Kootenai County Home Sales Increase

It’s too early in the year to see a trend, but Kootenai County home sales increased in January compared to the same month last year.

A total of 85 homes changed hands in January compared with 77 in the same month of 1996, according to the Coeur d’Alene Multiple Listing Service. The homes sold were worth a total of $8.6 million compared with $7.6 million for January 1995.

The 10 percent rise in number of homes sold and 14 percent increase in dollar volume sounds encouraging a week after local developer Duane Hagadone forecast a slowing of the real estate market.

But a month of numbers from the Coeur d’Alene Multiple Listing Service aren’t much to forecast from, cautioned Richard Jurvelin, the MLS president and local Realtor.

“I think we’re still looking at a stable market, at least on the residential side,” Jurvelin said. “I don’t see any significant drop in the numbers that would be overly concerning.”

Hagadone, who owns a media and tourism empire in North Idaho, warned that commercial construction could fall off by 20 percent in the coming year. His predictions for the residential side were less dire, but he said a drop from the record year of 1994 will likely continue.

A new format for the MLS here shows sales of mobile homes, commercial lots and vacant land.

Under these new classifications, the real estate market in January saw a 3 percent drop compared to the same month of 1996, with 140 transaction this January compared to 145 last January. The change came mostly from fewer vacant land sales this year, Jurvelin said.

Home prices rose slightly from year-to-year, and the clustering of homes priced between $80,000-$100,000 continued as well. More than a third of homes sold in the month fell in that price range.

Realtors at Hagadone’s speech last week believed the growing group of buyers combined with a record number of homes on the market could mean a strong spring.

, DataTimes