The Links

On the right side, I have placed some very useful links. Let's go through them. Firstly, we have the statistics page at our iMLS website. There is some useful information here, mostly comparing 2006 to 2005. It also breaks out the different areas and new construction vs. resale. It it a good source of information but it does not serve as a snapshot of what is happening now. For that, you need an agent.

The next link we have is to the Ada County Assessor online property information system. A lot of you have probably already seen this. It's a good place to see various detail about a property and a photo of the front side of the home. You can see current tax information about a parcel and even get an aerial shot of the neighborhood. All in all, it is an agent's good friend. I only wish Canyon County would get on board.

Next up, is a link to this area's MLS search. Go right ahead and knock yourself out. In fact you should probably bookmark this one.

This one is the same as the last, except it is for Mountain Central. Think McCall, Donnelly, Cascade, New Meadows, and some surrounding areas.

Lastly, here is the eAppraisal. This one is from Ditech.com and it is basic next to what zillow.com is doing, except this one 'works' in Idaho. I say that because the accuracy here is not always accurate. It's more of a fun toy, and you should probably think of it that way. Value is a delicate thing and it should probably be figured out by a human rather than a few lines of code.

McCall Idaho or New Meadows or Donnelly or

I think I am going to expand the geography of this blog to also cover Valley County and the surrounding areas. So many people think that McCall is out of range. Granted it is quite the expensive one, but there are some impressive alternatives nearby. For example, the town of New Meadows, is a 12 mile drive to the North and a bit West. I am seeing a good supply of 5 acre building lots for as low as $130K, with protective covenants! Now granted, 2 years back that would have run you about half that. Still, I think there is good value there, especially for building yourself a nice cabin in a great area. Otherwise, brand new construction can be found as low as $260K for 1400-1600 sq. ft. in Donnelly. Sounds like a pretty good second home set up.

Inventory

According to the Intermountain MLS data I harvested, we currently have a 5.41 month supply of single family homes in Boise and 7.2 month supply in Meridian. This is the time it would take to consume the current inventory at the present sales rate. What does this mean? If you are selling, it will be a great benefit to be as realistic on your pricing as possible. Homes that are priced right are still moving, but the majority have to sit for a while until they are willing to give up the foam of last year's equity and meet the market's price threshold. Others are simply pulling out, which could be the reason that some of the inventory numbers are shrinking, but also contributing to that number is a decrease in new construction starts. I hear a lot of people grumbling about the market and how its a bad time to do this or that. Savvy home buyers can make money in a down market, and you've probably heard someone say that you make your money at the time of the purchase. Also, if you are in it for the long term than a temporary dip in value should not be detrimental to your plan. Once the inventory shrinks to about 4 months, we have a more balanced market and what people would consider normal. There are still deals out there, you just have to sift through the rubble and you actually have time to think about your options, unlike when the market was red hot.