Boise Real Estate Market Update: Rapid Reductioin in Housing Inventory

If you've been looking to buy a home in the Boise area lately, you've probably experienced some frustration in not finding what you want amongst the record low number of homes available. Our inventory of homes for sale in 2008 was so high that it dropped prices dramatically, and consumers started rapid purchasing--especially of the foreclosure supply. Since that year, our inventory has continued a steady drop by 1/3 each year (refer to chart and video above). This progressive decline of houses for sale to below the "healthy" 6 month supply was a key component in Boise being named by several national studies as one of the top metro markets to see significant real estate turnaround in 2012. Low supply coupled with increased demand serves to drive up home prices and get new construction moving again, too. Ada County residents are not the only ones to benefit from the rapid decline in home inventory. Canyon Count has also seen nearly 1/2 of its supply of available homes bought up--a 43% decline since last year alone. Because so many of Boise's foreclosures came on the market and were purchased so rapidly, it puts our market nearly 2 years ahead of most of the nation in real estate recovery. And because we have seen these trends continue for the last few years, we can trust this momentum is not a "blip on the screen" but a true market pattern certain to bring with it measurable results in home price recovery in 2012 and beyond.