County housing market up

Home sales in Whitman County picked up quickly during the first three months of 2012 compared to the prior year.

A report issued last week by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research showed 520 homes sold in Whitman County during the year’s first quarter.

The report showed home sales picked up 49 percent from the first quarter of 2011. The quarter also showed a 16 percent increase over the number of homes sold during the last three months of 2011.

Glenn Crellin, director of the center, pointed out the number was still well under high sales figures recorded during 2009.

Crellin had previously predicted cuts to the budget of WSU would cause the local real estate market to slump this year.

Those cuts were not as deep, he said, and this year’s legislative session left employees at WSU more confident their departments, and their positions, would not meet the budget ax. That led them to purchase homes instead of renting, he said.

Home sales during the quarter made Whitman County’s real estate market the second fastest growing in the state. Only the 65 percent increase in sales in Okanagon County was higher. Statewide, sales were 11 percent higher than the same period last year.

The median price, the point at which half sold for higher and half sold for less, rose four percent, from $170,000 in 2011 to $176,700 this year.

Average median value across the state was $208,300, down 8.7 percent from a year ago.