BOISE, Idaho — Idaho's population has continued to grow, affecting home prices in the process, but recent trends show home prices could be dropping.
In May, the median sales price of a home in Ada County was over $600,000. That price dropped last month to $592.000, which is still 12.8% higher than it was this time last year.
"We're starting to see things kind of normalize. Because the last couple of years of COVID, that was not the normal market," Boise Regional Realtors President, Becky Enrico-Crum said. "We've seen our prices really go really, really high. And now they're starting to stabilize. And we're also seeing interest rates make a little bit of a climb up as well. So in a normal market, we do see fluctuating interest rates. And we do see days on market, which people are not familiar with."
Becky has been practicing real estate as an agent in the Treasure Valley for nearly 30 years. She says the housing market is now taking a few steps back after exploding over the last couple of years.
Houses are now sitting on the market for an average of 20-24 days, which Enrico-Crum says is more normal; a big change from last year when houses were only on the market for a couple hours before being bought, usually with multiple offers.
Enrico-Crum says that added extra pressure on potential home buyers.
"They had to make quick decisions, they had to waive inspection sometimes and appraisals, they had to maybe buy over the value price of the property to get it," Enrico-Crum said, "so the good news is now buyers get to take some time, they get to buy the property at a market value."
While there are still several multi-million-dollar listings in the Treasure Valley, Becky says for the first time since the start of the pandemic, there are homes now being listed for less than $400,000.
She says it is a sign we may be returning to a market that is more inclusive.
"I'm happy that they can come back into the market and not feel frustrated that they might not even have a chance to get a house because maybe they didn't have the extra cash they had to offer over asking to be able to get that home, Enrico-Crum said. "Now there is for sure, a strong possibility for sure that you can purchase a home and not feel like you're going to get completely booted out in a major bidding war."
Enrico-Crum adds, there are still some homes in unique areas or unique properties that still sell within two or three days, but overall, buyers do have more choices though because there's more inventory. However, the housing market is not yet considered a stable market. She says we have about two-to-four months of inventory right now, and we need four-to-six months of inventory to be considered an even stable market.
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