Are you in the market to buy or sell a home in Yakima? Cory Bemis, owner of Yakima's John L. Scott Realty says it's still a seller's market. Bemis says the median home sales price today is $350,000 which is a 9% increase over last year at this time when the price was $320,000. A lot of people purchased homes in the month of August in Yakima with 224 sold. 219 homes sold in August of last year so this year saw a 2% increase.
All total 1,436 homes have sold so far this year which is 3.5% increase over last year at this time when 1,387 homes were sold to buyers in Yakima.

Looking for financing?The cost of a mortgage is climbing

If you're in the market for a home and looking for funding Bemis says today 30-year fixed rate mortgages are averaging a 6.25% interest according to MortgageNewsDaily.com.  Bemis says that's 0.8% higher than one month ago, and 3.28% higher than one year ago. But many buyers say they'll take that rate over paying the increasing cost of rent.
Bemis says "here is a stat to keep an eye on: So far there are 348 homes actively for sale (have not accepted an offer) and 265 pending sales (offer has been accepted, but sale has not closed) on the Yakima MLS.

What creates a balanced market?

One month ago there were 318 active homes for sale and 6 months ago there were 151 active homes for sale.  Active listings have been rising, while the number of pending listings has stayed fairly consistent (240-290).
For a balanced market based on the number of sales in the past 4-6 months, we would need to have between 800-1,100 active listings plus pending sales. We currently have 613, which tells us that the overall market is still a "seller's market".
So that's good news if you're selling a home and for buyers there's hundreds of homes to choose from in the Yakima area.

LOOK: The most expensive weather and climate disasters in recent decades

Stacker ranked the most expensive climate disasters by the billions since 1980 by the total cost of all damages, adjusted for inflation, based on 2021 data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The list starts with Hurricane Sally, which caused $7.3 billion in damages in 2020, and ends with a devastating 2005 hurricane that caused $170 billion in damage and killed at least 1,833 people. Keep reading to discover the 50 of the most expensive climate disasters in recent decades in the U.S.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

LOOK: Here are the best lake towns to live in

Many of the included towns jump out at the casual observer as popular summer-rental spots--the Ozarks' Branson, Missouri, or Arizona's Lake Havasu--it might surprise you to dive deeper into some quality-of-life offerings beyond the beach and vacation homes. You'll likely pick up some knowledge from a wide range of Americana: one of the last remaining 1950s-style drive-ins in the Midwest; a Florida town that started as a Civil War veteran retirement area; an island boasting some of the country's top public schools and wealth-earners right in the middle of a lake between Seattle and Bellevue; and even a California town containing much more than Johnny Cash's prison blues.

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