August ’22 Housing Market Update: Inventory Jumps Again & Prices Hit New Record

If you hear a loud, collective sigh of relief one of these days, it’ll probably come from the veteran Tri-Cities real estate agents who — like me! — are very happy to see how our housing market has changed in just the past few months.

Our inventory of available homes continues to rise very quickly, while prices are going up in very small increments. We’re still definitely in a seller’s market, but our buyer clients now have a much better chance at finding a great home without having to bid against 10-20 other buyers to get it. Let’s dive into this month’s numbers!

Tri-Cities Homes for Sale (aka Inventory)

Check this out: The number of homes for sale in the Tri-Cities has doubled in just the past four months! Isn’t that crazy?!?! Back in April, we reported 318 homes for sale. This month’s snapshot found 637 homes for sale! Inventory has gone up for six consecutive months. The last time we had this many homes on the market was December 2019.

What’s great is that inventory is increasing in all price ranges. Two months ago, we only had 19 homes for sale below $300,000 across the Tri-Cities. This month, we have 51. Two months ago, we had 66 available homes below $400,000; this month we’re at 146. This is great news for first-time homebuyers and even homeowners ready to upgrade from their starter homes — they have more options to choose from.

Inventory is up all over the area:

• Kennewick has 88% more homes for sale now than it had two months ago.
• Pasco inventory has risen 78% in the past two months.
• Richland inventory is 53% higher than it was two months ago.

Tri-Cities Home Prices: A New Record

The increase in homes for sale isn’t having much of an impact on home prices so far. We set a new record last month with a median sales price of $450,490. Our old record of $450,000 happened back in February. So even though we set a record, home prices are basically unchanged over the past five months.

Both Kennewick and Richland set new median sales price records. In Richland, the median sales price of $520,500 marks the first time the median price there has ever passed the $500K milestone.

As always, please drop us a note if you ever have questions about the housing market here in the Tri-Cities, or even in your specific neighborhood/town/city.

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