Basin home market more stable than statewide, despite home sales decline

COLUMBIA BASIN — Home sales in Washington in 2023 were down from the previous couple of years, but the change in Grant and Adams counties was much less severe, according to data released recently by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

NWMLS members reported 64,208 sales of residential homes and condominiums during 2023, according to the NWMLS. The total closings were valued at more than $48 billion, with residential homes accounting for nearly 87% of the total sales. Condominiums made up the approximate remaining 13%. Compared to 2022, there were 19,829 fewer sales in 2023, a decrease of 23.6%. This is the second year-over-year decrease in sales since the record highs of 2021, where the total number of closings was 107,354 — the first time the sales volume topped the 100,000 mark — and the value of sales was just over $75 billion.

In Grant County, 1,136 home sales were closed in 2023, a 15.29% decrease from 2022, according to the NWMLS data. Adams County’s drop was even less, from 139 homes in 2022 to 130 in 2023, a decrease of 6.7%.

The statewide median price for last year’s completed transactions was $600,000, a decrease of 2.44% from 2022’s figure of $615,000. For comparison, the median price 10 years ago in 2013 was $270,000. Both residential home and condominium median prices decreased year-over-year, with residential homes decreasing 2.04% from 2022, and condominiums decreasing 1.69%. Median prices dropped 4.83% in Grant County, from $352,000 to $335,000, and rose in Adams County from $299,581 to $315,500, a 5.31% increase.

The decrease in sales volume in 2023 is indicative of the persistent low inventory paired with high interest rates, particularly in the more populous King and Snohomish counties, the NWMLS wrote. 

Brokers also reported fewer pending sales during 2023 compared to 2022, with year-over-year volumes down 18.24%, the NWMLS wrote. The year-over-year number of mutually-accepted offers fell 11 out of 12 months last year, peaking early in the year in March; however, the year-over-year accepted offers increased by 2.02% in December, a surprise given historic seasonal trends. 

Adams County’s pending sales went from 161 in 2022 to 154 in 2023, according to the NWMLS data, a decrease of 4.35%. The changes fluctuated more percentage-wise than the statewide figures, dropping 25% one month then shooting up 50% the next, partly due to the low number of homes on the market compared to more populous counties. Pending sales in Grant County went from 1,259 in 2022 to 1,000 in 2023, a 20.57% decrease.

The rise in accepted offers in December statewide correlates with the decrease in interest rates, Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic, wrote. 

“Rapidly slowing inflation and the Fed’s signal for rate cuts in 2024 provided much needed relief and optimism for housing activity going into the new year, especially with interest rates falling to mid-6% by Christmas.”

Washington brokers added 81,612 new listings during 2023, down from the previous year’s volume of 110,294. This represented a significant drop of 26.01% of available inventory. Activity for new listings, including single-family homes and condominiums, peaked in June with 9,481 added listings.

New listings in Grant County decreased 15.29% between 2022 and 2023, according to the NWMLS data, going from 1,341 to 1,136. Adams County new listings dropped from 181 to 162, a change of 10,5%. Like the state overall, Adams County peaked in June, with 22 new listings, while Grant County topped out in May with 134.  

On average, there were 9,579 active listings in the NWMLS database each month in 2023. This is a nearly 5% decrease from 2022’s average of 10,075 and is consistent with reports of persistently low available inventory. Grant County bucked that trend, with 2,687 active listings in 2023, up 33.48% from 2,013 in 2022. Active listings in Adams County also went up, by 15.01%, from 453 to 521.

Inventory as measured by months of supply averaged 1.77 months overall for 2023, improving on 2022’s average of 1.464, but still well below the balanced market range of 4-6 months, according to NWMLS data. At year-end, there was about two months of available supply. 2023 inventory started off with approximately 2.52 months of supply but dropped in March to about five weeks, or 1.38 months, worth of supply. Supply was slow to recover throughout spring and fall, peaking again in November with 2.33 months of supply. 

Although prices continued to remain high compared to those a decade ago, there are signs that the market may be softening as interest rates start to lower in the coming months, the NWMLS wrote. The residential median home price of $625,000 was $13,000 less than the 2022 median price of $638,000, a 2.04% decrease; condominium median prices decreased by 1.69% from $473,000 in 2022 to $465,000 in 2023.

10 of 26 counties in the NWMLS service area reported price increases, primarily in rural counties as buyers continue to seek affordable properties throughout the state; Ferry County recorded the largest increase in the median price of $252,450, up 13.72% from the previous year’s $222,000, followed by Okanogan County’s 5.74% increase to $359,000 from $340,000. Chelan County recorded one of the largest decreases in median price of $535,000, down 6.29% from 2022’s $570,000.

There were 9,130 newly constructed units sold by NWMLS members in 2023, both residential homes and condominiums, accounting for about 14.2% of sales during 2023. The median price for all new construction was $700,000, down 5.41% from 2022’s figure of $740,084. The median price of new construction residential homes was $699,715; for new construction condominiums it was $760,000.