Kootenai County housing numbers getting better

COEUR d'ALENE - The numbers say it's better.

Some homeowners aren't so sure.

Even though home sales are up 5 percent in Kootenai County from last year - and 10 percent in Coeur d'Alene - some people actually trying to get out of their homes aren't having much success.

"We're still here," said Kris Montoya, who has had a for sale sign in her front yard near 10th Street and Mullan Avenue since May. "I don't know, do you know anybody who would want to buy a home?"

Montoya and her husband are looking to move to the Washington coast. They listed the home they've owned since 1986 for $225,000. They've since dropped it to $199,000. Now, if offers don't improve, they might take it off and just stay put.

"We'll be OK," she said.

But home sales have improved, according to the latest Coeur d'Alene Multiple Listing Service report through September.

In Coeur d'Alene and Dalton Gardens, 552 houses have sold so far, compared to 500 through the same time last year. Hayden sales jumped 19 percent, and North Kootenai County 17 percent.

But Post Falls is down 5 percent and Rathdrum 7 percent.

"The health of the market is OK, it's stabilized and that's pretty much all you can ask for," said Pete Faust, Century 21 certified residential specialist. "It doesn't mean it's great."

There are 4,154 homes on the market, down nearly 8 percent from last year, meaning current homes are selling. New construction homes are down from 27 percent to 16 percent.

About 25 percent of the company's properties are foreclosures, Faust said, a record. The good news is that the foreclosures won't be tied up due to the recent procedural questions. That could have flooded the market eight months from now had they been tied up.

But, Faust said, if you took the prices of houses from 1999-2002, and took out the boom years of 2003 - 2005 and the fall of 2006 - 2008, the prices in 2009 and 2010 are a 5 or 6 percent appreciation since then.

"That's standard," he said. "It's fairly promising. By the end of 2011 or by 2012 things are going to pick up."

Tim Burnside, who owns a home in Coeur d'Alene Place, is optimistic.

He put his family home on the market around three weeks ago. He bought it in 2001, and should it sell for the asking price, he would walk away with a profit. His neighborhood, bare of any for sale signs except for his, has had success in the past.

"I'm pretty optimistic," he said. "If I was really pessimistic about it, I don't think I would have put the sign in the yard."

The average time a residential property stays on the market in 2010 is 127 days. Last year it was 124 days.

Dave Kilburg doesn't have any plans to put the Pennsylvania Avenue home he bought in 1991 on the market. One of his neighbors just had her home foreclosed, another is up for sale, and one house across the street has a sale pending.

A flip side to low interest rates from the banks, is that it's tougher to qualify, he said.

"It was more stable," he said of when he moved to neighborhood. "To me, I think it's still pretty weak."