Home Sales Market A Little Perkier In July

Sales of new homes in the Spokane Valley showed strong growth last month.

There were 88 new homes sold in the Valley during July, according to the Spokane Association of Realtors, compared to just 35 in June.

“It seems like the Valley has had a surge,” said Don Walker, an SAR spokesman. “There are a lot of neat things happening out there.”

With new homes leading the way, overall home sales were good, too. There was a total of 112 Valley houses sold in July, up from 107 in July of 1994.

“There’s an excellent inventory,” Walker said.

At the top of the price scale were two new homes that sold for $310,000 each. One is located on South Sunderland in the Ponderosa area, the other is in the Morning Side Addition, a half-mile east of Sullivan between 24th and 32nd.

Dave Nerren, a real estate salesman with Tomlinson Black Valley, said the new home sale trend isn’t limited to completed projects.

The Chinook development, on Wellesley Avenue just east of Sullivan Road, won’t be complete until the end of next year, he said, but already more than 50 of the 96 homes have been sold. Those homes range in price from $99,900 to $150,000.

The average price of all homes sold in the Valley was slightly lower in July than during July of last year. Last month’s average sale price was $119,826; in July of 1994 the average price was $123,301.

That may explain why homes moved slightly faster. Valley homes that sold during July had been on the market an average of 56 days. At the same time last year, the average listing time was 60 days.

That’s good news for real estate agents. Bob Krafft, an associate broker with Windermere Real Estate, said the market was sluggish for the first six months of 1995. In July, things exploded.

“July was a much better month for us,” Krafft said. “We were down about 33 percent in the first six months.”

And, the sales weren’t comprised of cracker boxes, either.

“About 45 percent of our sales in July were $80,000 to $120,000,” Krafft said. “July had a really nice turnaround.”

, DataTimes