The news media slant…beware

Despite the Idaho Statements best efforts to thwart the local real estate market many feel there has never been a better time to buy a home.  Mortgage rates have fallen for 8 consecutive weeks (a 50 year low), the local housing affordability has never been better and although home prices are expected to continue to decline the long term benefits of homeownership remain intact. Prices declined as much as 7.5% in April but according to CoreLogic if you exclude the distressed sales the market only declined 0.5%.

The Idaho real estate market is still hindered with distressed properties and declining values. When looking at national numbers we haven’t appeared to have fare well but when you start to look at individual areas you start to see its not all that bad. Personally I think Canyon County, where many values are down 50% over just 3 years ago tends to drag the numbers down for the entire valley. While in the north end for instance I feel prices are starting to slowly inch back up.  I was checking the pending in this area of Boise today and couldn’t help but notice that 80% of the listings where under contract in less that 2 weeks and in most cases in just a couple of days.

I have personally heard of 3 buyers that chose to listen to the Idaho Statesman instead of their real estate professional and walk away from their purchases…what a shame. In a market where 30% of all our sales are cash – the smart money is saying buy and buy now. Most agents I know are slammed with business, home inspectors are claiming the damn has been broken, title companies and lenders are cautiously optimistic as well. As with everything only time will tell but in the meantime take what you hear and read with a grain of optimism especially when it comes to the news. Yes unemployment is  9% and need to decline 4% – 5% to be considered normal…but that also means 91% of those that want to work are working.