Columbia Basin housing market still tight

COLUMBIA BASIN — Real estate professionals seem to be pretty well agreed on what home buyers are looking for in today’s market.

“Really, they’re looking for a lot of everything, honestly,” said Tara Zerbo, an agent with Gary Mann Realty in Moses Lake.

“There’s kind of a desperation,” said Brian Gentry, of Re/Max in Othello. “People are almost looking for anything. There’s so few homes on the market. People are looking for something decent, something that’s fair-priced. But overall, they’re looking for anything.”

There just aren’t a lot of homes on the market, and the law of supply and demand is rearing its interesting head in a big way.

“With so many people coming into the market, Moses Lake is super-desirable, the location, weather, jobs, community – the whole thing that our area has to offer,” said Zerbo. “We need more homes to house them. And there’s just simply not enough.”

“It’s really competitive,” said Cassie Day, an agent with Touchstone Realty based in Cheney who handles a lot of properties in Grant and Adams counties. “We’re seeing prices have gone up significantly. I think it’s gone up 20% in Grant County since last year, which is a large jump. We’re generally seeing homes only sitting on the market for maybe a week.”

Smaller markets are less affected by the crunch, Day added, and many of her clients are opting to buy in outlying towns and commute. The sort of commute that would take hours in a more urban area like Seattle or Spokane is comparatively quick when there’s more sagebrush than traffic between towns.

“When you’re looking at those small outlying areas like Lind or Ritzville, those homes tend to stay on the market a little bit longer, and their pricing hasn’t escalated quite as much, and so for people who are looking to buy a home, it’s easier to buy in a smaller area than it is to get into Moses Lake proper,” Day said. “Looking at outlying towns has been how I’ve gotten some of my clients houses because they have more of a shot than they do in a bigger city.”

For the home buyers who have some options, multi-functional space seems to be in demand, Zerbo said, as there are still people working from home in the wake of the pandemic while others are transitioning back to the office.

Custom-built homes on acreage are also gaining popularity, according to professionals.

“People are always looking for land, always looking for acreage. That’s been a big thing,” said Zerbo.

“The people who call me would love something in the country,” said Gentry. “They would love something on acreage. So those houses go very quickly. Or land, land to build. That’s something I get asked about constantly. (People think) if they’re going to pay these kinds of prices they might as well build something they want.”

Zerbo noted that a large number of the buyers she deals with are looking to change the scale of their home, either moving up for more space – say, for a growing family – or downsizing as their nests begin to empty.

“Especially with the Baby Boomer generation, a lot of them have second stories, and they don’t want stairs anymore,” she said. “Or all the kids have moved out and they’re like, ‘This is way too much to clean, I don’t need all this anymore.’”

Those retiring downsizers have proven to be a boon to the “move-up” buyers, she said, as the homes they leave are snapped up by folks looking for more space.

Still, the growing population in Grant and Adams counties is keeping the market tight

“There’s just simply not enough,” said Zerbo. “So if people are thinking about maybe it’s the right time to sell, we are definitely in need of more homes.”