Steven – What is really going on in the Boise Market? One person I talk to says “it’s good” and the next one I talk to says “it’s horrible”. What do you see as reality? Don K. Eagle
Don, I see a busy market. The number of homes on the market in the Treasure Valley has dropped considerable. We are down over 30% in Ada County in the last 12 months and in Canyon County the inventory is down 43%. The Idaho Statesman recently reported Ada County has seen its first “year-over-year increase” in almost five years.
We haven’t seen home prices show an increase over the previous year in a while. By the way, the median price of a re-sale home in Ada County is currently up 11% year-to-date. (This matches what we see in the market. We have even seen some investors flipping homes they bought as little as 6 months ago.)
But what about the foreclosures and bank-owned backlog you ask? Well, according to the MLS there has been a decrease of distressed properties by nearly 50% in the last twelve month. This comes at a time when there is already a decrease of over 50% of available homes since the high point in the market.
At Boise Premier we work with first-time buyers and out of state people all the time who initially think Idaho has a backlog of foreclosures and other stagnating homes on the market. They are shocked to learn this may have been somewhat true in year’s past…it’s not the case now.
The short and skinny. Market is good and demand is there, and it seems to be building. We see lots of activity with the 20-something buyers and inbound relocations (who are very price insensitive).