January sales were 339 in Ada County, an increase of 21% over January 2010. This level of sales is what we were experiencing in 2008.
Historically, January sales are the lowest of the year. In January 2010 we started with 279 sales and marched strongly upward through the end of April. We experienced a slowing after the tax credit expired, but rallied in the fall to finish the year strongly.
Of our total sales in January…slightly less than 59% were distressed….down 2% from December 201. (Short sales 20% and REO’s 38%). Distressed sales continue to dominate the market as Boise was recently recognized again in the national press for our large number of foreclosures.
A bright spot is our pending sales – they jumped 25% from 575 in December to 720 in January. The percentage of pending sales in distress rose 2% from December totaling 56% overall.
The number of houses available at the end of January showed its first mild increase since a blip at the beginning of the peak selling season. We have the same number of homes for sale as we did in April 2006…2,711. We are beginning the year with 843 fewer homes for sale than in January 2010.
At the same time, the percentage of active inventory that is distressed remained essentially unchanged from December’s at 44%. In Ada County we have 6.4 months of inventory on hand. The price categories in shortest supply are equally distributed between $100K-$250, with the fewest in the $100,000 to $119,000 range.
Separating New Construction from Existing Homes and the numbers are more interesting. Existing Homes inventory is below 5 months in several price categories.
The January median home price dropped $9,500 from December, an 18% decrease from January 2010. This supports the lack of inventory in the $100-119k range, as those are the homes that were mostly sold.
New Homes median price for January 2011 was $211,000, an increase of almost 10% from January 2010. Remember you read it here first…2011 will be a good year to be selling new homes.
So where do we start this second year of recovery… We continue to “benefit” from inventory lower than national average. The bad news is a high percentage continues to be distressed property. With inventory this low, and not likely to increase quickly, prices should stabilize, but not if the number of distressed properties continue to grow.
Median home price for existing homes continues to bounce along the bottom and shows no real sign of improvement, a victim of the unusually high levels of distressed properties.
This is a repost from Feb. 11th, 2001 from the ACAR Watercooler Blog.
We seem to be at the beginning of a transition in consumer expectations in home purchase.
New Federal policies on the role of the GSE’s in the mortgage market will have a long term, and perhaps, immediate effect, likely to benefit lenders over consumers.
Banks are lobbying for higher down payments – as much as 30% – which cannot have anything but a negative impact on home buyers.
The desirability and availability of new homes that don’t carry the baggage of short sales and REOs may eclipse the historical consumer preference for existing (used) homes.
This shift in preference could also provide a secondary benefit…more jobs.
Unemployment numbers improved in the last couple of weeks. We’ve known all along that jobs will drive home sales more than any other single variable.
The Iron Eagle Realty Team's mission is to assist you, our client, in the sale and acquisition of real estate properties in the state of Idaho, specifically the Boise Idaho Real Estate Market. Whether you are buying or selling a home, whether it is a foreclosure, short sale or equity property, we handle our customers and clients with empathy and honest truths so they can make informed decisions as they advance in the process of buying and selling real estate that meet specific needs.
Regards,
Michael Hon
CEO, The Iron Eagle Realty Team
Associate Broker, Market Pro
Certified Short Sale Specialist®
Investment Property Consultant
Direct: 208.919.0458 Office: 208.939.9033 Fax 208.514.1422
www.IronEagleRE.com Michael.Hon@IronEagleRE.com
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