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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Home prices in Spokane increased in August

The number of Spokane homes sold in August dropped from the month before, but prices rose solidly, the Spokane Association of Realtors reported.

There were 608 homes sold in Spokane County in August, down from 625 in July.

Average and median prices rose 6.1 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively, from the month before, the association said in its monthly update.

The average sale price in August was $198,140; the median price – meaning half cost more and half cost less – rose to $177,090.

Home sales for the first eight months of 2014 were 3 percent ahead of a year ago in Spokane, said Rob Higgins, executive director of the Realtors association.

Inventory – the number of homes on the market – is down 2.4 percent from a year ago, Higgins said. There were 2,835 homes on the market in August compared to 2,905 a year earlier.

New-home construction picked up in August, but total new-home sales lag behind 2013, the association reported. There were 66 sales of newly built homes in August, compared to 46 in July. There were 413 new-home sales in Spokane in the first eight months of the year, compared with 467 in the same period last year.

The top three sales for August were:

• A home in Liberty Lake selling at $799,990.

• A South Hill residence near Rockwood Boulevard selling for $775,000.

• A Colbert residence selling for $710,000.

In North Idaho, home sales tapered off slightly in August, said Kim Cooper of the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors. That group doesn’t report monthly totals.

Cooper said “increases slowed a bit in Coeur d’Alene, which is to be expected given 24 months of strong appreciation.”

Through August, total sales of homes in Kootenai County were up 7 percent from the same period in 2013, he said.

The median price in Kootenai County for the first eight months of 2014 rose to $185,500, up 7 percent from the 2013 median of $172,997, Cooper said.

Notably, Kootenai County had 23 homes that sold for more than $1 million so far this year, compared with 13 in 2013, Cooper said.

Of those, 16 were waterfront properties, Cooper said.