Home sales decreased in 24 of the 26 counties in the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) region last month, according to the NWMLS Market Snapshot for October.

Across the region overall, home sales declined by 18%, although certain counties saw much more drastic decreases. Sales fell by 32% in Kittitas, 35% in Okanogan, 60% in Ferry, 71% in Columbia and a whopping 83% in Adams.

Pending sales also declined, with 11.7% fewer listings going under contract year over year.

“With the 30-year fixed mortgage rate currently just shy of 8%, the purchasing power of prospective buyers has weakened further,” Mason Virant, associate director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, said in the report. “This has led to a continued decline in year-over-year transaction volume with overall median prices increasing by only 1% across counties covered by the NWMLS.”

The median sales price rose to $602,000 last month, up from $595,000 a year prior. The county with the steepest rate of increase was Adams, where the median sales price increased by 62.67% to $500,000, followed by San Juan and Okanogan with 26.23% and 24.09% increases, respectively.

In total, there were 11,403 active listings in October, down 19.8% year over year. New listings did little to fuel active inventory, with 15.5% fewer new listings entered into the MLS last month.

At the current rate of sales, it would take about two months to sell all active NWMLS inventory.