Looking for a new home in Yakima? Sales pick up again in 2022

By Beatrice E. Esparza On Feb 11, 2022

The past two years have been banner years for the Yakima real estate market with increases in almost every category.

Bemis knew the Yakima real estate market would be on fire again this year

Cory Bemis, owner of Yakima’s John L. Scott Real Estate, released his 2022 housing forecast in December last year. Bemis said while he expects interest rates to rise this year, they will still be at historic lows, giving more people the opportunity to become homeowners. “Fixed loan interest rates over the last 30 years have been 6, 7, 8% or more. Even rates above 3% are incredibly competitive compared to the last five years and even five decades!”

Sales should be on fire this year and they are already hot

And even if it’s still winter, sales are still hot on the market. Bemis says the median 2022 home sale price in January was $320,000. This is a 3% increase from last year, when the median price was $310,000.
Many people moved into new homes in January. A total of 171 homes were sold in January 2022, a 48% increase from the 115 homes sold in January 2021.
Bemis says 30-year fixed rate mortgages have an average interest rate of 3.9% right now, according to MortgageNewsDaily.com. This is a rate 0.4% higher than 1 month ago and 1.05% higher than 1 year ago. If last year and the year before were any indication, the market will continue to see record sales and growth in 2022.

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Many of the towns included jump out at the casual observer as popular summer rental spots – Branson of the Ozarks, Missouri or Lake Havasu in Arizona – it might surprise you to dive deeper into some quality of life offerings at beyond the beach and vacation homes. You’ll likely learn from a wide range of Americana: one of the last 1950s-style drive-ins in the Midwest; a Florida town that began as a retirement area for Civil War veterans; an island teeming with some of the nation’s best public schools and revenue streams smack dab in the middle of a lake between Seattle and Bellevue; and even a California town containing more than the prison blues of Johnny Cash.

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Every beach town has its share of pros and cons, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best in which to live. For the knowledge, Stacker consulted WalletHub data, published on June 17, 2020, which compares American beach towns. The ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. Cities ranged from 10,000 to 150,000 people, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read it complete methodology here. From these rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida won’t be surprised to learn that many of the cities featured here are in one of those two states.

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