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The price for eggs, chicken, beef, mushrooms, oranges, and vegetables is up.  Gasoline looks like it could be headed back to five dollars a gallon.  Americans are holding record credit card debt.  A recession may be coming.  Is there any good news on the horizon?

Yes, the cost of buying a house is down, slightly.  According to this link from CNN, Boise is among the leaders as real estate values drop.  It may not be much, but it ends a rapid run-up in listings that has left a lot of people excluded from the market.

In Twin Falls, our costs have somewhat tracked neighboring Boise.  It may be why we’re seeing a sudden spike in housing demand.  Material costs are also down, which also eases the size of the mortgage a buyer would need.

There are some radical ideas being floated to put people into new homes.  Billings, Montana is a market that very much mirrors Twin Falls and Boise.  One real estate agent there believes 75 percent of the potential buyers from a few years ago can’t afford a house today.  He suggests local governments provide quarter-acre lots for free, leaving the buyer with only the cost of building the new home.

That type of homesteading approach would find many critics!  It would also need some guardrails because it would likely attract speculators who would build and then profit from flipping.  Our problem is basically related to one issue.  We need a lot more homes.  Back in 2007-08, we had too many homes.  Now it’s the opposite.

LOOK: This is where homes are selling the fastest right now

Stacker compiled a list of the metros where houses are selling the fastest, according to data from Redfin.

 

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