Builder Online, the reputable online edition of Builder Magazine, has named Boise, Idaho as one of the healthiest housing markets for 2011. This is great news for the Treasure Valley. As the only Western City in the top 20, we hope the forecast is accurate.
From the article…
Market Health Indicator: 63.0
2011 Building Permit Forecast: 3,358
Percent Change in Building Permits: 109%
The job picture has improved in Boise, the only Western market on our top 20 list. Employment is projected to rise by almost 2% and cut into an unemployment rate that stood at about 9.5% at year’s end.
The housing market in Boise, especially the one for new construction, has nowhere to go but up. A market that produced 11,500 building permits in 2005 managed only 1,600 last year. Moody’s Economy.com is predicting big things for this year, 3,358 total permits, a level of activity last seen in 2006.
Builders in Boise will be swimming against the real estate tide, though. According to Trulia.com, median existing home prices fell 10.7% in the last year to $142,898 in January 2011. (They peaked at about $225,000 in 2007.) Also, existing home sales fell 37% in the last year.
Boise has been bitten by the foreclosure bug. It finished No. 20 on RealtyTrac’s list of the MSAs hit hardest by foreclosure last year–one out of every 21 households received a notice last year. As a result, in January there were nearly as many foreclosures (1,714) as there were homes for sale (2,051), according to Trulia.
