Virus scared buyers, sellers of Boise-area homes. But oh, how fast the fright fades
Baby-boomer buyers briefly pulled back. Sellers too. But on Boise’s bullet train to High Housing-Price City, the coronavirus pandemic has been little more than a curve in the track.
Rising home prices and increasing property taxes did nothing to slow Ada County’s red-hot housing market. The coronavirus pandemic did, but only temporarily.
Last month, 834 new and existing homes sold in Ada County, according to a report from the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service. It was the lowest total for any May since 2014, when 783 homes changed hands.
And prices? They went down too. The median price for homes sold in Ada County dropped from a record $374,900 in April to $360,450 in May.
It took a record 11.5% jobless rate and massive business shutdowns to bring about these declines. And in Canyon County, they didn’t even do that: The median price set another record in May, $277,537, up from $273,234 in April, the previous record.
“Without a doubt, the coronavirus took an entire demographic out of play and that’s your baby boomers,” Rick Gehrke, an agent with RE/Max Executives in Nampa who sells in both Ada and Canyon counties, said by phone. “They’re the most vulnerable for the coronavirus, and they hunkered down and said they’ll go out and look at houses when everything clears up.”
Two-income families where one person was laid off kept some couples from buying, he said.
Idaho’s unemployment rate ballooned to 11.5% in April, with more than 100,000 people out of work. Two months later, many of those laid off have still not received unemployment checks.
Now, though, the weather is wonderful, businesses have reopened, and builders, sellers and agents are ready to return to prepandemic showings and sales — subject to social distancing and face masks, of course.
Before the pandemic began reached Idaho in mid-March, a buyer represented by Gehrke had a sale pending on a home owned by couple in their early 70s.
“The next day, the COVID-19 hit, and they took their home off the market,” Gehrke said. “They said they weren’t leaving the house, and they canceled our offer. It took until now to get another offer.”
Normally May is one of the busiest months. Families who want to move for job opportunities or who want to change school districts before school resumes are looking to sell and buy, he said.
“May is a month when everybody’s been waiting for warmer weather, for the plants to bloom and the grass to turn green,” Gehrke said. “That’s probably the biggest month of the whole year when people put their homes on the market.”
The number of homes listed on the market declined from 1,607 in May 2019 to 1,239, down 23%.
Now: Home prices will ‘start rocketing up’
Passengers can expect the bullet train to make up this lost time.
As Idaho moves Saturday into Stage 4 of Gov. Brad Little’s recovery plan, Gehrke expects sales in June, July, August and September to increase. Along with prices.
“We’re going to see the pent-up demand accelerate, and when that happens, there’s still going to be low inventory,” he said. “Buyers are going to come out of the states they’re in, California, Washington and Oregon, and mortgage rates will be low and inventory will be low. And that’s the prime recipe for prices to start rocketing up.”
While Idaho has been attractive to residents of the three Pacific coast states for a long time, Gehrke predicts even more people might look to the Gem State because of the sense that a mostly rural state as Idaho might be safer from contracting the coronavirus.
Idaho might also attract people anxious about the unrest in Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles because of the protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“That’s just going to give them one more reason to come to Southern Idaho,” he said.
Mortgage rates continue to remain at near-record lows. On Thursday, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported that the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has fallen to 3.2 percent. It had been as high as 4.9 percent last November.
Home sales in Canyon County were down 21% between May 2019 and last month. A total of 401 homes were sold in May, compared with 508 in May 2019.
Other details from the new latest monthly listing-service report:
▪ Home sales in Canyon County were down 21% compared with May 2019. 401 homes were soldy, compared with 508 a year earlier.
▪ The median price for the 596 existing homes sold in Ada County was $339,900. For the 265 new homes sold, the median was $404,797.
▪ The median price for the 269 existing homes sold in Canyon County was $265,000. For the 132 new homes sold, the median was $404,797.
▪ Highest median prices: Eagle, $602,500; Northeast Boise, $562,000; North Boise, $530,000.
▪ Lowest median prices: Northwest Nampa, $261,250; Southwest Caldwell, $260,562; Northwest Caldwell, $257,247.
Business Editor David Staats contributed.
