Study: Idaho sees highest home price increases in nation

A new study by Boulder Home Source names Idaho as the state where house prices have increased the most in the past five years. The research analyzed data from Zillow from the past five years–across all 50 states–to determine which state had seen the smallest rise in house prices. 

“The past five years has seen the housing market experience a lot of turbulence, leading to increases in house prices across America,” a spokesperson from Boulder Home Source said. “This study offers a fascinating insight into the states where prices are less likely to experience volatile increases and are more likely to remain relatively stable. This can serve as a useful guide to anyone looking to buy property in the next coming months or year.”

According to the data, North Dakota had the smallest increase in house prices with a 22.7% increase, followed by Louisiana at 23.6% and Alaska at 26.7%. On the other hand, Idaho saw the highest increase in house prices, rising to 91.9%.

Debbi Myers, president of Boise Regional REALTORS, said part of the increase has to do with the fact that prior to 2018, Idaho was significantly undervalued compared with feeder states that were coming into the area.

“It made us really attractive for investments, or for people who wanted to relocate or to retire, because we were significantly undervalued compared to the other states,” Myers said. “Then we began to tick up year over year because of the increased demand and there wasn’t any real increase in inventory.”

Myers mentioned that while it looks like our state is significantly increasing in housing costs compared to other states, it’s more so that Idaho was just behind. 

“In this last year, we’ve seen it taper off and level out. We’ve actually seen in some areas, prices have come down some and now we’re much more in line with other states,” she said. “So part of it was just making up for where we were behind. We are just leveling up.”

While housing demand remains strong, Idaho will continue to have a shortage of inventory, Myers added.

“That’s not going to get better for some time,” she said. “Builders that stayed in the game after the crash in 2010, 2011, have been much more conservative with bringing on inventory at a slower pace, so that the absorption rate is more assured for them, and their risk is less.”

The City of Boise released a draft of the Zoning Code Rewrite, also known as the Development Code. The zoning rewrite calls for more density, smaller lot sizes and more opportunity for mixed-use development, which—according to the city—would help to address the housing needs of the community by increasing housing choice and housing availability while maintaining more “walkable, dynamic spaces”. 

“We’ve seen a fair amount of that in Boise mixed use buildings, where there’s commercial, retail, even restaurants on the ground floors and then residential above,” Myers added. “And that has proved to be a pretty successful model.”