Homes Prices on the Rise in Boise Idaho - June 2023

"You're thinking of buying a home here in Boise, or maybe you're a homeowner thinking of selling a home and you need to know where the heck our home price is heading. Well, the housing market here in Boise continues to rebound as we head full steam into the spring and summer selling season. But you're probably still hearing doom and gloom in the news and from other YouTubers. Now, this is completely different from what you're hearing. You're probably hearing that the market is crashing and home prices are in an absolute free fall. And there are three reasons why you're hearing this.

Basically, the news is looking at data that's lagging a couple of months, and they're strictly comparing it to home prices about a year ago. The third reason is because fear sells, both in the media and on YouTube. So, this kind of doom and gloom gets people to click and read and watch.

Now, I track home prices very, very carefully every single month, and I actually sell homes here in the Boise area. So, I have firsthand knowledge of what's actually happening in negotiations with buyers and sellers. So, let's get after what's happening with home prices and if we're in a buyer's or a seller's market.

Real quick, my name is Curtis Chism, and if you're looking to make a move, just give me a call, text, or email, and let's chat.

Now, we all know that mortgage rates are the main driver of the housing market, and rates have shot up over the past year. Now, this has happened not only because the Fed was hiking interest rates, but also because of how high inflation was. Mortgage rates are directly tied to inflation, and when inflation was at nine percent a year ago, mortgage rates had to catch up to that number. It's actually a relief that mortgage rates never got as high as nine percent; we only hit 7.2. Now, that would have completely crushed the housing market. Now, rates have stabilized around the high six percent mark right now, and inflation fell again this past month to four percent. So, it looks like it'll probably continue to fall over the coming months, and mortgage rates should fall as inflation falls.

Now, since mortgage rates have stabilized and buyers have basically come to grips with the current mortgage rates, buyer activity has picked up. Overall, it did cool as the national debt ceiling debate was going on, but it appears to have picked up again. Now, if mortgage rates do fall in line with falling inflation, expect buyer activity to continue to pick up steam, and with that, home prices will continue to rise.

Now, at this point, with stabilized mortgage rates, those are reflected in the housing prices here in Boise. So, let's get after the home prices here in Boise. Housing prices for single-family homes rose 3.4 percent to $535,000, and that was up from a bottom in March of $483,000. So, it's up about fifty thousand dollars. And now, as you can see, the news is still reporting declining prices because they're comparing prices to a year ago. But home prices already bottomed out and are on their way back up for the past couple of months. Again, fifty-two thousand dollars up, or about 10 percent from the low. Now, we're still eighty-five thousand dollars off the peak, but homes are on the rise back up. Inventory of homes did rise to about 1300 homes, giving us just under two months of inventory. Now, homes are also selling faster and faster, falling to an average days on market of 36 days, down from 78 days back in February. So, that's just another sign that the market's definitely picking up steam, and I've been seeing buyer demand really pick up over the past couple months. And we're not really seeing bidding wars on homes unless it's very, very well priced. But if it is overpriced, it's still taking longer to sell. All you're not having bidding wars.

Now, another data point I like to look at is the final sales to list price percentage. This tells us how much above or below the list price that homes on average sold for. So, if on average a home sold for 98% of the original list price, that's actually considered a balanced market. Anything over this indicates a seller's market, below that, a buyer's market. So, right now, we're at 99.4% final sales to list price, and that number has been climbing steadily. So, that's just another indicator that we've swung into what I would consider a balanced plus market, meaning it's favoring sellers overall, but there are still a lot of homes that still favor buyers.

So, what does this mean if you're thinking about buying a home? Well, if you are thinking about buying and you've been trying to time the bottom of the market, as you just saw, we did already bottom out a couple months ago, and prices are back on the rise. Now, fortunately, things are pretty stable. We're not seeing insane bidding wars overall. For some homes, you may be the only bidder on it, and for others, you may be up against several other offers. It really just comes down to the individual home that you're looking at buying and then coming up with a specific strategy to secure that home. That may involve going in with a very clean full-price or slightly over-asked price offer, or it may be coming in asking for credits to cover your closing costs, asking for repair work to be done. And that's something that I can help you navigate through the buying process, help you analyze each home and come up with a specific strategy needed to negotiate to help you buy your next home. So, just give me a call, text, or email. We'll get started.

Now, if you are planning to sell a home, we really need to take a good look at your home and come up with the right strategy to successfully market and sell your home. Just like for buyers, every home is unique and it has its own strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes a home needs a lot of repairs, remodeling, and upgrades prior to hitting the market, like paint, carpet, landscaping, maybe roofing work, and other times it just needs to be decluttered and thoroughly cleaned.

Now, as we head into what I call a balanced plus market, you may need to plan to do some repairs that come up on the buyer's inspections or give credits to help that homebuyer buy down the interest rate to actually secure your home. And that's why it's just really more important than ever that you give me a call so we can put together a customized plan to sell your home on the best terms that you're looking for. We'll make sure that we don't overprice the home, causing it to sit for months. Instead, we'll price it with my proven strategy to generate just tons of traffic online, which will turn into showings, offers, and then hopefully a bidding war that will give you the leverage you need to get the price and terms that you want.

If you are wanting to get an idea of what your home may sell for and what it should be priced at, just contact me. I'll run a no-obligation home value for you.

Well, that's a complete overview of the housing market here in Boise, Idaho. Leave me a comment, reply back to this email, and let me know what you thought. And I'll see you on the next video.