During the pandemic-fueled housing boom, Boise emerged as one of America’s hottest “Zoomtowns,” communities that experienced a spike in population from an influx of remote workers.
Now, the housing boom around Idaho’s capital city has ground to a halt. Buyers are balking at record prices and mortgage rates that last month hit a 13-year high. Sixty-one percent of listings in the Boise metro area had a price cut in June, the highest rate out of 97 metro areas surveyed, according to brokerage Redfin Corp. Home builders who couldn’t keep up with demand last year are cutting back on construction…
When average mortgage rates surged above 5% in April, “it was like somebody just turned the lights off,” said Shauna Pendleton, a Boise real-estate agent for Redfin. “The buyers just disappeared off the face of the earth.”
The slowdown in Boise mirrors what’s happening in housing markets around the U.S. After two years of unrelenting demand that unleashed the biggest housing boom in 15 years, sales activity is cooling and more homes are sitting on the market. Read more…
