Realtors Cut Off Access to Home Sale Data
On the Idaho edition's front page this morning, reporter Erica Curless tells us that the Multiple Listing Service of the Coeur d'Alene Association of Realtors has taken its ball and gone home. No more playing nicely with Kootenai County. No more sharing home sale prices, which for years have helped the county assessor set fair market valuations on homes here. The Realtors apparently got nervous that all this data could get out to the public if someone challenged the county to turn it over as a way of proving how the assessor determines property values. (Same thing is happening in Bonner County.) Of course, in most states home sale price is absolutely a public record. But not here in Idaho. Not yet, anyway. The sudden action by the MLS could backfire. County leaders now are talking about passing an ordinance to require release of sale prices.
Read the full story here.
