How About a New Home For Christmas? Home Prices Dropping

How about a new home for Christmas? If you're hunt for a new place to live the median home sales price is down this month.

YOU'LL GET 10 GRAND OFF THE MEDIAN PRICE THIS MONTH

According to Cory Bemis, owner of Yakima's John L. Scott Realty the current median price is sitting at $340,000 which is a 3% decrease from last year at this time when it was $350,000. Despite the high interest rates Bemis says 125 homes sold in Yakima county in November.

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A LOT OF HOMES SOLD LAST MONTH BUT NOT AS MANY AS LAST YEAR

However that represented a 17% decrease from last year when 151 homes sold in November of 2022. It's also a 44% decrease from the 222 homes that sold in November of 2021.

DOWNTURNS EXPECTED DURING THE WINTER MONTHS

Bemis says despite the lack of sales "we have seen a very stable market with the number of homes available on the market (between 412-414 for the past 3 months) and with the median home sales price ($340,000 year to date, which has remained unchanged for the past 4 months)." He says during the winter months he expects to see a decline in listings like every year at this time.

DROPPING INTEREST RATES COULD PUSH SALES

But he says with "interest rates dropping nearly 1% from their peak 6 weeks ago, this could also contribute to increased buyer activity as well.  A busy winter would certainly result in a very active spring market."

IT'S BEEN A CHALLENGING YEAR FOR THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY

All total 1,517 homes have sold so far this year representing a 23% decrease from last year (1,966) and a 27% decrease from 2021 (2,078).
Bemis says "30-year fixed rate mortgages are averaging a 7.04% interest as of December 10th according to MortgageNewsDaily.com.  This is 0.52% lower than 1 month ago (7.56%), and 0.66% higher than 1 year ago (6.38%)."

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