Growing Idaho: Will the local real estate market finally heat up this spring?

Here are the stats for February of this year compared to last year, according to the Intermountain MLS. Homes sales are down in Ada and Canyon County, 15 and 18% respectively. So, it’s still a cool market, if you look locally and compare it to last year. All that’s while home prices are up, 6% and 5%. Why?

It seems that there’s still not enough homes for folks wanting to buy. Even though inventory is up 8% and 13% in Ada and Canyon County, it’s not up enough. Those inventory numbers need to spike. And that could happen. If people keep putting more homes on the market, then things locally could start to echo that warming national market. That’s especially if those mortgage rates continue to fall.

But they’re going to need to fall faster. According to Freddie Mac, the average 30-year fixed rate is 6.74%. That’s coming down. It’s 0.14% lower than a week previous, but up by the same amount from a year ago.

We cannot say for sure what rates will do, and if this trend will continue. But mortgage rates normally follow the lead of the Federal Funds Rate, which is directly controlled by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Its Chair, Jerome Powell, told Congress recently that he expects rates to start coming down sometime this year. He would not say when exactly, because the Fed wants inflation to sit at about 2% and it’s still higher than that right now.  Read More