Our Meridian Blog

On thing that is always fun, especially if you’re in the market for a new home, is the Building Contractors Association of SW Idaho’s annual Fall Collection.  This past weekend was the opening weekend, but the show continues for the next two weekends, Saturday and Sunday October 13, 14, 20, and 21.  The homes are open from 11am until 5pm on those days.  Admission is free!

This year, the Fall Collection has 26 homes on tour for you to visit.  A majority of the homes this Fall are in Meridian, and they are relatively close to each other.  The communities represented include Bridgetower, Paramount, the new community of Crossfield, Stradda Bellissima, Saguaro Canyon, and Settlers Bridge.  Some of the builders with homes on the tour are Capitol Building, Tahoe, Amyx, Brighton, Thompson Homes, Eric Evans, Stacy Construction, and Alder Creek just to name a few.

I haven’t been in all of the homes yet, but the ones I have seen are beautiful and well worth the visit.  You can find maps and pictures of all the homes on the BCASWI website.  This weekend, if you need some distraction waiting for the Sunday night football, grab your partner and get out and see a few homes.

Ada County Sales

It appears that people are waiting to see what happens now, in our local real estate market.  September sales set a new low for the year, even below January sales.  Ada County Single Family sales were only 412 units for the month of September.  That is well below last September’s 710 units, and yes, even below January’s 469.  You have to go back to January of 2004 to find a lower monthly figure.
I believe there are a couple of things happening here.  As I said, many are waiting to see what happens.  Our economy is good. 
Interest rates are good as well, and there are plenty of programs available to people with good credit and income.  There are even some  100% programs still available.  But we’re still seeing sellers with too high expectations, and buyers wanting to lowball below where the sellers are willing to go.
 
The active listings number continues to slowly shrink, down to 4604 currently.  Pendings show 532, which is about where we were last month.  Some of the overbuilt supply is going away, but there are some hurting builders out there.  Evidence for that is the huge reductions some have taken to get out from under long held inventory.  Another sign is the increase in “Zero Sale Price” records in the MLS database (some builders don’t want to reveal how low they had to go on some houses).

People who “have to” sell are getting it done, albeit at prices lower than they would ideally have liked.  Those who don’t  are beginning to take their homes off the market.  This might be a great time for savvy buyers, with plenty of inventory still to choose from, good interest rates, and motivated sellers.  Some of the deals I’ve seen on new homes look pretty fine to me.  A few years from now, those buyers might look pretty smart.

Meridian Sales

When it comes to Meridian sales numbers, I think the results are a little bit weaker.  There are only 100 single family homes showing as closed sales in September.  That compares to 220 for September of 2006.  The pending number is pretty good, at 179.  That might indicate that sales picked up a bit at the end of the month.  But there are still 1449 active listings right now in Meridian.  That makes for very large, nearly 15 month inventory to work through (at the present pace), compared to the county as a whole at just over 11 months.

Sales in some communities are better than in others.  I know that sales in Sutherland Farm, for example, have continued to come in fairly regularly.  Other neighborhoods aren’t showing the same action however.  Once again, the market right now is all about price.  Where we had a market two years ago that had prices outpacing the appraisals, right now we’re seeing the opposite.  Appraisals are not keeping up with the market, only now they seem to be coming in too high.  I have heard of appraisals coming in at $399,900 but the home sits there with no showings, priced at $379,000.  This is especially true in new construction, but I have heard of it in resale homes as well.

What Will October Bring?

The big question everyone is wanting an answer to is whether September was an aberation, with leftover weakness from the mortgage bust in the middle of August.  We’ll have to wait until the end of the month to be sure, but many are betting that October’s numbers will show more strength.  Already in the first 8 days of October we’re seeing 145 sales for Ada County, which would bring October’s numbers over September if they continue at that pace.  Meridian shows a similar hint, with 43 sales already.  We’ll wait and see.

If you’d like numbers for a specific neighborhood or area, please feel free to email me.