‘Who wants to go house shopping in a rainstorm?’: Spring weather helps fuel area markets

The phone started to ring earlier this month with home hunters looking for prospects. Then it snowed in Spokane.

“The phone stopped ringing for a week,” said Tom Hormel, a real estate broker and owner of RE/MAX Inland Empire. “Once it starts to heat up, people start looking at houses.”

Susy Dix, who has been selling homes in the market for 36 years, said she sometimes works with homeowners for years to get their homes ready to sell. But when it’s time, she checks the calendar.

“You want to time it for the weather,” said Dix, a real estate broker at Windermere Spokane-Manito. “Especially if you have a house in the country, you want sunsets and sunrises. You don’t want gray skies.

“Who wants to go house shopping in a rainstorm?”

Maximizing the correct moments to strike becomes all the more important in a housing market that has mostly stabilized after the COVID-19 pandemic rush that was punctuated by double-digit price increases, low availability and buyers who came with cash offers well over asking price to buy homes in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene areas.

Based on figures from February, the median price of homes sold in the Spokane area at $412,500, which was up slightly from the $400,000 median price of 2024.

The number of homes sold remained virtually the same year over year, with 344 sold during the month, according to Spokane Realtors.

But in North Idaho, the median price of a home in February jumped 10% over 2024 to just under $550,000. The numbers of homes sold in the Coeur d’Alene area also jumped by 31% over last year, according to Coeur d’Alene Regional Realtors.

Hormel, who also tracks sales in Kootenai County, said that homes sold in Coeur d’Alene aren’t that much better than in Spokane. Kootenai County also combines the sales of expensive houses around Lake Coeur d’Alene, which can affect overall median prices.

“Over there, you have to take in all the high-end stuff on the lake when it sells,” he said. “I think they should pull their number and take the lakefront (properties) off it. People will pay prices for lake frontage that blows your mind.”

The Spokane Realtor said he spends a lot of time on the waves of Lake Coeur d’Alene in the summer.

“I’ve looked at houses, if they weren’t on the lake, they would sell for a half million, and they end up selling for $2.5 million or $3 million,” he said.

Cost of borrowing

Hormel said mortgage rates, which slowed the housing markets and made it more difficult for first-time homebuyers to afford to buy, continue to average just under 7%.

And they aren’t likely to change after the decision last week by the Federal Reserve to keep the borrowing rate unchanged.

Still, some action has begun as sellers and buyers enter what traditionally has served as the best time to find or sell a home.

“We are hearing some agents on the street that showings are up,” Hormel said. “That’s a great sign. When people start looking, they don’t just look for fun. A few do, but not many.”

Dix agreed, saying homeowners looking to get the best price should have already started planning and getting ready.

“Warm weather, for sure, helps the market,” she said. “If you put a house on the market in August, everybody is at the lake or at a national park. That’s not a good time to go on the market. My slowest months are December and August.”

With higher mortgage rates, homeowners looking to upgrade likely won’t be able to find a property that matches their current mortgage, especially if they locked in a lower rate a few years ago.

However, she and Hormel cautioned that homebuyers are making a mistake to wait for another crash, like occurred in 2009, 2010 and 2011 following the Great Recession.

She noted that if a home buyer in 1971 waited for mortgage rates to drop, they would have waited until 1993 before they did.

“You marry the house and date the rate,” she said. “The house is where you live and enjoy your family and your life. You know how much interest people pay who rent? One hundred percent, because they are not building any equity in the house.”

Still, Dix also cautioned buyers, especially young couples, to make sure they can afford whatever mortgage they select, especially if their job situations could change.

“Give yourself a cushion, always,” she said. “I tell people, ‘Buy within your limits.’ ”

Dix said she got into real estate in 1989 as a way to earn some extra money for Christmas gifts and “it turned into a career.”

“We are still one of the cheapest markets to move into,” she said of the Spokane area. “We have a lot to offer.”

More than three decades of experience means that Dix has a list of contacts who can give her a quick bid on a quick remodel or a new roof, or a home inspection before listing, or even a quick test for a well.

“Real estate has gotten more complicated over time,” she said. “It literally can take two to three years” to prepare a property for market. “You begin by getting the house in the best order you can afford.”

She once suggested a home seller make an offer to purchase his neighbor’s junk cars. That way, prospective buyers’ first impressions would be the home for sale, not the issues next door.

“I have two houses coming on the market next week,” Dix said. “We want to put them on a day when it’s sunny and nice, and when people want to get out and look at houses. So, timing is everything.”