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New Construction Boosts Home Prices In Spokane Kootenai County Increase Was Smaller Despite 10 Percent Rise In Sales Volume

Alison Boggs And Eric Torbenson S Staff writer

The number of people who bought new homes in the Spokane Valley leapt in July, driving up the average price of homes sold in Spokane County.

In Kootenai County, home sales remained steady despite a 4 percent drop in the number of sales in July.

The average price of a home sold in Spokane County in July 1996 was $122,740 - 7 percent higher than last July’s showing of $114,508 and almost $7,000 higher than any other month this year.

More homes were sold in the Valley - 149 - than anywhere else in Spokane County. Of the 149 homes sold, 50 - or one third - were new, according to the Spokane Association of Realtors’ Multiple Listing Service.

The average price for homes sold in the Valley also was up, reflecting the greater number of new homes sold. The Valley’s average price of $133,080 almost caught the South Hill’s average of $135,720.

“A lot of developments in the Valley are taking off. The new Valley mall may have something to do with that,” said Linda Besse, an associate broker with Prudential Crane Realty in the Valley. “A lot of people want to be the first ones to buy a home. They think, ‘Wow. I get to choose the carpet.”’

The fact that fewer people are buying homes for the first time right now also is contributing to the high average prices, Realtors said.

“The buyer that has been purchasing this year has been buying at a higher level,” said Dave Nerren, a Realtor at Windermere, The Tupper Group, Inc.

Year to date figures show that sales in the county are up almost 8 percent over last year. By July 1995, 2,542 homes had sold, compared with 2,736 this year.

For the year in Kootenai County, the market remains more than 10 percent ahead of 1995 sales, and is only 4 percent off the all-time record sales pace set in 1994.

The average price of homes sold rose 1 percent from July 1995, but that wasn’t enough to close the 2.5 percent gap between the price of homes sold through July of this year compared with last year.

Sales strength in the Dalton/Hayden area helped boost July numbers, with 56 percent more homes changing hands there than in July 1995.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Home sales