October 2024 Housing Market Update: A Sales Slowdown…Like Normal

Death, taxes, and the Tri-Cities real estate market starting to slow down in October…three things you can count on!

The start of a new school year means a lot of people are no longer looking to move. They’re settled in for the year and don’t want to uproot their kids. The advent of shorter days and colder weather will also affect house hunting in the coming months.

Let’s dive into this month’s numbers to see how all of that impacts our local market.

Homes Sold Last Month

As you can see on the graphic above, the second row — “Sold (last month)” — is all red, with the exception of Benton City. That means home sales slowed down pretty much across the board. The same thing happened last October, too, if you’re curious.

Overall, we had 304 sales close in September — an 11% drop from August. Activity in Kennewick and Pasco was just slightly down, while Richland and West Richland saw the biggest declines at 25% and 24%, respectively.

Despite the monthly decline in sales, those 304 closings represent a 15% gain from one year ago.

Take note of the bottom row on that graphic, too. When I say sales are slowing, I’m not only referring to the number of homes sold — I’m also talking about how long it takes them to sell. Our median days on market last month was 29. A month ago, our median DOM was 15. In other words, last month we saw homes take about twice as long to sell.

Tip: If you’re selling your home right now, be patient. Or price your house more aggressively if you’re in a hurry to sell.

Tri-Cities Home Prices

Not much change in home prices this month. The area’s median sales price was down just $2,500 to $427,500. Prices were up last month in both Richland and West Richland, but that didn’t have a big impact on the Tri-Cities’ overall prices because both cities had fewer homes sold than usual.

Compared to one year ago, our median price is up 2%.

Inventory of Homes for Sale

The number of homes for sale grew again, making it six straight months of rising inventory. Most of those monthly gains have been small, like this month’s 3% rise.

As of October 8, we have 17% more homes for sale than we did in October 2023.

As I pointed out last month, we’re still at inventory levels that the Tri-Cities hasn’t seen in about 10 years. Last year, inventory didn’t begin to drop until November/December. We’ll see if that happens again this year.

To sum up: The Tri-Cities housing market is beginning its usual Fall slowdown. Sales totals were down last month everywhere except Benton City, and the homes that are selling are taking about twice as long to sell as just a month ago.

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.)