January 2025 Housing Market Update: Sales Rise, But Take Longer

The Tri-Cities real estate market is off to a fairly predictable start to 2026, with one surprise on the graphic above: That big increase in sales last month to close out the year.

It’s always fun to put together the January market update because it serves as a benchmark for the whole year. So with that in mind, let’s dive into this month’s numbers.

Homes Sold (Last Month)

Let’s start with the one surprise: That BIG Jump in homes sold in December. There were 296 closings last month, which is up 32% from November. It’s also 14% higher than the number of homes sold in December 2024.

It’s not surprising that sales were up last month. I checked our records for the past eight years, and in exactly half of those years, sales have gone up in December. This often happens as buyers and sellers try to get their transaction closed in December for tax-related reasons.

What IS surprising is how much sales rose. When sales rise in December, it’s usually only by 5-10%, so that 32% rise is unusual. Tax reasons surely played a part in that, but I’m sure it’s also related to mortgage rates, as some local lenders offered incentives with attractive rates on adjustable rate-mortgages.

This is also important: Homes are selling more slowly than they have in years. Do you see where it says 49 days on market for last month’s sales? A year ago, homes sold with a median of 32 days on market. In the 7+ years we’ve been tracking the Tri-Cities market, we’ve never had a median of 49 DOM! The previous high was 44.

Home Prices

Prices didn’t change much at all. Our median sales price in December was $424,875, down just about $2,100 from November. A year ago, our median sales price was $419,950, so we’re up 1.1% year-over-year.

We’ve now completed four full years with flat home prices. Between January 2022 and December 2025, our median price has stayed in the $399,027 to $450,490 range…basically $400K to $450K.

That’s good news if you’re a home buyer. If we had seen just a 3.5% increase in home prices each year since 2022, our median would’ve ended 2025 at $459,000.

It’s not great news if you’re a homeowner, esp. one who bought recently and needs to sell soon. When home prices aren’t rising, it’s harder for homeowners to break even when they need to sell soon after buying.

Inventory of Homes for Sale

It’s normal for the number of homes for sale to drop at this time of year, and that’s what happened. When we did our snapshot on Jan. 7, there were 977 homes for sale. That’s down 10% for the month, but still 22% more homes for sale than a year ago. It’s also the first time since last May that inventory has dropped below 1,000.

If market history is our guide, inventory will continue to drop for 1-2 more months.

To sum up: Overall, 2026 is off to a pretty typical start. Home prices aren’t changing much in either direction. The number of homes for sale is down. The one big surprise is that 32% spike in sales we saw last month. If mortgage rates stay low and bring more buyers into the market, 2026 could get off to a faster start than normal.

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. )