New Home Construction Keeps Market Humming

Valley home sales, which jumped in July, continued strong in August.

More houses sold in August than July - 138 compared to 112. And, August’s most expensive home fetched $373,000, surpassing July’s top price of $310,000.

Evening out the trend, though, was a dip in the average sale price, from $119,826 in July to $115,169 in August. And houses took a little longer to sell in August than in July, with an average time on the market of 64 days. July’s average was 56 days.

Those gains and losses pretty much zeroed one another out, making the overall economic scene similar to July’s.

“Things really look good now area-wide,” said Don Walker, a spokesman for the Spokane Association of Realtors.

That’s welcome news, because sales during the first six months of 1995 were sluggish. A total of 815 Valley homes sold between January and August, compared to 1,016 sold during the same span last year.

Last month’s numbers alone, though, aren’t too far from August 1994’s. Houses in the Valley sold for about the same price.

Buyers are nonetheless a little more cautious. It took an average of 51 days for a house to sell last August, quicker than either July or August of 1995.

Realtors said new home construction continues to be the staple of the Valley real estate scene.

“MeadoWood is doing particularly well,” said Steve Hildahl, general manager of Remax Spokane. “We’ve had real good luck with sales there in August … (sales) have been doing better there than anywhere else in the Spokane area.”

Hildahl said he’s not sure what fueled the summer upswing, but the jump isn’t tied to rising values, as was the case in the last few years.

“Sales are strong now compared to early in the year … (but) prices haven’t really increased,” he said. “Appreciation isn’t a factor like it had been.”

, DataTimes