The ‘feeding frenzy’ is over: Boise home prices drop, options expand as market cools

Angela Palermo

The median sales price of an Ada County home has dipped below $500,000 for the first time in a year and a half.

For the past few years, home prices in the Treasure Valley soared higher and higher, pushing locals and first-time buyers out of the market. Boise made national headlines as a so-called “boom town,” alongside metros like Austin and Phoenix, for its real estate market that overheated following the start of the pandemic.

But things have been cooling down for the last several months, and home prices now appear to be returning to normal, or at least leveling out.

A home on Allumbaugh Street in Boise listed in July 2022 as “sale pending.”
A home on Allumbaugh Street in Boise listed in July 2022 as “sale pending.”

The Idaho Statesman spoke with the new president of Boise Regional Realtors, Debbi Myers, who said the latest Intermountain Multiple Listing Service report for Ada County, flush with data from January, is good news for everyone.

“It’s not what we’d call a buyer’s market, but it’s more of a balanced market than we’ve seen in a really long time,” Myers said. “That feeding frenzy we had before is gone.”

The report said the median price of a single-family home in Ada County dropped to $487,495 in January, down nearly 10%, or $52,500 from January 2022. The report for Canyon County showed the median price fell there as well, to $395,445, down 6.4% year-over-year.

Myers said prospective homebuyers now have more negotiating power, more options and more time to come to a decision without the pressure of a dozen other competing offers. And to her delight, more buyers are completing inspections.

For the past two years, many buyers waived inspections and other contingencies in the hopes of quickly sealing a deal. Myers said both sellers and buyers benefit from getting an inspection done before making a sale.

She also told the Statesman by phone that the “paralysis” of the market over the last several months is easing.

“I think what happened is that the people who were nervous that things were all going to fall apart, you know — the sky was falling, have realized that’s not happening,” Myers said. “The other thing is, people buy houses for a lot of reasons aside from what the mortgage rate is.”

Other details from the latest monthly listing-service reports for Ada and Canyon counties:

  • The median price of newly constructed Ada County homes was $494,990, a 16% decrease year-over-year. In Canyon County, the median was $415,450, a 10.7% decrease.

  • The median price of existing Ada County homes was $479,800, a 6.8% decrease. In Canyon County, the median was $339,000, a 13.1% decrease.

  • Highest median prices in Ada County: Eagle, $975,000; Northeast Boise, $916,000; North Boise, $740,000. Highest median prices in Canyon County: Greenleaf, $980,000; Middleton, $607,113; South Nampa, $419,900.

  • Lowest median prices in Ada County: West Boise, $384,950; Garden City, $392,500; Kuna, $404,995. Lowest median prices in Canyon County: West of Lake Lowell, $227,500; Wilder, $285,000; Parma, $311,000.

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