Listings up, mortgage rates steady, but buyers are still nervous
This home in Moses Lake’s Park Orchard neighborhood, was listed Wednesday on the real estate website Redfin.com at $340,000, the median price for a Grant County home in April.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
MOSES LAKE — Listings are up in Washington, and interest rates are holding steady, according to the latest data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks real estate trends for 26 of Washington’s 39 counties.
The interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.86% in May, only a tenth of a percentage point above March and about the same amount less than the 6.94% of a year ago, according to Freddie Mac. Rates peaked at 7.79 in October 2023 and have mostly fluctuated between 6% and 7% since then.
Median home prices remained steady as well, changing by less than a percentage point statewide as well as in the Basin. The median home price in Grant County was $340,000, the same as April 2024, and in Adams County the median price was $310,000, the lowest in the 26 counties NWMLS covered, compared to $331,500 in April 2024.
Active listings showed more activity in Washington, rising 47.4% in April 2025 over April 2024, according to the NWMLS data. Grant County active listings increased almost 60% in that same time period, but only 15% in Adams County.
That didn’t translate to more homes changing hands, however. Closed sales remained the same between April 2024 and April 2025 statewide, although Grant County closed sales increased 21% and went up 4% in Adams County.
The western part of Grant County, including Crescent Bar, Desert Aire and Sunland Estates, had the highest number of active listings in April, according to the NWMLS, and showed an increase year-over-year of 60.34%.
Nationwide, new listings rose 8.4% in May, according to a report from technology-based real estate brokerage Redfin. Pending sales dipped by 2.2%, however, suggesting that buyers aren’t going for what’s available. Fewer Americans are willing to invest in a home with an unpredictable economy and high interest rates, Redfin’s analysis said.
“As the number of sellers continues to outpace buyers, it is not surprising that price growth has slowed,” Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research, wrote in the NWMLS release.
“Recent media coverage identifies not only socioeconomic uncertainties such as tariffs and inflation, but also the willingness of both buyers and sellers to make concessions as potential factors in final sales prices in the last month,” the release continued.