Idaho’s Canyon County’s median below $100,000

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For the first time since 2004, when home prices began their rapid ascent, the median price of an existing home in Canyon County is below $100,000.

Two hundred fifty-three existing (not new construction) homes sold in November, half for more than $98,900 and half for less than $98,900, according to recent numbers from the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service.

That price is down 1.1 percent from October and down 20.8 percent from November 2008. The median existing home price peaked in 2006 at $155,000.

Still, home foreclosures have been a growing problem for the county.

According to RealtyTrac.com, Canyon County hosts more than its fair share of Idaho’s distressed properties. Twenty-eight percent of Idaho’s foreclosure filings in November were in Canyon County, while the number of Canyon County households makes up only a tenth of Idaho’s total (based on numbers from the 2000 census).

The county has been seeing close to 300 new foreclosures per month since the beginning of 2009, according to IdahoDataProviders.com.

Earlier this month, the Idaho Housing and Finance Association announced a program to help out two housing markets in Idaho: Twin Falls County and Caldwell, Canyon County’s seat.

IHFA Grant Program Manager Janet Lovell-Smith said both of these areas had extra funds from a previous neighborhood stabilization project, so the IHFA turned that money around and put it into a new loan program, which gives certain buyers of foreclosed homes up to $40,000 in a zero percent due-on-sale loan.

The areas weren’t selected because of need, but Lovell-Smith said Canyon County has one of the most troubled housing markets in the state.

“Canyon County has always basically lead the pack in terms of foreclosure starts,” she said.

When the IHFA put together the neighborhood stabilization program with funds from the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, Canyon was the highest needs area, followed by Ada County. And the need has become even more heavily concentrated in the area; IHFA has applied for more federal money, most of it to go to Canyon County.