Moving to Boise in less than a month! (insurance, credit card)

[IdahoBroker]

Originally Posted by VandalsLOL

Extremely crazy. Ramping up echoes of 2006 all over again.

Market activity and the feeding frenzy is somewhat similar to 2006; however, the underwriting criteria for the buyer's is much healthier today. Back in 2006 I was selling homes to investors using no money down (80 percent first mortgage and 20 percent seconds) and had the seller's paying all the buyer's closing costs so truly no money out of pocket except earnest money (which you could get refunded if structured correctly) and lenders expanded the guidelines to increase from 4 mortgages to 10 and some didn't even have an upper limit. Builders were building million dollar homes in the valley with no money out of pocket back then. Was it any surprise we overbuilt?

[VandalsLOL]

Very true.

[Lacerta]

Originally Posted by IdahoBroker

While I appreciate Lacerta's comments about how crazy the market is and the multiple offer situations, it depends a lot on the type of property you are looking for and the price range. Investors are scooping up homes below $200k that are 3 bedroom 2 bath homes and competing with the buyer's.

As of today, there were only 463 homes listed in Boise (excluding townhouses, condos, mobile/manufactured, etc.) that are not still under construction that do not already have contingent or pending offers on them. Of those, 205 are vacant. Since foreclosure homes owned by the banks, typically won't accept contingent offers, I took them out leaving 191 still to consider. If a home was just listed, they might not consider a pre-occupancy, so I took out all the homes listed in the past month and that still leaves 102 vacant homes to choose from in Boise!

Of these 102 vacant homes in Boise that have been on the market for at least a month, here is a breakdown by price:
- 0 are under $100,000;
- 1 is between $100,000 - $150k;
- 10 are between $150k - 200k;
- 47 are between $200k - $300k;
- 22 are between $300k - $400k;
- 9 are between $400k and $500k;
- 9 are between $500k and $750k;
- 4 are between $750k and $1 million;
- 0 are over $1 million

I have two listings that will be between $150k - $200k and to echo Lacerta's comments on the strength of the market, I am waiting for the those sellers to get an accepted offer on their next purchase before I even list their properties since they can both qualify to buy without selling their existing properties.

There are lots of different strategies in how to buy and sell real estate. The one that is right is the one that gets the buyer and seller to agree and work through the process until it is closed.

I don't disagree with anything you said here.


My point was that most likely a large portion of those 102 owners have overpriced their listings, which means they aren't as motivated, at least the 58 of them who are under $300k. There are hundreds of buyers out there in that price range, competing for an extremely limited number of listings. So those houses have SOMETHING deterring people from buying them, or they wouldn't have lasted 30 days on the market. If the price was right for the condition/location/whatever else is deterring people, then the house would have sold.


I'm sure you will agree that over $300k or so there is a MUCH smaller market in the area, and houses generally take longer to sell, so the same rules don't apply. Over $300k that has sat on the market for a month or two doesn't necessarily mean they are overpriced. If the OP is looking to buy in the $300k+ range, that is a different ballgame entirely.

[Lacerta]

Originally Posted by IdahoBroker

Market activity and the feeding frenzy is somewhat similar to 2006; however, the underwriting criteria for the buyer's is much healthier today. Back in 2006 I was selling homes to investors using no money down (80 percent first mortgage and 20 percent seconds) and had the seller's paying all the buyer's closing costs so truly no money out of pocket except earnest money (which you could get refunded if structured correctly) and lenders expanded the guidelines to increase from 4 mortgages to 10 and some didn't even have an upper limit. Builders were building million dollar homes in the valley with no money out of pocket back then. Was it any surprise we overbuilt?

In the 2006 runup, there were also classes being taught in California for investors about how to buy in Boise, drive up the price with huge demand, and then sell when the price was high. The investors I'm seeing today are buying here because housing is just more affordable than in California and rents are healthy enough for them to cash flow. In other words, they are buying rentals to keep as rentals for a while instead of intentionally creating a bubble.


Prices are going up, but I feel like this time it is a more stable increase instead of a bubble waiting to burst, at least any time soon.

[Syringaloid]

This article requires a membership to view in its entirety. This is good news.


Boise and Idaho have far lower foreclosure rates than the nation | Idaho Business Review

[VandalsLOL]

Off topic (and can be ignored) but I always wondered why we are not allowed to buy certain things across state lines (insurance being the prime example), but out of state investors can buy homes across state lines (I'm not talking about people buying their primary residences). My thought is such activity creates huge distortions in the market; case in point - investors from California buying homes in Boise that are under $250k. For them, that's a steal. For people living here, those are fairly expensive homes, and by driving up the prices (where wages don't keep track), you get a distortion. We saw this in the early 2000's (though as IB pointed out, there were also other things at play).

At some point if/when the median home price in Boise hits $300k or more, that's out of balance with what can be afforded with the median wage.

[IdaD]

I think the average new home sold in Ada County is already over $300,000. When you mix in existing home sales it drops, although I don't know the overall average offhand. I also don't know how we compare to other communities when you take both income and housing costs into account. I would suspect we're a lot less out of balance than some areas, though (I'm looking at you San Francisco).

[BoiseBound2012]

Originally Posted by VandalsLOL

Off topic (and can be ignored) but I always wondered why we are not allowed to buy certain things across state lines (insurance being the prime example), but out of state investors can buy homes across state lines (I'm not talking about people buying their primary residences). My thought is such activity creates huge distortions in the market; case in point - investors from California buying homes in Boise that are under $250k. For them, that's a steal. For people living here, those are fairly expensive homes, and by driving up the prices (where wages don't keep track), you get a distortion.

Different animals. Alcohol, health ins. policies, and more, are highly regulated by the State in which they are sold, usually for good reason.

[VandalsLOL]

What reason could that possibly be? Especially insurance?

[Denver87]

i recommend ABF as well. When I moved from Denver to Nashville, I was quoted around $1800 for X amount of space in the trailer. I think i was quoted 15 feet but I packed and crammed into 13 feet. Save some money there. So from Denver to Nashville, free storage, someone else diving the stuff, and just taking it nice and easy in my pickup was worth it. When I arrived in Nashville, my trailer was parked in the parking lot next to my townhouse. Unloaded it in two days and ABF picked it up once i was finished. Only issue i had was the wooden dividers in the trailer became jammed due to my ability to cram. I had to call ABF and a guy came out to assist (no charge) me and that was it.

BTW, I'll use them again when I move from Nashville to Boise this year. Can't wait to get back out west. The weather. The crisp fall nights. Hunting. Snowboarding.