With new businesses moving into Airway Heights and bringing their employees with them, local real estate experts are predicting that rapidly increasing property values will only continue to rise.
The city is experiencing an uptick in both commercial and residential real estate, plus a tightening rental market indicating that supply just isn’t keeping up with demand on the West Plains.
Two multi-family unit complexes called Basalt Ridge and Galina were recently completed in the northwest area of the city and there’s more on the way. An additional multi-family complex is under construction south of the Airway Heights Corrections Center on Sixth and Garfield.
The Kalispel tribe is also developing its property and this summer began construction on 200 units.
But even with all the activity in the area, it still doesn’t seem to be enough.
As of press time, there were about 30 homes for sale within city limits, and only four rentals available. That includes houses, townhomes, duplexes and apartments. Most of what is currently available are one or two bedroom apartments, with only one single-family home available to rent. More are available moving into Spokane.
The average rent for an apartment in Airway Heights is $954, a 5 percent increase compared to the previous year when the average was $910, according to rent data aggregator Rentcafe.com
“There just seems to be a lot of interest,” Airway Heights Public Works Director Kevin Anderson said. “It doesn’t seem to be letting up any time soon.”
Analyses from multiple sources seem to support Anderson’s conclusion. According to popular real estate website Zillow, the median home value in the city is $196,900, and prices have skyrocketed since early 2015, when the median home price was about $140,000. Airway Heights’ property values have gone up 10.4 percent over the past year, and Zillow predicts they will rise 9.4 percent within the next year.
Rob Higgins, executive officer for the Spokane Association of Realtors cites numbers that are even higher. His organization tracks the average price of home sales in the area, which encompasses the city of Airway Heights and some surrounding land.
According to his information, there were 14 closed homes sales and 12 pending sales in the month of August alone. The average sale price? $237,896.
That’s up $12,000 from last year and nearly $59,000 from 2015, when the average sold home price was $178,986.
“Home prices are certainly on the uptick, there’s no doubt about that,” Higgins said.
And the upward trend isn’t just for residential developments.
Commercially, several new businesses are moving into Airway Heights, including internet and tech giant Amazon. There’s also a Maverick service station planned for the southeast corner of Hayford Road and U.S. Highway 2 and a large North 40 store being developed just outside city limits on the northeast corner of Deer Heights Road and Highway 2, Anderson said.
“We’ve got developers contacting us all the time, and it does seem to have picked up in the last couple years,” Anderson said. “The activity is not just residential but commercial as well.”
This is arguably a good thing for a real estate market that has experienced significant fluctuation over the last few decades. But not all residents are in a position to prosper from the recent market shifts.
Zillow estimates that 5.7 homes per 10,000 are foreclosed in Airway Heights. This is greater than values in the Spokane area, which hover around 3.3, and at the national level, which rest at 1.6. Plus, about 7.9 percent of homeowners in the city are underwater on their mortgage, higher than the 6.6 percent seen in Spokane.
The construction of new real estate can often be taken as an indication that the local economy is robust, and that jobs or other amenities are attracting an influx of new residents. This is certainly true for Airway Heights, but will the influx of people and booming home prices allow residents to prosper or simply exacerbate existing issues of foreclosure and mortgage delinquency?
It’s a question that no one can agree on for sure, but on one thing all experts agree — the West Plains is experiencing unprecedented growth, and given the current supply and demand, price gains will almost certainly continue in the coming months.
Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].
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