Region’s hot home sales market shows no signs of cooling

Despite predictions of a gradual slowing of home sales, Spokane County Realtors have insisted lately that they aren’t seeing anything like that.

Sales figures reported Wednesday certainly back up their claims.

August residential sales in Spokane County hit record numbers for that month, with 850 closed sales reported. August sales were up 17.6 percent over July and 16.9 percent over August of last year, the Spokane Association of Realtors reported. Pending sales also were up 110 transactions over July.

“More people are getting into houses, and that’s always good,” said Rob Higgins, the association’s executive officer. He said a slowdown may have been predicted in July when interest rates crept up a bit, but then they dropped back down and remain below 6 percent.

Though August figures weren’t available for Kootenai County, the average price and number of sales through July were outpacing last year there.

In Spokane County, strong sales of new homes have kept the market hopping, the Realtors association said in a news release. The average sales price for new construction was about $246,000, up 1.7 percent over July. For the year, sales of new homes are up more than 20 percent over last year, the release said.

The average sales price for the first eight months of the year was about $165,000, up 14.8 percent over last year. The median sales price — which statisticians say is a more accurate depiction of a market — was about $145,000, up 15.2 percent over 2004. Half of the sales in a market are above and half are below a median price, whereas average prices can be skewed by extreme highs or lows.

The average sales price for August was about $186,000, up 4.5 percent over July.

Sales activity for the year is running almost 5 percent ahead of last year’s record-setting pace. Some 5,168 residential sales were reported through the first eight months of 2005, compared to 4,944 last year, the association reported.