BOISE, Idaho — Home price sticker shock, high mortgage rates, and low inventory are just some of the reasons you may be holding off on buying a new home in 2023. However, some buyers are getting creative to make housing affordable.
With the real estate market pricing so many people out these days, some younger buyers are joining forces and finances so that they can buy a home and get their hands on house keys of their own.
And that’s important to consider in a market like the Treasure Valley where, according to Redfin, the median sale price is $470,000, down from the height of the pandemic but still higher than in past years.
Ada County home sales are down 17.6% along with inventory which is down 35.4%, while in Canyon County home sales are up 17.4%, while inventory is down 35% for both resale and new construction.
Michelle Bailey, an Associate Broker with Keller Williams Realty says the Boise area is a really unique market.
“I think a lot of people are talking about it because it's so unique and we've never seen anything like it, right? Interest rates are up and prices tend to go down, but prices really haven't come down and I think that's because inventory remains so low and they're still so competitive."
Caleb Shore and Gabe Farmer are friends and roommates, but they also own a home together with their wives.
"Between the four of us, we were able to apply for a much more generous mortgage. The bank really liked that there were four streams of income instead of two," Shore said.
It is something that seems like a wild idea to some people.
"They told us that, like, it would go wrong, we wouldn't be friends," Farmer said. "That we would hate each other. That our finances would get messed up and torn to pieces. They're all wrong."
They like adding the fun of living with friends to their lives and, at the same time, subtracting half their home expenses. And they aren't the only ones doing this.
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According to real estate analytics firm Attom Data Solutions, mortgage holders with different last names increased 771% between 2014 and 2022. Those are the years millennials became the top generation buying homes.
Michelle Sloan is a Re/Max real estate agent who is seeing this increasingly as affordability drops.
"By sharing those expenses, then they can get a larger home, a better home," Sloan said.
She says it's important to know the risks, however, such as one person landing a job in another city. Could you afford the home on your own, without the other owner?
"There's a lot to think about," Sloan said. "You want to make sure that you have an exit strategy, that you have a 'house prenup' as it were.
She suggests you may want to consult with a lawyer before you co-sign the mortgage with someone who is not your spouse. Shore and Farmer agree, saying you need to "get the sticky stuff out of the way first and decide how you split finances."
Bailey adds that “the reality is that both parties, if they’re buying together they still have to qualify for the property and the question is, what happens when there’s a fight and someone doesn’t want to live with the other person anymore.”
