Tri-Cities Real Estate Market Update: September 2019

As summer comes to a close, we’re seeing a continuation of some market movement that began last month — more homes on the market, homes are selling a little bit more slowly than earlier in the year, and the number of homes sold didn’t go up so much that it signals an inventory crunch. Those are positive signs for buyers, but we also have a positive sign for sellers this month — median home prices are up almost across the entire Tri-Cities.

Here’s a look at what matters from our latest monthly market update:

• Inventory hit 721 homes when we checked last week, marking the first month above 700 available homes since January. It’s also five consecutive months of rising inventory. And look at all that green on the top line! Inventory was up in every city we track.
• Across the area, the median home price rose to $305,900 — that makes three out of four months above the $300K threshold.
• Days on market* rose from seven to 10 days across the area. And DOM was up in every city we watch except Benton City (but only eight homes sold there last month so it doesn’t carry a lot of weight overall).
• There was a sharp rise in inventory in Kennewick, with almost 300 homes on the market — that’s about 100 more than just three months ago.
• The number of homes sold rose in all cities except Richland and Benton City.
• West Richland inventory reached 62 homes, which is the highest it’s been since we started doing monthly market updates late last year.

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.)