Spokane home sales, prices rising steadily
Kootenai County also seeing solid year-over-year gains
The Spokane area saw 601 homes sold in June, the highest mark for that month since the real estate bubble. June’s sales were 9 percent higher than May’s 551 home sales.
During Spokane’s frothy home-buying splurge in June 2007, area Realtors saw 806 sales.
“I’m not sure we’ll ever get that number again, or maybe not anytime soon,” said Rob Higgins, chief executive of the Spokane Association of Realtors.
During 2014’s first six months, Spokane’s residential real estate market cranked out a modest 1 to 2 percent gain in most categories compared to sales during 2013, he noted.
“I was expecting that this year would pretty much track what we had in 2013. We’re seeing progress, which is a good thing,” he said.
From January to June 30 this year, 2,547 single-family homes were sold, compared with 2,480 a year ago.
For the year so far Spokane’s average sale price was $181,449, up 1 percent over last year’s $179,570. The median sales price through the first six months of this year was $165,000, up 1.3 percent over $162,900 in 2013.
Looking just at June, the median Spokane home price was $172,000, up from the previous month’s $164,000. The average price in June was $190,142, compared with May’s $182,352.
Sales of newly built Spokane County homes for 2014 were down 11 percent, with 301 sold compared to 339 last year, Higgins said.
“That seems to be much like the national new-home market, which people are saying is down slightly this year,” he said.
The three highest-priced sales were $618,000 for a home in the Legacy Ridge area of Spokane Valley, $592,000 in the upper South Hill area, and $583,500 for a home in the Cliff Park South Hill neighborhood.
Home-buying activity in Kootenai County is roaring, by comparison to Spokane.
During the first six months of 2014, 1,113 homes were sold in Kootenai County, up 7 percent from the same period of 2013, said Kim Cooper, president of the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors.
The average sale price so far is $213,791, up 9 percent from one year ago.
The median price in Kootenai County so far this year is $183,500, up 8 percent, Cooper said.