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If you are including ALL single family houses/townhouses/condos in ALL of Boise/Meridian, in ALL price ranges, yes, there are almost 2000. Most people do not have such wide parameters. For example, if you were looking for houses under $200k (a fairly common request here), that limits it right off the bat to 848 listings. If I eliminate condos/townhouses and only look at single family houses, that reduces it to 738. Most people have more things they are looking for than just "a house anywhere in the valley under $200k". When you start putting in parameters, the number drops quickly. For example, if I was going up to $200k, I'd probably want (at a minimum) 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage, at least 1800 square feet. Putting those in, the number drops all the way to 110. (Because you asked, 26 of those 110 are less than 1 year old, or not finished yet, 10 in Boise, and 16 in Meridian) (Oh, and because you also mentioned it, only 9 of those 110 are pending foreclosure or bank owned, and the average Days on Market of the 110 is 68 days, not terrible)
Alternately, if you wanted a starter home, say under $130k, with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage, at least 1000 square feet, there are only 40. If you want a 2 car garage with it, that drops to 23. And that is in all of Boise/Meridian. Most people have at least a general area of town they are looking for, like "West Boise and NE Meridian" (which would drop that number to 7).
So to say that we have tons of listings is a little misleading. Sure there are a lot, but for what an individual person might be looking for, there are very few. We have an investor group who would like to buy up to 10 rentals, and we can't find them what they want without getting into bidding wars, because all the listings on the market in their range are either overpriced, or in bad condition.
But yes, inventory is up overall from where it was. For quite a while, we had less than 1 month's worth of inventory. Meaning the number of houses on the market was LESS than was sold in the prior 30 day period. A normal, healthy market, has a 6 month supply. The current market, overall in all price ranges is just over a 3 month inventory. So the inventory is still lower than a healthy level market, but higher than it was 6 months ago.
Sure, you can change the perimeters to anything you want. I can get the list down to 5 homes if I want.
That's not the point. There is a TON of homes on the market.
738 single family homes under 200K is a TON especially in an area that many once claimed inventory was running dry in and for an area where everyone seems to be running to. So on the outward appearance it would seem everyone is running away now.
Looking at an RE for sale map and seeing all the homes for sale reminds me of the 2008 crash here in CA at it's worse point.
I wasn't artificially bringing down the count just for that purpose, though. I was giving an example of still fairly broad parameters that are a realistic scenario of what someone might actually be looking for.
The important number to look at for what you are getting at is how many months worth of inventory there is. 5 houses or 5000 houses doesn't mean anything in and of itself, unless you compare it to how many houses are selling each month. As I said, there is about a 3 month supply right now, which is still a sellers market. If we pass 6 months inventory, that will be a lot of inventory.
Right now we have MORE inventory than we have had for the last 18 months, but those 18 months were VERY low. We are getting closer now to a normal, healthy market. I think you are reading too much into it to say that people are running away. Our market was recovering fairly quickly, homes were selling quickly and prices were rising fairly quickly as well... so people who had held off listing their properties for the last few years because prices have been so low, are now starting to list them more as prices recovered. Combine that with rising interest rates over the last couple months, which slows sales, and inventory goes up. I don't see anything more to it than that.
RMP500, why ask for someone's opinion and then when they offer it you shoot them down? If you post and ask for opinions then let people share them without your judgement. You can take the information and use it or just forget about it. But there is no need to shoot them down.
RMP500, why ask for someone's opinion and then when they offer it you shoot them down? If you post and ask for opinions then let people share them without your judgement. You can take the information and use it or just forget about it. But there is no need to shoot them down.
I didn't shoot anyone down. I simply made statements based on their statements.
That's what you do on a discussion forum.
You seem overly defensive which is odd as you weren't even in the discussion.
If you are the personality type that doesn't do well with people stating how they see things then maybe a discussion forum isn't for you.
To expand on Lacertas' point, my wife and have seen that very example set forth.
We recently visited the Boise area for the purpose of a potential relocation in 2014, during our visit we explored the area and did a large numbur of drive by viewings of properties at $150K to $200K in various locations. The selection in that price range offering the "amenities" we desire were hard to come by, also there were a fair number we felt were overpriced-an obvious attempt to capitalize on the current market conditions. With a little luck that will change for the better over the next 6 months.
A snapshot view on the I-net is simply that. Realtors have a great tendency to paint the rosiest picture imaginable when describing a property (who can blame them?), and I-net photos are poor (as well as the skills of some realtors who take the photos) for judging the true appearance of the property.
RMP500....what is your bottom line question? Having hundreds of homes available in an area with around 700,000 people is completely healthy. We did have a shortage during the summer months but many people started listing their homes during this time frame and tons of bank owned properties got released also. The fall / winter months are always slower for real estate and will produce more available homes. Come April / May, these homes will long be gone.
RMP500....what is your bottom line question? Having hundreds of homes available in an area with around 700,000 people is completely healthy. We did have a shortage during the summer months but many people started listing their homes during this time frame and tons of bank owned properties got released also. The fall / winter months are always slower for real estate and will produce more available homes. Come April / May, these homes will long be gone.
My questions are in my first post.
Your post answers them, from your perspective on it. Thanks.
The others that are searching for certain criteria are not understanding that I am talking about the RE market as a whole, not just what *they* happen to be looking for.
If they leave out 900 sq ft homes with 2 bedrooms or less they are leaving out a large chunk of Boise.
The others that are searching for certain criteria are not understanding that I am talking about the RE market as a whole, not just what *they* happen to be looking for.
If they leave out 900 sq ft homes with 2 bedrooms or less they are leaving out a large chunk of Boise.
You're missing the point of my posts. I said basically the exact same thing as homeinspectorboise, but apparently he worded it in such a way as you could understand. 2000 total homes on the market is only a lot compared to the artificially low numbers we've had lately. For a metro area of our size, 2000 homes on the market is still a shortage. For the number of closings there were last month, 4000 homes on the market would be what the industry considers a stable market.
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