According to a recent Ada County Association of Realtors, the big question coming into September: "Will August continue the momentum of the previous two months?"   The answer is "Yes".

August sales are up 2% from July and up 8% from August 2008. This is the third month in a row for an increase over last year's same month. This 3-month trend reverses the 35 months of year-over-year decreases we have suffered. According to ACAR, we're likely to look back at the Summer of '09 as the beginning of the comeback.

Pending sales also continue to increase.  July 2009 there were 51% more Pendings than July last year - now there are 63% more pendings. Even New Construction Pendings are 23% above 2008.

Short Sales and bank-owned properties are up slightly. Short sales were 15% and bank-owned sales were 20% in August. That makes 35% of the sales in August were "distressed" sales.  Our high was 48% in February, 45% in March and 44% in April.

Median home price continues to hover in the $170K to $175K range. In August, the median price was $171,000. This is down 2% from July and down 17% from July 2008. There was a jump in new home median in August compared to July this year - up 7%. Looking back at July, we observed a big drop in new construction home median, but August seems to correct that.

Inventory is now back to 2006 levels. We now have 7.5 months of available inventory (3289 resale and 755 new homes).

Finally, the final sales price seems to be getting closer to the final asking price. The discount between listing price and final sales price decreased to 2.9%.

Affordability is at its best ever!  Buying a home in Boise, Idaho, and surrounding communities has not been a better buy for a very long time.  For those of you trying to time the market, NOW is the time!  Jump in and buy!

Tim Burroughs, Realtor    208-409-7653