Wat would you say is the state of the market in the Tri-Cities? Any realtors have honest opinions? (for sale) - Kennewick - Pasco - Richland area - City-Data Forum

dd94595 · 01-12-2008, 11:40 PM

I am curious about the Real Estate market in the Tri-Cities.

How is the market here doing? Is it suffering like the rest of the country. I see a lot of homes sitting on the market for months. Many of the homes that were for sale when I first moved here three months ago are still for sale.

There seems to be a big difference in the price of homes located in the same neighborhood. Maybe somebody would be willing to help me understand this because I lived in California and the neighborood often dictated the price. Are homes here priced according to the features they have rather than location?

Any insight that anybody has would be greatly appreciated.

Balco9 · 01-13-2008, 12:57 AM

Homes are over-valued big time in the Tri-Cites....
For some reason home price keep going up in that area.
I would say 30% over priced, so low ball big time
and don't get fooled...

Stevenml155 · 01-15-2008, 02:34 PM

I hear ya, we just moved up from San Diego area and the housing prices here have no rhyme or reason to them. It's more like "I think this house should be $250,000 so that's what I'll ask", even if it's not at all justified! The market is slowing, but still steady due to the fact that we are somewhat isolated from any other 'big' towns. Shop carefully, if you buy new be careful what builder you buy from as they don't always follow through on what they say they will (we are having issues with Tanninen Custom Builder ). We did notice something interesting in the 300K to 450K price range -- the floorplans and layouts were very poor in flow and feel -- they just seem to be big and that's about it. The floorplans in Cali make big time sense since they don't have much space to work with -- we did find homes in the 2200 to 2500 square foot range have a better flow to them. You can find many nice homes in the 195K to 250K price range finished really well in that square footage. Good Luck!

Balco9 · 01-15-2008, 02:46 PM

Stevenml155, what do you consider a nice home for 195k-250k price range.
Because i could not find anything nice under 350k. Also how are the 450k-300k
home poor in flow and feel? I know for fact home's in these price ranges are beautiful
and built great.

BrianWA · 01-15-2008, 05:05 PM

There are some really good builders here in the Tri-Cities and some not so good. It's the established custom home builder vs. the production home builder. Identifying who's who is the first hurdle. Finding an area that works for you will indeed come more easily after that.

Stevenml155 · 01-16-2008, 09:46 AM

Balco 9 ... the larger homes are large in square footage and fininshed like high end apartments. My wife and I are used to the market in San Diego area, where the homes were finished with incredible detail. When we were looking at homes in the $300k to $450K range we mostly saw large square footage with floorplans that didn't make sense. The ones that were smaller, say 2500 to 2700 square feet were finished with better detail however. The big problem in that price range does seem to be the finish work -- it's just sloppy - poor attention to detail is what I've noticed. I will say this however, I would have Solferino Construction build a house for me any day of the week -- they are a builder who has obvious quality and excellent floorplans! The only problem was there were no homes available when we were buying! If you visit Southern Cal area sometime, check out the some of the homes that are newer -- they are just finished incredibly well -- nothing gets overlooked -- they can't as the homes are sellling for $650K! The idea though, is that it's all relative, $300K to $450K in the Tri-Cities is comparable to $1M + in So Cal, so I would expect it to be finished accordingly.

Balco9 · 01-16-2008, 01:04 PM

I seen some of the Solferino homes and actually met Raffy the owner. They do great work and good people. Their homes are expensive and you have to buy a lot first before they built.

BrianWA · 01-17-2008, 08:50 AM

Solferino is a "top of the list" builder that is very well known for the detail and craftsmanship here in the Tri-Cities. Raffi was my next door neighbor and has built numerous homes in my subdivision. From what I have seen, their homes have an extraordinary short term resale value.

Stevenml155 · 02-17-2008, 11:35 PM

Solferino homes are awesome! The market is slowing here, you can see the signs....resales are down, but prices are on the uptick...gee, sounds just like what we saw happen in So California...realtors kept saying it was just fine and the market was great then bam! The bottom fell out...not sure if that will happen here as we didn't have major price increases, but there are more and more new homes sitting empty in our area...interesting to watch and see what happens....