For the third straight quarter, the Boise metropolitan area finds itself ranked No. 1 on a nationwide housing list.
Not that homebuyers will get any pleasure from the accolade.
Home prices rose 12.7% over the 12 months ending in December, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported this week. That was a faster clip than in any other of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.
If there's any good news for affordable-housing advocates to be gleaned from the report, it's that the increase is less than the 13.6% increase in Boise area home prices during the 12 months ending in June, which also led the nation. But it's higher than the 11.1% rise reported for the 12 months ending in September.
Idaho, with a home price rise of 12%, topped the list of 50 states and the District of Columbia. Utah was second at 8.1%.
High demand and low supply fueled much of the increase, just as they have in other areas of the country, said Will Doerner, an agency economist.
"However in Boise, there has also been an inflow of new-home buyers," Doerner wrote in an email. "Tech companies and their employees have started to settle in the area because of the reasonably low home prices and access to outdoor activities."
The price increases have largely outpaced income growth, he said.
The median Ada County home price has risen 169% from January 2011's post-bubble nadir of $134,900 to January 2020's $363,000, a record. In comparison, the median hourly wage in the Boise area rose 12.7%, to $16.96 from $15.05, from May 2011 to May 2018, the latest data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nationally, house prices rose 5.1% during the 12 months ending in December. Only Colorado Springs, at 11%, and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla., at 10.1%, also experienced double-digit increases in 2019.
For sellers, homebuilders and their agents, the federal report is more good news. But waiting to sell could bring even better prices. Kealy Baughman, owner of Trail 27, a Boise real estate company, said she expects the Boise area's market to stay hot.
"I just don't see it slowing down," Baughman said by phone. "People love the lifestyle here, and for people coming here from the West Coast, our prices are still realistic for them."
Last year, home price records were set five times in Ada County, according to the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service.
The median price in Canyon County was $256,000 in January. The record is $264,000, set in November.
Boise is still getting good press as one of the best places to live.
Earlier this month, housing website Curbed ranked Boise as one of the 10 best cities in the United States to "move to right now."
"Boasting a beautiful setting — nestled in the high desert, bisected by the Boise River and green enough to be called the City of Trees — Idaho's largest city doesn't need anything, or anybody, to sell itself," the website said.
