Idaho Mortgage Borrowers Jump at Reduced Prices
The median price of an Ada County home has fallen for the first time since the slump in the Idaho housing market began nine months ago.
The median price was $226,800 in March, a 1.3 percent drop from $230,000 in March 2006, according to the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service.
The year-over-year drop was the latest sign that nine consecutive months of lagging home sales have forced some homeowners to slash their asking prices to attract Idaho mortgage borrowers.
Canyon County fared a little better with a $158,000 median, a 2 percent increase from a year ago.
The stock of unsold homes remains high. Hanging over the industry are 4,292 homes that were for sale in the Ada County last month, plus 2,322 listings in Canyon County. The total of 6,614 is 55 percent higher than the supply in March 2004, before the local housing bubble of 2005 and early 2006.
Housing sales remained sluggish last month, with 1,050 transactions in the two counties, 30 percent below the same month a year ago. Demand for mortgage loans has reduced somewhat.
“I’ve got some clients who should cut their price, but don’t want to,” said Bob Hurtt, a real estate agent with Century 21 1st Place Realty in Boise.
But for the third straight month, there were signs that a turnaround may be coming. In Ada County, building permits reached their highest level so far this year at 357.
“For the first two months (of 2007),” we saw signs that things were picking up,” said Buildingcredibility.com founder Trey Langford. “We’ve reached the season now when people are getting out and shopping again.”
The recovery, however, apparently hasn’t taken hold in Canyon County, where only 120 building permits were issued last month, compared with 158 in January. The market for home mortgages there hasn’t picked up yet.
Stan Ray, owner of Stetson Homes in Eagle, said he expects to close on 12 homes this month, and that his inventory of spec homes - houses built without a buyer already in place - has shrunk from about 28 in 2006 to six earlier this week.
Ray said he has managed to weather the downturn because he specializes in affordable homes priced between $150,000 and $200,000. It’s the builder whose homes sell for $300,000 and above who can’t find any buyers, he said.
Rod Blackstead, owner of Blackstead Building Co., said he managed 10 sales last month because his homes are priced below $300,000.
“Our market never did get saturated like the market for these high-priced homes,” Blackstead said.
He added that he has seen increasing number of “be backs,” or potential home purchase loan borrowers who are returning for a second look at a home.
SOURCE: The Idaho Statesman