It’s 2026, a new year with fresh opportunities for new home buyers. If you are a first-time home buyer looking to buy in the Treasure Valley, you’ll want to know a few things before you start taking your first steps to home ownership. It’s better to be informed prior to making big financial decisions, and the real estate market can be tricky to navigate.

Something to keep in mind if you’re planning buy a home in 2026 is: don’t wait for the perfect rate. You don’t need to wait for mortgage rates to drop, or accurately time the market. Mortgage rates are unfortunately not going down right now. If you have a good financial situation and find a home you love, don’t wait around for it to get snatched out from under you; buy it and you can always refinance later. Minimal rate fluctuations can have less impact on your monthly mortgage payments that you would think, and if you have good savings and credit scores, that won’t be a problem.

If you’re planning to buy this year, you will want to start the process of getting loan qualified as soon as possible. It can take first-time home buyers up to a year to get loan qualified, and you won’t want to be dealing with the process and miss out on the home you want. Lenders want to ensure that you’re able to pay off the loan timely without issues so they don’t suffer, and it can take time to go through your finances.

Another thing you’ll want to keep in mind is that there are many different programs and market rules out there that could help you out significantly as a first-time home buyer. Lenders frequently won’t bring those up so you’ll want to stay informed and find a good lender so you can get the best deal you possibly can. Certain places stop investors from buying up new homes for a period of time to help balance the housing market, something like that could help you out since you can also get good deals from buying homes straight from builders. Know what information is applicable to you and make sure any decision you make comes from a place of wisdom.

One more piece of advice: make sure you’re working with a seasoned realtor during your home buying journey! You’ll want someone who knows what they’re doing and how best to help you, not someone who will take advantage of you and keep you uninformed. Do your research!

Don’t be afraid of buying a home, there may be a lot of things to do and information to process before you can move in, but owning a home is worth the wait! Let us at TVPM and RE know how we can help you achieve your dreams.

As we’re nearing the end of 2025 and looking over the horizon to 2026, you may be wondering what the real estate market will look like in this new year. While we can’t predict exactly what will happen, we can definitely look at trends and current events to see where we could be headed, making a type of real estate forecast, which can be beneficial for making your plans for your home and family.

Will homes become more affordable? We do believe so, but lower prices will be slow in the making. It takes time for an economy to settle and same goes for the real estate market. There were quite a few buyers in the market in 2025 and they had quite a few homes to choose from because the inventory was higher than its been in years. We had about three months of inventory, which is still a seller’s market, but it behaved like a buyer’s market in that buyers got discounts on prices, lots of repairs, and some compensation for closing costs or rate buy downs. Resale homes had to compete with new home sales and because builders often offer quite a few concessions, sellers of resale homes also had to give concessions.

Inventory is expected to increase, especially as we come out of the cold months and into the warmer seasons. Mortgage rates are looking to stay around where they’re at, about 6%, with the potential to dip below that current rate.

Wages increasing and the job market stabilizing will have a big effect on people being able to afford to buy and sell homes, so there is great hope that wages will indeed go up and home prices will remain steady to help balance out the market for the first time in many years. Existing home sales are predicted to go up by about 3%.

All of this of course will take time, we are not looking at a sudden drop but at a gradual slope towards affordability. The places in high demand will still of course be more expensive and have lower inventory than the rest of the US, but maybe the younger generations will finally feel like they have a chance to buy affordable homes for themselves. We will watch 2026 with hope and anticipation!

Happy New Year from all of us here at TV Idaho RE and PM, we hope your family will be blessed in this coming year.

2025 is quickly leaving us in its wake, giving us long, dark, cold winter days illuminated by Christmas lights and hopes for the New Year. As we prepare for a new season of home buying and selling here in the Treasure Valley, it can be beneficial to take a step back and see what the real estate market looked like during some of the highs and lows of 2025.

Nothing particularly unexpected happened in the market during 2025 except the steady interest rates. The average interest rates hovered around 6.5% for most of the year and as of November 2025 were hitting 6.19%. The median home price in Ada County for November 2025 was $562,900, as opposed to the median home price in May 2025 which was $579,900. There were 2,121 homes on the market in Ada County in May 2025 and 1,897 homes on the market in November, the drop in inventory is likely due to the winter weather and holiday season. About 690 homes were sold in Ada County in November and they were averaging around 49 days on the market. Of the homes sold, 457 of them were resale, which was an increase of 7.3% year-over-year.

The Treasure Valley real estate market performed well this year, although definitely not as well as it has in previous years. It wasn’t the worst year, but not the best either. With the drop in prices and a potential for interest rates to drop as well, we are hopeful for 2026 to be the start of a well-balanced market for both buyers and sellers. But more on that at the end of the year, for now, Merry Christmas from all of us at TV Idaho RE and PM! May you and your family have a blessed holiday season and may your days be merry and bright.

Are you considering buying a home for the first time, but everyone around you is telling you to wait? Between the economy, housing inventory, and interest rates; things might look bleak in the housing market right now. Let me give you some good news; if you can afford it, you don’t have to wait!

I just closed escrow with a first-time home-buying couple, and they had been told by all their friends that now was absolutely not a good time to buy a home. I told them to tell their friends that they bought one because they could afford it! If your finances are secure, there’s never a bad time to buy a house. You can always refinance, and it’s far better to build equity in your own home than rent for years. My husband and I bought our first house at around a 10.5% interest rate, that’s where we first got our start, and I’m so glad we jumped in and did that. Right now, everyone believes that around 6% is the lowest that the interest rate is going to go, so if you can swing it, buy the house! Marry the house but date the rate.

We here at TVPM and RE hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving with your family and friends, and that you don’t let the naysayers ruin a good time (or your home-buying plans!). Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about the real estate market, we’re always happy to help!

-Val Gray

As a new home buyer, you might have no idea about the incentives that you can get from buying different types of houses in your area. Here in the Treasure Valley, there are builders with brand new homes ready to sell with great offers that would benefit any new buyer. Low interest rates, covered closing costs, special offers, move-in-ready homes, and more may be enough to convince you to work with a builder instead of a previous home owner. You won’t want to do this, however, without taking on your own agent, or you will lack representation in your purchase.

Some other things you might see on an offer from a builder could be discounted upgrades on cosmetics such as flooring or counter tops, They may be able to offer to cover escrow closing costs, reduced mortgage rates, or different finance options that you might not be able to get buying an established home from a home owner. Builders put a lot of time, effort, and money into building their homes and want to sell at a profit, but if they don’t sell them at all then they won’t make a profit, so it’s worth it for them to offer benefits to their potential buyers.

Currently, new builds are outpacing resale homes in the Treasure Valley real estate market because resale can’t compete with $25,000 put down on your down payment or interest rate, or all the other benefits builders can offer. However, there are a few cons to buying new builds: you may have limited options for the cosmetic design of the home, you can be asked to use the builder’s affiliated lenders, or there may be other caveats to the benefits you are offered. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide if the incentives are worth your money, and we at TVPM and RE are happy to answer any questions you might have on this topic!