Oct. ’21 Housing Market Update: Home Prices Drop as Inventory Spikes

It’s been a long time since we’ve shared a monthly market update with so much good news for buyers! If you’ve been thinking about beginning a home search, or getting back into the market, now is the best time to do so in a while. Inventory is the highest it’s been in about a year, while home prices are at their lowest mark since the spring. Let’s dive in to this month’s numbers.

Inventory Spikes to 11-Month High

Look at the first number in the upper left: 399 homes available in the Tri-Cities when we did our snapshot last week. That’s the most homes available since November 2020, when we had 450 active listings. It’s also double the 199 homes available that we just saw in July. This is still way lower than “normal,” but it’s great news for buyers — more homes available means you can probably be more choosy than earlier this year, and you probably won’t be competing against so many other buyers for the house you love.

As you can see, inventory is up this month across the board. Pasco and Richland each saw inventory go up more than 50% since last month. Every city has more available homes right now than they’ve had in months.

Looking at the 399 active listings overall, they have a median list price of $525,000 and a median of 28 days on market. A little more than half (207) are existing homes, while the other 192 are new construction.

Home Prices Retreat After Record Last Month

After we hit the $400K median price record last month, home prices across the area dropped almost 5% to $381,000. That’s the lowest our median price has been in five months. As you can see above, home prices dropped in every city we watch…with the exception of West Richland, where prices were the same as last month.

The biggest change happened in Richland, where prices fell $69,000 from a month ago. That ends a run of six straight months of rising home prices in Richland.

Summary

Again, we’re still in a solid seller’s market, but the market hasn’t been this buyer-friendly in a long while. Inventory is as high as it’s been in almost a year and home prices have dropped to their lowest mark since the spring. If you’ve been sitting on the fence about looking for a new home, the Tri-Cities market is more ready for you than it’s been in months. Give us a call when you’re ready. We’d love to help you decide if the time is right.

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.)