March 2026 Market Update: Home Sales, Prices Make Big Jumps

Judging by all the green on that graphic above, it looks like the spring real estate market is underway here in the Tri-Cities. All three of the main cities saw inventory, sales, and prices go up — but it was the latter two that saw the biggest jumps.

Let’s talk about what it all means for local buyers and sellers!

Home Prices

I’ll start this month with home prices, because that really caught my eye this month. Our median sales price came in at $448,950 last month. That’s almost 7% higher than the previous month, and 3.2% higher than one year ago.

It’s also the third-highest median price in Tri-Cities’ history, coming in just under the record of $450,490 set in July 2022. (We also hit $450K in February 2022.)

Kennewick home prices jumped almost 10% last month, setting a new record with a median of $444,000. That beat the previous record of $440,000 in July 2024. Home prices in Pasco and Richland were also up sharply, but neither reached record territory.

Sales Activity

The other big jump last month was in the number of homes sold, which jumped 27% from 202 in January to 256 last month. And again, all three of the main cities saw big gains in sales activity.

Those homes are still selling pretty slowly — 42 days on market (DOM) was the median last month. That’s three months in a row where the median DOM is above 40. By comparison, there was only one month in all of 2025 when homes spent more than 40 days on market.

Why the increase in homes sold? Well, part of it is the time of year. It’s normal for sales to go up as we get closer to spring. But also keep in mind what’s been happening with interest rates. They’ve been slowly dropping for several months, all the way down to about 6% as of mid-January.

Lower interest rates not only bring more buyers into the market, but also free up some sellers to list their homes, too — the ones who didn’t want to trade their 4% mortgage for a 7% rate, but are more willing to sell when their next home can have a ~6% rate.

Speaking of sellers entering the market, let’s talk about…

Inventory of Homes for Sale

In the Tri-Cities, the number of active listings usually falls between October and March. But 2026 is off to a different start. We’ve now had two consecutive months of rising inventory! Granted, the increases aren’t big, but they’re still notable.

Active listings are up just 1% this month, and surpassed the 1,000-homes milestone again. Over the past two months, active listings are up 3% — in a time when they’re normally dropping. And compared to one year ago, inventory is up 29%.

To sum up: It looks like we’re getting a slightly early jump on the spring market. Home prices almost set a new Tri-Cities record last month, and Kennewick prices did set one. Sales activity saw a big jump last month, even as homes continues to sell slowly. Meanwhile, the number of active listings — which is normally still declining at this time of year — has actually risen slightly the past two months.

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. )