Recent national home price drop less severe in Ada County

While United States existing-home prices took an extra-deep plunge in recent months, Ada County existing home prices have stayed comparatively steady.
 
Nationally, the October median existing-home price is down 17.3 percent from its 2008 high in June, from $215,100 to $183,300, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. In Ada County, prices declined in that same period from a median of $209,900 to $195,400, or just 7.6 percent, according to data from the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service.
 
Ada County’s highest median price in 2008 for existing (not newly constructed) homes occurred in January, at $210,000. The slide to $198,400 represents a 7.5 percent decline.

The National Association of Realtors said October’s 11.3 percent national median existing-home price drop from a year earlier represents the biggest year-over-year decline since the group began collecting data in 1968. Ada County’s year-over-year decline in October was smaller than the national drop – existing-home prices fell 8.9 percent – and that’s not as steep as its 12.36 percent decline from year-earlier levels in August.

Canyon County was more aligned with the national drop, with existing-home prices falling 17 percent from year-earlier prices in October, their biggest year-over-year drop in at least a year, according to data from the IMLS. Canyon County’s October prices represent an 18.6 percent fall from the county’s 2008 high in January, though the fall has moderated in recent months. Prices dropped a comparatively tame 9.9 percent between June and October.

The number of existing homes sold in October dropped by 4.6 percent nationally, 9.8 percent in Ada County and 22.4 percent in Canyon County.