Boise Idaho Real Estate Team
The Lowest Mortgage Interest Rates in HISTORY along with a significant decrease in home values have created the Best Buying opportunity ever in the Boise and Eagle Idaho real estate market.
A bump in most Treasure Valley and Boise communities in residential building permits during the second three months of the year has raised hopes that the stalled Boise housing market may finally be struggling to its feet.
Observers believe a combination of first-time homebuyers attracted by the lowest interest rates since 1953 and builders buying lots languishing in failed housing projects have begun to breathe life back into the Boise real estate market.
In the second quarter, Meridian, Eagle, Nampa and Caldwell all issued more residential building permits than during the first three months of the year. Boise and Star posted slight decreases. Only Kuna, which saw a 66 percent drop in second- quarter permits, failed to approach its first- quarter performance.
Building permits are considered a harbinger of future construction activity.
City officials and local experts went into the second quarter of 2010 worried that the unusually high first-quarter housing demand - triggered by an $8,000 federal tax credit - would disappear once the incentives expired April 30.
"We're hoping we've finally hit the bottom and are going to have a much better year," said Dennis Davis, building safety director in Nampa, which issued 48 residential housing permits in the second quarter, a 109 percent increase over the first three months of the year.
In Eagle, the 25 second-quarter permits brought the town up to 56 for the first six months of the year - already 180 percent more than the 20 permits Eagle building officials were forecasting for the entire year.
"I'm hoping that it stays at the level where it's at," said Eagle Building Official Michael Echeita. "But with this economy, who knows what's going to happen?"
Helping spur optimism are announcements like Brighton Corp.'s new SpurWing Greens project in northwest Meridian, where the Boise-based developer plans to offer 2,200- to 4,000-square-
Like Brighton, developers are on the look-out for developed building lots that were selling for six figures a few years ago. The savings on the lots allows the developer to build lower-priced homes that can compete with the short sales and foreclosed properties that continue to hover over the market.
"It's going to produce a whale of a deal for buyers," said Trey Langford, founder of Buildidaho.com, a local website that tracks permitting activity in the Valley.
Kuna Chief Planner Steven Hasson is counting on developers stepping in to revive failed projects in the area to get his city's permitting activity on track again.
"I can't account for the second-quarter numbers," Hasson said. "But I think it's just a lull. Developers are looking for bargains. And I've talked to some who plan to take over projects that other developers started and couldn't get the financing to finish. So, we've amended our subdivision statute to accommodate the transition. Our goal is to help these developers pick up where somebody else left off."
For now, local housing sales are more than holding their own, according to the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service, which tracks sales throughout the Treasure Valley.
IMLS statistics released Monday showed 1,923 home sales in Ada County during the second quarter, compared with 1,201 for the first three months of 2010. Canyon County logged 942, up from 600 during the first quarter.
Written by Joe Estrella of the Idaho Statesman: 208-377-6465
Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/
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