Home sales and prices increased during March in and near Boise, Idaho, a growing Mountain West metropolitan area that became a refuge for remote workers during the pandemic.
Sales of new and existing single-family homes in Ada County, Idaho, hit 675 in March, up 11.8% from February and 4.2% from March 2024, according to the Boise Regional Realtors. The median sale price of $565,000 marked an increase of 6.6% from February and 0.9% from March 2024. The median price means half sold for more and half for less.
Meanwhile, homes are selling at a fast clip, even as the number of listings rises. The average days on market for all homes was 46, down 11.5% from February and 4.2% from a year ago.
Ada posted 1,547 listings, up 8.9% from February and 22.4% from a year earlier. More than half of the listings are new homes, according to Boise Regional Realtors.
New construction is driving the housing market in Ada, said Elizabeth Hume, president of the Boise Realtor board.
"I've lived here most of my life," she said in an interview. "You drive by a field or a farm and by the next week it's a new subdivision. Maybe not that quickly, but it feels that way sometimes."
Prices soared during COVID
In March 2019, a year before the pandemic was declared, Ada's median home price was $355,000, according to the Realtor board. During the pandemic, prices increased sharply as new residents moved there in search of more space and affordable housing.
From 2004 to 2024, Ada's median sales price increased annually by an average of 6.7%, Hume said, citing the Realtor board data. But from fall 2021 to fall 2022, the median price soared by 29.9%, its data showed. At the time, the Boise metropolitan area was the most overvalued housing market in the country, according to researchers at Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University.
"People are still moving here, but maybe not in droves," Hume said.
Ada's population reached nearly 536,000 last year, up about 8% from 2020, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census. That's more than triple the national growth rate of 2.6% over the same period.
At the end of March, the median sale price in the city of Boise over the past 12 months was $500,000, representing a 3% annual increase, according to Homes.com data. More than six of 10 Boise residents are homeowners, the data shows.
Payroll growth is key
One of the Boise-area employment trends to monitor over the rest of 2025 will be payroll growth in the mining, logging and construction sector, said John Gillem, director of market analytics for CoStar and Homes.com.
Contractors and other stakeholders in the building industry are hiring across the spectrum, with more than 38,000 people employed and payrolls increasing 11.5% over the past year, he noted.
"Massive industrial projects — such as Micron’s fabrication plant and research facility expansion in Southeast Boise — have driven the need for a deep pool of skilled labor, and competition for this talent could spur further wage growth in the coming months," Gillem said in an email.
The area's retail growth is also robust, particularly in the western suburbs, he added.
"As population growth continues to surge, other categories that jump out include education and health services," Gillem said.