As fall deepens, the real estate market in McCall is showing some signs of hibernation.
Like many places in the country, real estate markets tend to operate seasonally, with large volumes of sales happening in the spring and summer, followed by slower times in the fall and winter. But this year, data shows that McCall’s real estate market has slowed in general, with fewer homes up for sale and staying on the market for longer compared to the last five years.
Crawford Olson Real Estate Services Co-Owner Bob Crawford said that market changes tend to be felt more in a resort town like McCall where many homes in the area are secondary residences.
“Unlike if you get a job in Boise and you need a house to live in, we’re not necessarily that,” Crawford said. “We’re the discretionary buyer wanting a vacation home, so our markets are more volatile as a result.”
Fewer homes, sales prices steady, more days on market
As of mid-October 2024, Multiple Listing Service data for McCall shows that 148 homes have gone on the market, a decrease from 2023’s total of 168 homes.
In 2019, 290 homes went up for sale, a figure that peaked at 371 homes in 2020, and has decreased each year since.
MLS data for McCall also shows that home sales prices have held relatively steady following a steep upswing a few years ago.
In 2024, the median sales price of homes in McCall is $847,500. While that is down from 2023’s median sales price of $882,500, it’s only a 4 percent decrease. Although year’s sales prices are more than double the median sales price of a home in 2019 ($405,950), it is still the first year in which the figure has decreased since 2019.
Additionally, the average number of days a home has been on the market in 2024 is 114, an increase from 2023’s 101, but not as high as 2019’s 133, according to MLS data.
What are sellers and buyers thinking?
McCall Real Estate Company Co-Owner Phil Yribar said in general, if a home is not selling quickly, sellers may feel pressure to decrease the price. But because a greater share of the homes being sold in McCall are second homes as opposed to primary residences, McCall sellers may be more willing to wait it out, and slower to decrease their initial ask price, he said.
Yribar said that has held true in the last year and a half, with sellers posting homes for their desired price, and proving fairly inflexible on price decreases. But recently, he thinks sellers are becoming more realistic, pointing to price drops of 5-20 percent.
“Buyers are still looking for deals, for lack of a better word,” he said, adding that sales prices might be trending toward “somewhere where both buyer and seller are comfortable with the price.”
Without donors like you, this story would not exist.
Make a donation of any size here
Crawford said that higher mortgage interest rates have created a split market: cash buyers are still coming to the area undaunted by higher home prices, but those who need a mortgage to purchase a home may not be able to afford the higher monthly payment that stems from higher interest rates.
“It’s the lower-priced property that is suffering the most because typically those buyers are seeking financing,” Crawford said.
Mountain Resort Realty Owner Shane Hinson called the market “finicky.” Homes with the typical desired characteristics — three-bedrooms, two-bathrooms, in town, with one or more trees — are moving quickly compared to those without.
“If the property is just a little off, or has a little bit of weirdness, it’s going to sit for a bit,” he said. (In general, newer homes with trees sell within 30 days, he said.)
He agreed that mortgage rate pressures have contributed to a longer time for homes on the market.
“It’s really hard to go from 3 percent interest rates to trying to tell someone that 6.5 percent is good,” Hinson said. “They’re going to say, ‘no, I’m going to wait.’”
Realtors: lower interest rates would help
In general, the trends described by McCall realtors are similar to those in markets around the nation.
The Federal Reserve implemented a series of interest rate increases starting in 2022 that affected mortgage interest rates. The rate increases were implemented in the hopes of cooling inflation, and have had a range of effects on both potential buyers and sellers. Officials made a rate decrease in September.
Higher mortgage interest rates are believed to have made potential sellers reluctant to put their home up for sale, dissuaded by the prospect of having to purchase another home with a higher interest rate than the home they are selling.
On the other side, some potential homebuyers who need financing to purchase a home have likely been dissuaded by higher mortgage rates, which may have made home purchasing out of reach, leading to slower overall sales.
Crawford and Yribar said that interest rates coming down to under 6% would help potential buyers who may have put off buying a home in recent years.
“If we got back to 5.5%, that would help stimulate some people that have put off purchasing when rates were at 7%,” Crawford said.
Yribar said, “my personal opinion is that rates need to be consistently below 6%, even preferably 5.5% or less, for buyers to really step back into the market.”
