This article originally appeared in the Spokesman Review on February 26. 2026.
While home sales remained somewhat flat in 2025 in Kootenai and Spokane counties, good job and wage numbers and 30-year mortgage rates that dipped below 6% this week could provide the catalyst for an improved real estate market.
Matthew Clarke, a vice president at Washington Trust Bank, said Idaho is among those states leading the nation in job growth over the past four years at 2%. Over that same time, the national average was 1.35%. Washington trailed somewhat at about 1% job growth.
Matthew Clarke, CIMA®
VP / Senior Portfolio Manager
VP / Senior Portfolio Manager
Jobs create income. Income fuels spending and spending is still responsible for roughly two-thirds of economic growth."
Steve Scranton, CFA
Chief Economist
We have a fundamental supply problem. We don’t have enough homes at the price level of what consumers need to be able to afford a house.”
Read the full article in the Spokesman Review.