Credit crises, mortgage scandals and home prices falling like a rock...in some places. Yet Pasco and the Tri-Citites continue to avoid the worst.
Mortgage money is still available locally—though you do need a reasonable credit score to get it. Homes are still selling locally—though for slightly less money and in a slightly longer time.
Just under 3,000 homes sold in the Tri-Cities last year, at an average price $1400 lower than the year before—about a one percent drop from 2007 to 2008.
Tri-City Association of Realtors President Glen Clark says the disparity between national media coverage and local experience is because, “all real estate markets are local. We get some effect from national news, but the local marketis holding up well.”
The Tri-Cities appears to be dodging a bullet in terms of foreclosures, too. In Phoenix, for example, nearly 100,000 homes appear to be headed for foreclosure. Locally, the number is closer to a few hundred.
Clark points out that one Hanford contractor recently announced the imminent addition of 3,000 jobs. Also, hundreds of jobs will be added in Connell in the next year. With only 1200 - 1300 homes for sale and rentals getting scarce, the Tri-Cities could quickly become a seller’s market.
As a side note... Fortune magazine—quoting Manpower, Inc.—reported that the number one and two markets nationally for employment growth in the 2nd quarter of 2009 would be, respectively, Yakima (21%) and Tri-Cities (19%). See Pasco Chamber of Commerce.
I was just reading some Washington State real estate statistics and noticed that the Tri-Cities have held up very well. It seems that the Tri-Cities is the real estate leader in the eastern side of the state, while Bellingham is the leader of the west.