No house? No problem: Vacant land selling well in Columbia Basin

MOSES LAKE – More people in the Columbia Basin are opting for land over houses these days, according to real estate professionals.

“(People think) it’s a lesser cost (if) it’s got power and services nearby,” said Johnny Reyes, an agent with Windermere in Ephrata. “Slowly, over a year, two years, three years, they’ll put the services into the property and then they’ll put a home on it. They’re trying to save a little money that way. Also, there are people who are more inclined to live out in the country (for) a little bit more privacy.”

Ben Sellen, a broker with eXp Realty in Moses Lake, agreed.

“Give me a vacant lot (in the city), I’ll sell it right now,” he said. “I’ve got buyers waiting in the wings. They want to build new homes, they want to subdivide, they want to have their own projects.”

Land that’s outside of town has an additional draw, Sellen said.

“If you’re like, OK, I want the best money I can get for my vacant lot out in the county, 2 to 5 acres; the best thing you can do is put a shop on it and then sell it,” he said. “No house … Shops are never going to go out of style.”

Having a shop but no house on the land can give the owner the option of putting a less-expensive manufactured home on the lot, which is difficult in most parts of Moses Lake because of zoning, Sellen said.

“I see sellers that are out of their minds,” he said. “They’ve got a 1995 house that looks like a 1995 house that they’ve been trying to sell for a long time. They’ve got a cool shop, and people like the shop, but they don’t like the house.”

It’s frequently said that the most important factor in real estate is location. Quincy and Ephrata are selling especially well right now, Reyes said.

“With the jobs exploding at the data centers, (buyers) are really going after Quincy at a different level,” he said. “Ephrata is affected because Quincy has really good jobs, but the homes are just slightly higher priced. Ephrata’s a very close 20-minute drive for somebody to work in Quincy but have a more affordable home in Ephrata. So Ephrata kind of reaps the benefit.”

In Moses Lake, the south end of the peninsula and the area around Paxson Drive are selling well, Sellen said. So are new developments at Polo Ridge and The Refuge at Mae Valley. The smaller communities are another matter, Reyes said.

“I have some Wilson Creek properties,” he said. “Wilson Creek is harder to sell. People are … looking for amenities. You want your grocery stores, you want all that stuff. There’s a small pool of buyers for places like Wilson Creek because it’s a special type of person, a retired person (or) someone who wants the recreational hiking and the solitude.”

Interest rates were a volatile factor last year in the real estate market last year, Reyes said, but this year, now that they’ve settled in the 6-7% range, buyers are accepting that as the new normal.

“Because we had those two (percent interest rates) it was hard for (buyers) to get into anything when we got into fives and sixes and sevens, because who doesn’t want a 2% interest rate,” he said. “With the dream of going back to two people were holding back but I think after almost three years they’re starting to understand that this is what it’s going to be.”

Because buyers, especially first-time buyers, are most concerned with what their monthly payment is going to be, Sellen said, interest rates aren’t going to be the deciding factor.

“The Fed is not going to lower interest rates (drastically),” Sellen said. “That’s not going down. The only thing that can be affected by the seller is the price. If the price goes down, then there are buyers.”