All about affordable housing, the luxury housing market has never been better in Tri City.
According to data collected and released by the Cari McGee Real Estate team, 61 homes were sold for over $1 million in 2024, breaking 2022 records for 59 properties.
Kennewick was the most closed with upscale homes with 24 properties, followed by 20 Richlands, 15 Pascos, and one West Richland and Benton City, respectively. Five of the top 10 most expensive home sales were in Pasco.
The average selling price for all properties was $1.24 million.
The TriCity market coincides with the National Luxury Home Sales trends. This coincides with a typical US luxury home, which sold in record-breaking luxury homes in the second quarter of 2024, up 8.8% in nearly two years and the biggest increase in nearly two years, according to Seattle-based real estate broker Redfin.
More than a third of the Trinity luxury properties sold in 2024 were newly constructed, making them luxuriously designed.
However, many other homes have been expensive in the past, but have creeped into the luxury category as homeowners have improved and property values have risen. For example, the winner of the 2015 Parade of Homes, built by Prodigy Homes.
“We sold the house for $570,000, and today it’s going to be easy for $1.4 million,” said Jason Wilkinson, owner of Prodigy.
The panoramic view is just one of the reasons why this Pasco home along the Columbia River is listed for $1.6 million. The Tri-Cities Luxury Housing Market hit a new high in 2024, with 61 homes on sale over $1 million.
| Courtesy Shane Martin Photos for the Cari McGee Real Estate TeamThe Tri-City housing market has seen consistent demand in recent years as its population continues to grow. The area is one of the more affordable metropolitan areas in the state, with the average selling price of a home in 2024 at just under $460,000. Some homes are for sale in what was rated 10 years ago. It led to emphasis by city leaders and builders to develop low-cost housing projects such as apartments and townhomes.
McGee said the steady rise in sales prices for existing homes partially explains why so many homes are currently selling at luxury price levels. Originally built for the average middle class family, the home now reaches or exceeds the $1 million mark.
She said her parents bought a childhood home in Southern California in 1965 for $33,000 and sold it for $100,000 a few years later. Today, the same home is valued at $650,000.
“I can say I wasn’t growing up in a $500,000 home,” McGee said.
Luxury home buyers don’t face the same challenges as mostly middle class buyers. According to Redfin, high-end buyers are more likely to make an all-cash offer and are less likely to be affected by the lock-in effect of the mortgage rate, prompting many to buy another home at a higher rate. Also, high-end home buyers are more likely to benefit from a strong stock market and high levels of home equity.
The Tri-Cities Luxury Home Market is located before the Covid-19 pandemic, but this is not the case nationwide. Before 2020, only Tri City homes sold millions of dollars a year. The peak was seven in 2019, and increased in 2020, reaching almost 35 in 2021, and since 2022, at least 50 luxury homes have been on sale every year.
Wilkinson said the growth is surprising, despite Prodigy building 14 of last year’s million-dollar homes and getting on track to beat that number in 2025.
The owner of the home along the Columbia River in Pasco first bought it for just over $1 million before adding a pool, gazebo and an outdoor kitchen. These improvements, combined with rising home prices, are listed at $1.6 million.
| Courtesy Shane Martin Photos for the Cari McGee Real Estate TeamMcGee noted that the rise of remote work has made it more flexible where people live, which has led to them moving to major non-metro communities. And in many cases, these transplants come with more purchasing power considering how much they sold their previous homes.
“People are selling $3 million homes in Seattle or San Francisco, they buy $1 million here and still have money in the bank,” Wilkinson said.
It also means there will be increased demand for luxury finishes and features such as custom textures and oversized doors, as well as properties that have stopped along the ridges and hills of Benton County and the Columbia River in Franklin County. These in-demand lots cost just at least $250,000, Wilkinson said.
And there are people who have already upgraded their high-end homes.
One of McGee’s list features a home with views along the Columbia River in Pasco, and a garage of four cars with one bay large enough for an RV. I bought it for just over $1 million in 2022.
However, the current owner has also decorated it, adding a pool, gazebo, outdoor kitchen and water between the house and the coastline. Today it’s on the market for $1.6 million.
“We’re growing,” McGee said of the market.
