Spokane County’s housing market sets records for median closing price, low inventory

Spokane County’s fall housing market continues to be unusually active as the median housing price and supply of available homes for sale reached record-breaking levels in October.

The county’s median closing price in October was $320,000, a 20.8% increase from the $265,000 median in October 2019, according to the Spokane Association of Realtors.

Rob Higgins, Spokane Association of Realtors executive officer, said persistently high demand and shortage of available properties on the market is causing the county’s housing prices to continually increase.

The county’s housing inventory dropped to its lowest level in the association’s more than 30-year history of recordkeeping in October with a supply of 424 homes on the market, representing less than a month’s supply. That number is a sharp decline from 945 properties on the market in October 2019.

The county’s lack of housing inventory is a significant issue that is driven, in part, by a shortage of new construction that began having an impact after the economic downturn nearly a decade ago, Higgins said.

“New construction just didn’t pick up the pace, and we were falling behind every year for the last 10 years, so that has kind of caught up with us now,” Higgins said.

The county’s slim housing inventory is also attributed to more people holding off on listing their homes because of concerns they won’t find another property to buy in Spokane’s competitive housing market. Also, more people are choosing to stay put during COVID-19, Higgins said, adding he anticipates inventory to increase early next year.

More than 818 single-family homes and condominiums on 1 acre sold in October, a 3.3% decrease compared with 846 homes in October 2019, according to the association.