June ’21 Housing Market Update: Inventory Up Slightly as Prices Hit All-Time High

It’s nice to see so much green on our monthly Tri-Cities housing market graphic, isn’t it? But this month’s update is actually a mixed bag of good and bad depending on whether you’re a buyer or seller. Let’s dive in!

Tri-Cities Housing Inventory

Here’s some good news to begin with: After seven straight months of declines, inventory was up when we did our snapshot this month! Granted, the 176 homes available is only an 8% rise and we need a TON more homes to come on the market to satisfy demand … but at this point, we have to be glad to see any increase in homes on the market. The last time inventory went up was between last Sept./Oct., when we went from 473 to 483 homes available.

What’s also good is that every city but Richland saw a small rise in inventory, which means it wasn’t just one big new development in one of the cities that caused the overall increase. Let’s hope we keep seeing inventory go up, and hopefully by more than 8% each month.

Tri-Cities Home Prices

Home prices across the area hit an all-time high at $389,900 last month — a spike of almost $32,000 compared to April. Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland all set new median home price records. West Richland almost beat its previous record of $430,000, but came a couple thousand dollars short. The median price in Richland surpassed $400,000 for the first time.

This is good news if you’re a homeowner, but not good news if you’re a buyer. At least buyers can console themselves with the fact that mortgage rates are dropping again; the 30-year rate went back down below 3% last week.

Quick reminder: We only track the cities you see listed above; when you see local media reporting data from the Tri-Cities Association of Realtors, that includes these cities: Basin City, Benton City, Burbank, Connell, Eltopia, Finley, Kahlotus, Kennewick, Kiona, Mesa, Pasco, Paterson, Plymouth, Richland, Wallula, and West Richland.

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.)