All Cash Buyers Dominate Wenatchee Real Estate Market

The state of Washington has mandated the housing inventory in Chelan and Douglas County must increase by about 18-thousand homes in the next 20 years The mandate will also require that about half of the new homes be priced for low and moderate income households.

“Growth has been happening for a long time in Chelan and Douglas counties, and given the region’s livability and other attributes, more is on the way,” said Steve Maher, coordinator of Our Valley, Our Future.

The Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce and Our Valley, Our Future will host a housing summit to discuss the hurdles and solutions

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The "Housing Our Valley: How do we increase density in our neighborhoods respectfully" summit is February 6th at the LocalTel Events Center at Pybus Public Market in Wenatchee. RESERVE A SEAT

The summit will explore ways the region can ‘respectfully’ increase its housing supply — and what that is likely to look like.

One of the big hurdles to home ownership in the Wenatchee Valley is the price of a new home and a startling statistic that shows how difficult attaining home ownership can be.

The Washington Post reported on findings from Redfin, the national online realtor found the share of home buyers nationwide paying all cash reached 33 percent through August this year, — one of the highest rates since the years following the Great Recession. In the Wenatchee 98801 zip code area sales, the share of home buyers paying all cash was at 55 percent through August this year, according to Redfin data.

Between July 2023 and June 2024, the share of first-time home buyers nationwide was at an historic low 24 percent of all purchases.

Many of the all-cash buyers are selling previously owned homes the rise of cash buys is making it even harder for first-time home buyers.

Maher says for several years, the high cost of housing in the Wenatchee area, coupled with a low inventory, has also shut out many potential first-time homebuyers and negatively impacted the ability of local employers to attract and retain talent.

Maher notes as of this November, the median home sale price in the Greater Wenatchee Area was $520,000 (a 49 percent increase since November 2019), according to real estate data from Pacific Appraisal Associates of Wenatchee. In Leavenworth, the median home sale price was $776,000 in third quarter 2024 (71 percent increase), and in Cashmere it was $596,000 in third quarter 2024 (69 percent increase).

The median age of home buyers has been climbing with the trend of all cash purchases and now stands at 56 years old, according to the National Association of Realtors. The first-time buyers median age has risen from 35 to 38 over the last year. Experts surveyed by Reuters expect affordability to get worse for firsttime buyers over the next year. Slightly lower interest rates in early 2025 will not be enough to entice new buyers into a housing market where prices are still over 50% higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to a November Reuters poll of property analysts.

"Take the U.S. and a lot of the West — they're getting older. That's where the wealth is. They take on second homes, even third homes, pricing out younger generations who just haven't had enough time to build up any savings," said John LaForge, head of real asset strategy, Wells Fargo Investment Institute.