Tri-Cities Real Estate Market Update: March 2020

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen my desperate plea for help last week as I was trying to find a good fit for my buyer clients: “There are currently 2 houses listed in West Richland for between $250,000-$350,000. Does anyone want to sell in West right now? I don’t even have to list it, I just need houses for my buyers!”

The market is getting tight again. Inventory has dropped for five straight months. The number of homes sold is still way below summer levels, but it did rise 4% last month, as you can see above. I’m not the only local Realtor having a hard time finding the right home for our buyers.

That said, this isn’t new for the Tri-Cities. A year ago, in March 2019, inventory also had fallen for five straight months. And it would drop again in April. A year ago, homes sold were also up slightly over the previous month. So it’s starting to look like 2020 is going to be a lot like 2019 — a strong seller’s market. We’ll see if concerns over coronavirus change anything, but right now it’s not having an impact on our housing market.

Here are some other things worth mentioning about this month’s numbers:

• The 515 homes available when we compiled these numbers on the 5th is the lowest since last May, which also had 515 homes available.
• That $313,500 median price is the highest we’ve ever seen, and as you can see it’s driven by rising prices across the whole area (minus Benton City).
• Kennewick inventory has also dropped for five straight months.

Get in touch if you ever have questions about the housing market here in the Tri-Cities, or even 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.)