BOISE, Idaho — Even in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, the housing market in Boise isn't fading away.
Idaho got its first confirmed case of COVID-19 more than three weeks ago. Since then, lives have changed for many Idahoans.
Businesses have been ordered to shut down by the government, and schools are closed across the state until the end of the school year as well.
The housing market in Boise though has not really changed.
“Things are continuing to be hot, things are coming on the market,” said Boise Regional Realtors President Michelle Bailey.
She told KTVB she showed two properties in Boise over the weekend and both got multiple offers, and now both have pending offers.
“However, it’s also not business as usual so we want to be mindful of that as well,” Bailey said.
It’s not business as usual because realtors are now having to rely more heavily on technology in order to meet with clients and show them houses.
“We're using Zoom, we're using Marco Polo when we're going through properties.” Bailey said. “We're doing Facetime, I did a private Facetime video with a client.”
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Bailey said she and other realtors are getting creative to show properties. Sometimes the client doesn’t even get to see the property in person before buying. Bailey said some clients think this is odd, but others find it okay.
“I’ve actually closed plenty of homes without the buyer ever seeing the property,” she said.
Looking at the numbers from March 30 to April 5, there were 1,455 pending sales. This was a 6% decrease from the week before. There were also 1,353 homes for sale during that week as well. This is a 10% increase from the week before.
“When you look at week to week, what I caution people about is the vitality with that because week to week can change pretty significantly,” Bailey said. “We're still pretty in line with what our averages are, that may change, when people are losing their jobs and they're no longer qualifying for loans, then yeah, that's going to start to have an effect. We're just not seeing it in our numbers yet.”
Bailey said the housing market isn’t seeing changes so far because every single situation is different. It all depends on the circumstances of the people looking to buy a new home or those who are selling their home. She said whatever market is happening, there will always be people buying and selling.
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