Home sales continue at a strong pace in Yakima as the fixed rate mortgage rates rise. According to Cory Bemis owner of Yakima's John L. Scott Real Estate the median home sales price is up 9% from this time last year selling for an average of $322,500. 167 homes were sold in April which is an 11.3% increase from the 150 homes that sold in April of 2021.

More homes have sold so far this year when compared to the same time last year

Another increase? 630 homes have sold so far this year which is a 16.5% increase from last year when 541 homes were sold.
30-year fixed rate mortgages are averaging a 5.64% interest rate right now according to MortgageNewsDaily.com which is 0.39% higher than last month, and 2.56% higher than one year ago. Bemis says rising interest rates will no doubt have an impact on the market and on some buyers. Bemis says "The new rates will have an impact on buyers who have been shopping for homes recently and were pre-approved for a home loan at a lower interest rate, because now their affordability will be affected. "

Bemis can't say if the rates will cause a slowdown in sales

He says it's difficult to predict if and when the local market will see a slowdown in sales. "We are certainly expecting interest rate increases to have enough of an impact to shift the market from an extreme seller's market back towards a balanced market in the very near future.  A seller's market simply means there are more buyers than sellers, and a buyer's market is the opposite.  We know the number of active listings will rise as we begin to shift back to a balanced market, but we don't yet know if the number of total sales will change."
But Bemis says many people who are looking to buy a home still want to buy regardless of what rates are doing because he says people realize "owning a home still proves to be a better long-term financial investment for individuals when compared to paying rent. "

Check Out the Best-Selling Album From the Year You Graduated High School

Do you remember the top album from the year you graduated high school? Stacker analyzed Billboard data to determine just that, looking at the best-selling album from every year going all the way back to 1956. Sales data is included only from 1992 onward when Nielsen's SoundScan began gathering computerized figures.

Going in chronological order from 1956 to 2020, we present the best-selling album from the year you graduated high school.

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