Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago, Clark County’s housing market has tightened and become more competitive — but that’s not all due to the pandemic.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a series of shifts in buyer behavior, inventory levels and home pricing. Since the start of the pandemic, data shows a market that has experienced both rapid growth and gradual correction, according to The Columbian’s review of five years of reports from the Regional Multiple Listing Service.
Mike Lamb, a broker with Windermere Vancouver, said the housing market in the past five years has been heavily influenced by uncertainty — due to the pandemic, elections, interest rate changes and broader economic shifts — which have caused fluctuating buyer behavior. The biggest thing that has impacted the market since 2020 is the historically low inventory levels, several housing experts said.
Although the pandemic changed the market, its effect has dwindled, Lamb said.
“It’s one piece of a lot of other changes that have been far more significant,” he said.
Five-year roller coaster
The local housing market started 2020 strong, with rising sales and new listings. By March, the median sale price was $391,700. In April, as COVID-19 restrictions took hold, listings dropped 34 percent year-over-year. Sales slowed, but prices held steady at $385,000 thanks to strong demand and limited supply, experts said.
The market rebounded quickly. By December 2020, more homes hit the market than any other month that year, and the median price climbed to $420,000.
“2020 was a surprisingly good year. … People were asking, ‘What’s important?,’ and we saw an increased demand,” Lamb said. “2021 was when the market really went wackadoodle.”
In 2021, demand surged while the number of listings fell. Bidding wars were common, pushing median prices to $425,000 by January and $435,000 by March.
Lamb said he was seeing as many as 20 offers for every listing during that time.
“It was really abnormal,” he said. “During my career in real estate, I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Low interest rates of around 3 percent to 4 percent fueled the rush.
“First-time homebuyers were getting just their butts handed to them because they couldn’t compete with people who had cash contingent offers,” said Tracie Demars, a ReMax real estate agent.
By 2022, rising mortgage rates and inflation cooled the market. The Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates in spring.
“As rates went up, we saw transactions go down,” Lamb said. “When you’re coming off of rates in the high twos and low threes, or even in the fours, it’s a substantial shock to the market.”
Construction slowed amid labor and material shortages. Inventory ticked up slightly by year’s end, according to RMLS reports.
In 2023, the market began to stabilize. March’s median price hit $527,600. Buyer activity leveled out, but prices remained historically high.
“2023 was probably my worst year in real estate, next to 2011. I only sold like 30 homes that year,” Demars said.
That trend continued into 2024, with the same $527,600 median price in March. By March 2025, prices had risen to $533,000 — a 36 percent increase since March 2020.
Active listings reached 1,659, the most for any March since 2020. But that’s still below the 2,400 listings typical before 2017.
“If you want to know what the 500-pound gorilla is in this market, it’s inventory,” Lamb said.
He said many homeowners aren’t selling because they can’t find a suitable replacement — especially older buyers seeking single-level homes, which are in short supply due to limited lot sizes and zoning rules.
Terry Wollam, a broker with Wollam & Associates, said some homeowners are staying put because they locked in low interest rates during the pandemic.
“Now, we have the dynamic of people not selling their homes and being captive to the interest rate that they have and not being able to sell that home, take that equity and then use that with another home purchase,” Wollam said.
Next five years
Looking ahead, Wollam said a new wave of buyers is emerging.
“But there’s this barrier of entry related to down payments and the cost of the payment related to the house due to higher interest rates,” he said. “We have this really big pent-up buyer pool that’s waiting for attainable housing that they can purchase, and there’s limited options at those price points.”
Wollam said that March 2025’s inventory matched levels seen in February 2020. Based on past patterns, he expects a surge in buying and price increases once interest rates drop — possibly by late 2026 and going into 2027.
Right now, demand is high among homebuyers shopping in the $300,000 to $800,000 range. But Wollam said the looming problem is that new construction isn’t keeping pace.
“With the construction that is available today, we have this interesting dynamic where there is an excess of inventory relative to the demand currently,” Wollam said. “But as we eat through that inventory, there’s nothing coming behind it, and there is going to be a gap.”
Lamb added the pandemic largely has nothing to do with the housing shortage we experience today as it’s based on government policy.
“The housing shortage is kind of baked into Washington state, and I don’t see that changing, unfortunately,” Lamb said. “There will be a point at which buyers will say, ‘Hey, the rates are good enough. We’ll come back and get into the market more seriously.’ But that’s when you run into the inventory problem.”
