Funds Blog

Is There Progress In The Boise Idaho Real Estate Market?

As with almost the entire nation, Boise real estate has suffered an amazing drop in activity and prices lately. Many home owners are afraid that factors effecting markets in the area will not turn around any time soon. There is some good news on the horizon and it is reflected in the market numbers for area.

The most active strata in the Boise Idaho real estate market is the entry level home market. Sales usually slow down for winter, so once that is factored in; home sales have clipped right along. The introduction of the federal governments first time home buyer tax credit lifted the market and set appreciation standards no seen in a few years. These tax breaks aimed at increasing home buyers rates of purchase were responsible for the latest rate of appreciation throughout the nation.

The middle of the Boise real estate market, consisting of homes between about 200 thousand and 400 thousand dollars is very slow at this point of the market. The difficulty in getting financing will ease since we have had appreciation rate that justifies primary mortgage insurance, which will reduce bank reluctance to grant loans. This slice of the market is very slow for new home starts due to the fact that buyers are leaning more toward smaller, more energy efficient floor plans.

The Boise real estate luxury home market is the slowest due to the fact that jumbo loans have started to be reported as defaulting in higher numbers in recent weeks. With higher default rates reporting, PMI for jumbo loans will go up substantially, and this will prohibit many buyers from doing so at this time.

Many home buyers are going after the homes with acreages so that is causing a small surge in the Boise Idaho real estate land market, including acreages, development and building lots. With lot sales being nearly completely tied to new home construction, as one goes so go the other. The rate of sales of real estate developments has been markedly slow because real estate developers simply cannot get financing to complete their projects.

The winter always sends a chill over the real estate market, but this year Boise home buyers will be working on making sure to get a home under contract in time for the first time home buyer credit deadline of April. Past that we may see a slow down over the course of this summer, especially if rates rise and markets do not improve.