Boise homeowners, you’re getting richer: Idaho ranks 2nd in U.S. for home-equity gains
The Treasure Valley trade association for real estate agents is looking on the bright side of the Boise area’s skyrocketing house prices.
“Rising home prices are good news for prospective sellers, allowing them to utilize any equity gained to help with the purchase of their next home or a variety of other opportunities,” the Boise Regional Realtors said Friday in a news release.
In fact, Idaho homeowners gained an average of $48,500 in home equity from 2019 to 2020, according to a new report by CoreLogic, an industry research firm. That’s more than homeowners in any other state except California, where homeowners gained $55,000.
But the percentage gain for Idaho was larger than California’s, because California houses already cost a lot more. The median price of California homes sold in January was $699,890. The median in February in Ada County was $452,400, and in Canyon County $369,000.
“Builders and prospective home sellers have been unable to keep up with the persistent demand from homebuyers, stemming from general population growth, millennials ‘aging into’ the traditional homeownership years, in-migration due to our comparative affordability, and now, the ability for many to work from anywhere,” the Realtors said.
“These reasons, coupled with historically low mortgage rates, have resulted in buyer demand outpacing supply for years, which has been driving the growth in home prices and increasing the speed of the market.”
The Ada County median price is 25.5% higher than it was 12 months ago, and the average number of days a house sits on the market before selling is 19, down 62%. For existing homes listed for resale, the average was just 10 days, the lowest on record.
Just 168 houses were for sale in Ada County at the end of February, including 135 newly built homes, the Realtors said — a drop of more than half from February 2020, when supply was already considered extremely tight. Still, the number of homes for sale at month’s end was up 65 from January, raising hope that the market might soon begin to loosen.
