Ada County home prices just spiked by a record-setting amount in 1 month. This is why
The Treasure Valley is hitting its spring homebuying season with a force.
Ada County saw a massive increase in the overall median home price between February and March, skyrocketing by $33,000 to hit $555,000, according to the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service.
Canyon County saw a more modest increase of about $3,500 to about $413,000, according to IMLS data.
The median price of existing home sales in Ada County jumped nearly $57,000 to $546,800 — breaking the record for the largest month-over-month increase in county history, according to a news release from Boise Regional Realtors, the trade association for real estate agents that owns the listing service.
Pending sales also spiked to the highest number since August 2022, when there were 1,153 pending sales, according to the release and IMLS data.
And prices could go even higher. Blame — or credit, if you’re a seller — the persistent shortage of houses for resale, which typically sell for less than newly built homes.
“Resale availability continues to struggle the most in keeping up with consumer demands, leaving room for increasing home prices,” Elizabeth Hume, Boise Regional Realtors president, said in the release.
The number of homes sold in Ada and Canyon counties has also ticked upward as the spring buying season gets underway.
Ada County saw a spike from 459 single-family home sales in January to 639 in March, while Canyon County saw an increase from 293 to 373, according to IMLS data.
Idaho real estate prices still high
Housing prices in the Treasure Valley had stabilized after several years of increases before COVID-19 and a surge during the pandemic as remote workers undeterred by the higher prices relocated to Boise.
From 2019 to 2022, the median home price in Ada County increased by over $220,000 to $566,000, the county’s highest yearly median in history, while Canyon County’s increased by about $192,000 to $440,000.
Prices have decreased since, to $530,000 in Ada County in the first quarter of 2024 and $406,000 in Canyon County.
As a state, Idaho takes the first-place trophy in home-price increases over the last decade, according to a study from Architecture Lab that examined data from Zillow.
The average home value in Idaho in 2013 was $159,567, while in 2024 it was $432,476 — a 171% increase, according to the study.
New construction has not filled the gap caused by existing homeowners’ reluctance to offer their houses for sale even at such high prices, in part because any other local house they might want to move into may be beyond their means.
Ada County saw 11,370 homes sold in 2020, compared with 7,450 in 2023, a 34% decline. The decrease was less dramatic in Canyon County, where 6,199 homes were sold in 2020 versus 4,404 in 2023, a 29% decline.
“There’s so little for sale,” said Jeff Jones of Boise’s 208 Premier Real Estate. “There’s a lot of people that want to buy, but they don’t see any good deals.”
Mike Pennington, an agent with John L. Scott Real Estate in Boise, said that home prices likely have yet to top out.
“The price for new homes will continue to creep up as land cost and material cost continue to climb,” Pennington said in an email. “The Treasure Valley continues to see a very strong influx of buyers. So demand is also bolstering home values.”
Can I afford to buy a home?
If you’re hoping to buy a home soon, you may need a household income well above the median or a significant amount of money saved up.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the median Ada County household income in 2022, the most recent available, was $87,774. That number was $70,818 in Canyon County.
A household earning $80,000 per year could buy a home for about $310,000 with a 30-year mortgage at 6.5% interest and a 20% down payment, according to Bankrate.
But the supply of homes at that price is negligible. Home sales between $250,000 and $299,999 made up 0.37% of the market in Ada County in the first quarter of 2024, according to IMLS data.
The 52-week average interest for a 30-year mortgage was 6.92% as of April 11, while 15-year mortgages sat at 6.25%, according to Freddie Mac.
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