month, we had a 4-year high for single month sales. Not this month. Sales activity dropped 16% to 327 homes sold, which is just about where we were in April (323 homes sold). It’s also about where we were one year ago: There were 329 homes sold in July 2025.

I had a feeling this was coming, because pending sales were way down when we did our market snapshot last month. Good news: Pending sales were up about 6% when we did this month’s snapshot. So that may bode well for sales activity to rise next month.

Pasco saw the biggest drop in sales last month — a 35% drop down to just 71 sales, which is usually a number we’d see in the middle of winter, not the middle of summer. West Richland wasn’t far behind with its 29% decline.

Days on market: Homes are also selling more slowly almost across the board. Those 327 sales last month spent a median of 22 days on market, down 10% from 20 DOM the prior month. Pasco was the only one of the big cities to see homes sell faster in July.

Home Prices Dropped, Too

The decline in home sales was accompanied by a drop in home prices. Our median came in last month at $437,500, down about 1.7% for the month. This also brings to an end our streak of five straight months with prices above the $440,000 mark.

Despite the one month drop, home prices are up 1.8% compared to this time last year.

Active Listings Continue to Rise

Meanwhile, the number of homes for sale is up again this month. When we did our snapshot on August 6th, there were 1,267 homes for sale across the Tri-Cities. That’s up 6% for the month, and also 6% more than August 2025.

In the bigger picture, it’s also the highest inventory has been since we started tracking our own data in 2018. And going back through the TCAR/PACMLS data archives, I can see that we haven’t had this many homes for sale in the Tri-Cities since the summer of 2014.

On a city-by-city level:

• Kennewick’s active listings are at a 2026 high
• Richland’s 401 active listings are a high since our tracking began in 2018 (TCAR/PACMLS doesn’t post city-level data, but it’s probably also more listings than Richland has had since 2014.)
• West Richland’s 113 active listings are also a high since 2018 (and probably since 2014, like Richland)

To sum up: After last month’s surge, it makes sense that some of the market metrics would take a step back this month, and they did. Conditions right now are very buyer-friendly — inventory is its highest in 12 years, and sales activity is comparable to what it was a year ago. But there’s a problem affecting all markets, not just ours: Mortgage rates this week hit their highest level in more than a year, and that’s likely keeping some buyers on the sidelines. So if you’re one of the 1,267 homeowners who have an active listing right now, these are non-negotiable: patience, a home in great condition, and the right price.

As always, please get in touch if you have questions about what’s happening around town or in your specific neighborhood. Use the TEXT US tool below to send a text, call us at (509) 392-4705, or contact me via email — whatever’s best for you!

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

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