The US Housing Market had strong results for the first quarter of 2020.  The number of home sales in the first quarter of 2020 were up 7.1% over the first quarter of 2019.  Inventories of homes for sale are very tight, and interest rates are at historical lows.  Lower interest rates translate to more buying power for buyers.  At the end of March 2020, national inventories of homes for sale is at 3.4 months; a balanced market is considered six months of inventory.

In the three North Idaho Panhandle Counties, the median home prices jumped 12.5% from the first quarter of 2019.  Inventories stand at 3.5 months.

Covid-19 started impacting the real estate market in late March 2020.  National data for April will not be available until the third week of May, and it will be difficult to draw conclusions with short time frames.  Another quarter of data will give us more information on the impact of Covid-19.

We are personally seeing increased interest in North Idaho Real Estate from buyers in California, Washington, Oregon, and Colorado.  We can provide buyers virtual tours of properties, and we have PPE for our clients to see homes with proper social distancing.  The past two weeks have seen a definite uptick in activity in our market, and we forecast a very robust level of transactions in the summer and early fall.

Dr. Tom Davies – Broker