Tri-Cities Housing Inventory is Even Tighter Than It Seems

Did you catch our Tri-Cities housing market update this month? If so, you read about the continuing inventory crunch. When we did our snapshot last week, there were only 324 homes on the market in Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, West Richland, Benton City, and Burbank. That’s 42% lower than the number of homes available one year ago.

And here’s the thing: Our inventory situation is even worse than those numbers show. We did a little more digging into the types of homes available and what’s available at different price points. Take a look at this:

Most of our current inventory is new construction.

Of those 324 homes on the market last week, 170 were listed as new construction in the MLS. What this means is that more than half of the homes “on the market” right now are homes that are still being built, and won’t be move-in ready for anywhere from a week or two all the way 4-6 months from now.

The other 154 homes available are re-sale homes — these are the homes that a buyer can purchase and move into as soon as the sale closes.

Most of our current inventory is above $300,000.

Of those 324 available homes, only 75 of them have an asking price below $300,000. And if you remove the new construction from that, you end up with only 58 homes below $300K that are re-sale.

Going a little lower on price, the numbers get even tighter. When we did our snapshot last week, there were only 49 homes available below $250,000. And 13 of those were new construction, leaving 36 re-sale homes below $250K.

Bottom Line

I’ve been talking about the Tri-Cities’ inventory situation for many months now, but it’s even tighter than it seems. When you remove new construction — homes that aren’t finished and move-in ready — we only have about 150 homes on the market (as of February 5). And if you’re looking in the lower price ranges, the numbers are much lower. There are only 58 re-sale homes below $300,000 and 36 below $250,000.

Buyers, you really need to be pre-approved right now and be ready to act fast when you find a home you love. But don’t lose hope! Our team has been helping buyers find homes in this tight market, and helping them write the kind of offers that win bidding wars. Get in touch with us if you have any questions!