A federal study indicates home prices in Idaho rose the fastest of any state in the third quarter of 2006.
However, some Coeur d’Alene Realtors say the results are a bit misleading.
“I’ve seen the market had went up so highly a year ago, to where people that put their houses on the market priced them too high, so they had to come down to where it should have been in the first place,” said Fay Harrington, Realtor with Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, to The Post Fall Press.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said home prices appreciated 17.5 percent in Idaho compared with the same quarter in 2005. The Utah housing market was second with a 17.4 percent increase.
According to the Coeur d’Alene Multiple Listing Service, the average price of a single-family home through October in Coeur d’Alene went up 15.5 percent over last year; in Post Falls 12.5 percent; and Rathdrum 25.2 percent.
Sales declined 34.5 percent in Coeur d’Alene through October, 30.9 percent in Post Falls and 8 percent in Rathdrum. Those results would be expected as lower-income families may be hesitant to apply for a bad credit mortgage in order to afford such prices.
While prices may have stabilized, a study commissioned by the city of Coeur d’Alene, the Lake City Development Corp. and the Idaho Housing and Finance Association determined only 6 percent of the units for sale in the county in 2006 were affordable for the city’s workforce.
For awhile, appreciation escalated prices unrealistically, exceeding $200 per square foot, Harrington said.
“Homes don’t usually sell for that much,” she said.
New homes today are selling for $150 per square foot and older homes are closer to $100 per square foot.
“We do need more properties that are the type that people are looking for,” she said. “These are homes with a little land and maybe a shop on it, three-car garages.”Century 21 Beutler and Associates Realtor John Beutler found 29 properties listed between $100,000 and $150,000 in Coeur d’Alene, nine in Post Falls and three in Hayden Lake. Typically, a buyer would get 800 to 1,100 square feet for that price, he said.
The balance between luxury living and affordable living in the state is a large reason why home loan activity remains strong. This isn’t the case across most of the country these days.
Posted by Jed Moss on Dec 13 2006 under Idaho
While the nationwide housing slump has been well-documented and overall homes sales on the decline, the Idaho housing market isn’t facing anywhere near crises as other areas.
In fact, new residents are flocking to the region anchored by the capital city of Boise, lured in part by the modern-day equivalent of the gold that brought settlers in the 1800s - affordable housing.
In the southwestern corner of Idaho - near the borders of Oregon and Nevada - the Boise metropolitan area’s population jumped about 16% last year from its July 2000 level, one of the nation’s largest metro-area percentage gains, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Boise’s mountain vistas and fast-growing, diversified economy are draws, reports the Real Estate Journal, but population growth also has been fed by its proximity to pricey West Coast markets. The third-quarter median home price in Ada County, including Boise, was $242,500.
That compares with second-quarter levels of $283,400 in the Portland, Oregon housing market and $751,900 in the San Francisco housing market according to the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service Inc. and the National Association of Realtors.
“Boise’s one of the nation’s top-10 undiscovered markets that’s now being discovered,” says Kenneth T. Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, who compares it with other smaller hip and affordable cities such as Madison, Wisconsin.
The construction of houses and places to shop and work has fueled an expanding commercial real-estate market and driven a robust recovery in the local economy following the tech bust.
Employment in October rose 4.9% from the year-earlier month, more than triple the national rate of 1.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This means residents in the area can afford monthly home mortage payments.
Both the suburbs and downtown Boise have attracted development.
Over the summer tenants began moving into the 11-story Banner Bank Building, billed as downtown Boise’s first new high-end office building since 1999. In addition, last year the city gained a $60 million mixed-use project called BoDo, a name derived from Boise downtown and inspired in part by Denver’s revitalized LoDo, or lower downtown, neighborhood.
At the same time, some signs of a cooling housing market suggest Idaho’s construction-dependent economy could see a slowdown in job growth, says Shayna Olesiuk, an economist with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s San Francisco regional office.
If that doesn’t happen, others say Boise will need to take steps to manage growing traffic and potential pollution problems that threaten the small-town charm that attracted many residents and businesses to the region.
Of course, this kind of surge in residents and home loan applicants would be welcome in almost any other city in the country.
