HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
BOISE HOUSING MARKET BURSTING AT THE SEAMS
new construction so those are the higher price points. That’s what’s driving our prices right now,” Vanstrom said. ATTOM Data Solutions reports that sales of single family homes and condos combined during the first quarter of the year were up 12 percent compared to the same quarter last year — the 13th consecutive quarter with a year-over-year increase. For May alone, the BRR reported that home sales volume reached an all- time record $404 million due mostly to a 60 percent increase in the sale of newly constructed homes during the month over the same month last year combined with an 8.7 percent rise in the median sales price. Meanwhile existing home sales were up only 2 percent for the month. While there is still plenty of farmland to grow potatoes, sugar beets, oats and corn and to raise cattle, new home construction has taken over a lot of the flat farmland in the Boise valley, concentrated in Ada and Canyon counties. “One thing we’ve discovered about farmland is it doesn’t have to be flat anymore,” said Holley. “In the foothills where you get a nice view there is a problem. People are starting to complain that they don’t like the idea that the farmland is disappearing from their neighborhood.” According to the U.S. Census Bureau, year to date through May 2018 there were 3,373 building permits authorized for the Boise metro area, 84 percent of which were for single family homes.
“We are seeing the same trends all other markets are seeing. Historically low inventory. We do have a lot of new construction so those are the higher price points. That’s what’s driving our prices right now.”
BREANNA VANSTROM CEO, BOISE REGIONAL REALTORS
Still, it’s nowhere near the levels needed to meet rising demand
percent of income to buy during the second quarter — also above the county’s historic average of 33.4 percent of income to buy, according to ATTOM.
“In 2017 there were 6,000 building permits in Ada County. In 2005 it was more like 11,000 and bottomed out at 2,000 in 2011. We’re nowhere close to 11,000 yet,” Holley noted. The median sales price of a home in Ada County was $264,000 in the second quarter of 2018, costing average wage earners 42.4 percent of their income to buy — well above the historic average of 36.0 percent of income in the county, according to the ATTOM Data Solutions Q2 2018 U.S. Home Affordability Report. In Canyon County the median-priced home had a sales tag of $189,628, costing an average wage earner 40.7
Median home prices in the two counties combined are now 38.5
percent above the pre-recession peak in Q2 2007, ranking 10th highest above the pre-recession price peak among 105 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the ATTOM Q1 2018 U.S. Home Sales Report. Investor Margins Shrinking Given the low inventory and higher prices in Boise, real estate investors find themselves competing with traditional buyers at retail market prices just to purchase a property.
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JULY 2018 | ATTOM DATA SOLUTIONS
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