Housing price gains continue

No doubt you’ve seen the latest housing stats from the Associated Press and other sources. You may also have noticed that recent reports are from August and September. Locally our Coeur d’Alene Multiple Listing Service staff has already boiled down our October activity into digestible portions. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, inventory is still down, putting a damper on activity due to the difficulty of finding suitable housing for a number of folks.

Those of you who read this column regularly will remember that the figures reported here are of activity in single-family, site-built homes on lots less than 2 acres in size. In Coeur d’Alene — which includes Dalton Gardens — we had 15 percent fewer homes to offer than at this time last year. Still we were able to squeeze out 6 percent more units than were sold by last October. Our average Coeur d’Alene home this October sold for 8 percent more than it did last year.

Turning west to Post Falls we find that there too inventory is down. Their number of homes for sale is 17 percent below last year, leading to a 2 percent loss of sales compared to last October. The average Post Falls home’s value is 10 percent higher.

In Rathdrum we recorded a 27 percent decrease in sales driven by a dearth of inventory that is 31 percent lower than last October. The average price of a Rathdrum/Twin Lakes home is just 4 percent above last year. Sales of new construction were up just less than 3 percent for the year.

Hayden and Hayden Lake were flat with exactly the same number of sales as last year. They somehow accomplished that with 15 percent fewer homes on the market, driving the average price of a home there up by 15 percent when compared to last year.

North in Bonner and Boundary counties inventory is down 11 percent from last year leading to a 2 percent decline in sales. The average price up north increased just 1 percent over last year. Our friends in the Silver Valley have rebounded. Even with 18 percent fewer listings they were able to out-perform last year by posting an 18 percent increase in the number of homes sold at an average price that is 15 percent ahead of last year.

All told then, our total inventory is down 15 percent, which provides us with less than a five-month supply of homes. Regular readers know that this translates to a seller’s market at least in those price ranges where demand is high. To find out how your property compares and what demand might be, contact a member of the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors. They have the tools to properly evaluate the nuances of your neighborhood.

Trust an expert ... call a Realtor. Call your Realtor or visit www.cdarealtors.com to search properties on the Multiple Listing Service or to find a Realtor member who will represent your best interests.

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Kim Cooper is a real estate broker, Realtor of the Year and the spokesman for the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors. Kim and the Association invite your feedback and input for this column. You may contact them by writing to the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors, 409 W. Neider, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83815 or by calling 208-667-0664