As of this morning, we have 2,251 homes available in MLS.
That sounds like a reasonable supply of listing inventory for this time of year until you drill deeper into the numbers.
Why?
Because many of those listings are for homes that don’t exist.
363 of those listings (16.1% of all listings) are “To Be Built”, meaning that they aren’t even under construction yet.
Builders purposely list homes they haven’t begun building, hoping to snag a buyer before starting construction.
That’s because it’s easier for a builder to get a construction loan if they’ve pre-sold a home.
Construction lenders are generally conservative about making construction loans for “spec homes” (homes built on speculation that the home will sell).
But, they’re much more receptive about making construction loans for pre-sold homes.
So, the bottom line is that we don’t really have 2,251 homes for sale now.
When you back out the phantom to-be-built listing inventory, we have just 1,888 homes available at this time.
That sounds like a lot of homes, but it isn’t when you allocate that listing inventory over all of Ada County and factor in a buyer’s criteria for price, square footage, bedrooms/baths, schools, commute distance, and numerous other factors.
Data pertains to Ada County single-family homes on lot or acreage.  Data does not include condo or townhome properties.
 

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