Economy

Your Guide To Idaho's Housing Boom & Bust

00000176-d8fc-dce8-adff-faff71570000The Boise-metro market was hardest hit in Idaho's housing crisis, with foreclosures concentrated in Ada and Canyon Counties.Idaho’s housing boom was centered around its two main metropolitan areas, Boise and Coeur d’Alene.John Starr of the global real estate company Colliers International had a front-row seat as capital poured into the local housing markets in the years preceding the bust.When he thinks of the early 2000s, he remembers watching land prices rise with demand, and house lots shrink. What the area wound up with, he says, were more and more subdivisions, packed tight with houses.Census data show that the state’s population grew by more than 28 percent from 1990 to 2000, and by more than 20 percent from 2000 to 2010. Starr said that's due in large part to growth at Micron Technology. That growth, in turn, fueled Idaho's housing boom.“The reason we were doubling the national average growth rate was we were moving in a whole bunch of people that we couldn’t produce here in Idaho, namely electrical engineers and so forth to work at Micron. The data points that people were looking at that were helping them make decisions about coming to Boise and deploying capital and building and helping us grow – those data points were skewed.” - John Starr, Colliers InternationalAccording to Metrostudy, a housing and data information company, Boise’s housing market began to bottom out in 2009.

Housing And Rental Prices Still On The Rise In The Mountain West

Boise State Public Radio News | By Amanda Peacher

Published July 1, 2019 at 8:19 AM MDT

Housing prices are still on the rise in the Mountain West, and so is the cost of renting.

Housing prices are still on the rise in the Mountain West, and so is the cost renting. That's according to the latest housing report from Zillow.

If you're trying to buy a house in the Mountain West, chances are you'll pay at least 5% more than you would have last year. And in some cities it could be even higher. In Idaho alone, house are 16% more expensive than last year.

Sarah Mikhitarian is a senior economist with Zillow. She says housing costs have risen across the board in our region.

"The Mountain West has continued to see pretty marked appreciation generally in home prices, as well as in rents," Mikhitarian says.

She adds that the homebuyer's market is starting to slow a bit, but for some families, buying isn't an option right now.

"People who perhaps would have chosen to purchase a home are now reconsidering that option and renting and so that's putting upward pressure on rents," she says.

All these changes are tied to rapid population growth in our region, as well as low housing inventory.

Mikhitarian expects the housing market will eventually even out — which means there will still be appreciation, but at a slower pace.

In Boise, rents increased by 8.8% since last year, according to Zillow.

Find reporter Amanda Peacher on Twitter @amandapeacher.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Housing And Rental Prices Still On The Rise In The Mountain West

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