December ’23 Housing Market Update: Winter Slowdown in Effect

Inventory is down a bit. The number of homes sold last month was down a bit. Home prices are barely budging. Add it all up and you’ve got a pretty typical winter real estate market in the Tri-Cities. And, if I’m being honest, after the unpredictability of the past few years, there’s a sense of security in seeing the market behave the way we expect it to.

I don’t have any big changes to share with you this month, but let’s dive into the numbers!

Homes for Sale in the Tri-Cities

After a surprising increase a month ago, our inventory of homes for sale dropped a bit this month. When we did our snapshot on December 5, we had 825 homes for sale across the area — down 4% from last month. That ends a streak of seven straight months that our inventory increased.

It’s totally normal for inventory to go down at this time of year. People are focused on the holidays, the weather isn’t ideal for packing up and relocating…you get the picture.

By the way, our 825 homes for sale this month is about 17% higher than December 2022.

Homes Sold Last Month

Closings were also down a bit last month. We had 247 homes sell in November, an 11% drop from the previous month. Again, pretty typical for this time of year. Pasco and Benton City both saw small upticks in closings last month, but they were the exception.

Homes continue to sell more slowly, too. Those 247 homes sold last month after a median of 17 days on market — the slowest we’ve seen since April. The average days on market last month was 39.

Tri-Cities Home Prices

Home prices continue to hold steady! Our median sales price last month was $416,000, a tiny uptick from $415,000 the previous month. We’ve now spent 11 straight months with median prices holding between $415K and $435K.

Those 247 homes sold at 99% of their initial price. ($419,900 median price, compared to $416,000 median sale price)

One thing we’ll keep an eye on: Median prices in Kennewick have dropped three straight months. It’s the only one of the Tri-Cities seeing that trend right now.

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.)