Tri-Cities Real Estate Market Update: August 2019

As we make our way through the summer real estate season, there are some interesting changes in the Tri-Cities market that began last month — inventory continued to rise, while the number of homes sold was down. And in most of the area, median home prices were down last month. All of that is a bit of good news for home buyers — but what we don’t know is whether that’s a one-time thing or the start of a trend. Only time will tell.

In the meantime, here’s a look at the most interesting data points from this month’s market update:

• Inventory across the area rose for the fourth straight month. The 632 homes available when we did our snapshot on Monday is the highest since there were 832 homes available in January.
• Meanwhile, the number of homes that sold last month (July) was 431, which ends a streak of five consecutive months of rising numbers of homes sold.
• The combination of more homes on the market and fewer homes sold might mean a little bit of good news for buyers. But the market remains really fast — median days on market is still just 7 days across the Tri-Cities, and less than 10 days everywhere except West Richland and Benton City.
• Pasco was the only one of the proper Tri-Cities to see an increase in homes sold last month.
• Kennewick and Richland both show inventory rising and homes sold declining. This was very pronounced in Richland, where inventory is up 23% and the number of homes sold was down 20%. Both cities haven’t seen inventory at current levels since last December.
• Median home prices across the area dropped below $300,000 for the first time in three months — another little bit of good news for buyers.

As always, give us a call, text or email if you ever have questions about the housing stats here in the Tri-Cities, or in your specific neighborhood. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the market to help our clients make the best decisions for their buying or selling situations!

(*Remember that days on market can sometimes be skewed by how new construction homes are processed in the MLS.)