Home building seems to be booming in Tri-Cities. But is it just a mirage?

Yahoo

2 hours ago

Tri-City schools recess for the summer next week, kicking off the busy season for home buying.
For those with house hunting on their to-do list, there is good news and trouble is brewing as builders cut back amid concerns about the Tri-Cities and U.S. economy.
The good news: There were 944 homes listed for sale in May, the largest selection since November 2014, when there were about 1,000, according to Tri-City Association of Realtors archives.
he average home price remains high, averaging $472,000, about $3,000 more than a year ago. But the double-digit price increases of the pandemic years have eased.
The number of sales is holding steady, 321 in May compared to 330 a year ago and 284 the year before that.
'I think we're going to be petty stable for a little while,' said Andrew Magallanez, chief association executive for the local Realtors association.
The note of caution, however, is Tri-Citians readily see excavators turning vacant land into future subdivisions around the community.
But looks are deceiving.
Home builders are starting fewer homes, said Jeff Losey, president of the Home Builders Association of Tri-Cities.
'When you drive around and you look, it's blowing up,' he said. However, fears about interest rates, tariff-fueled increases in lumber prices and concerns about federal funding for the Hanford cleanup are prompting home builders not to expose themselves to a potential downturn.
Losey reports local home builders pulled 22% fewer permits for single-family homes in April compared to a year ago.
It's not just local.
Nationally, new home construction fell 12%, according to the National Association of Home Builders, which echoed concerns about new tariffs on building materials such as Canadian lumber.
The national association anticipates tariffs will increase the average cost to build a home by more than $9,200, depending on which tariffs and retaliatory tariffs are enacted.
Losey said the downturn is spread across the Tri-Cities, with permit numbers tumbling in Kennewick, Pasco, West Richland, Benton and Franklin counties.
Richland was the exception, its numbers buoyed by home building at Badger Mountain South. Builders received permits for 109 homes in the first months of the year compared to 78 over the same period in 2024.
'That's a pretty big jump,' Losey said.
Development is slowing, but not stopped.
Even now, veteran builders are committing to long-planned projects.
The Urban Trails along Bob Olson Parkway, near Desert Hills Middle School in Kennewick, is the most recent to break ground. Excavators began carving the 152-acre site into a future neighborhood this spring after securing grading permits from the city.
At full development, Urban Trails will add about 1,200 new residences, split between homes, townhomes and up to 750 apartments.
It is the brainchild of Mitchell Creer LLC, led buy Britt Creer, president of the Urban Range Group/Ranchland Homes, a busy Tri-Cities land developer and home builder. It has been in the works since at least 2023, when it was conceived as a 1,900-door project.
Creer said door-count was curbed, but it still will include a mix of residence types catering to people at every phase of their lives — apartments for young adults, detached homes for growing families, townhomes for downsizing retirees.
'The idea is you never have to leave,' he said.
Magallanez, of the Realtors association, said Urban Trails is a welcome twist on the standard subdivision packed with single-family homes.
'As we grow, we either grow up or we'll start to see more mixed use,' he said. 'We need housing at different generational levels.'
Rotschy Inc. is the contractor for the grading work at Urban Trails, which involves moving about 700,000 cubic yards of material to create the future neighborhood.
Creer said the infrastructure design will be finalized when the grading is done. He intends to apply for permits for the civil infrastructure — roads, utilities, stormwater systems and so forth — later this month. The first 40 lots will be available later this year and apartment designs will be finalized in 2026.
Jared Retter of Retter & Co. | Sotheby's International Realty confirmed it expects to represent The Urban Trails to buyers after working with Creer and his partners on other projects, including two West Richland developments — Eagle Pointe Townhomes on Belmont and Western Ridge, a single-family neighborhood that's nearby.
There are nearly 11,000 future residential lots in various phases of planning, according to projects tracked by the Tri-City Herald.
There's no guarantee any individual proposal will become reality.
But collectively, the dozens of planned subdivisions and development sites offer a potent view of future construction in Benton and Franklin counties.
The former Lewis and Clark Ranch in West Richland is easily the most ambitious undertaking.
The 7,000-acre Frank Tiegs LLC property is already inside the city. The first 800-acre phase would add 3,000 to 4,000 new homes and apartments, according to city planners, who have been working on the proposed development for years.