How Investor-Buyers Shaped One Boise Housing Development Hit Hard In The Downturn

Molly Messick / StateImpact Idaho

A "For Rent" sign stood in front of a home in Charter Pointe last week.

It’s clear that residential real estate investors played a role in the boom and bust in Idaho’s housing market. Realtors tell stories of receiving call after call from out-of-state speculators attracted by Idaho’s high growth rate and low cost of housing.

Yesterday, we reported on a southwest Boise subdivision called Charter Pointe that’s still reeling from the bust, three years after foreclosures peaked in the Boise area.

We mentioned in that piece that in 2005, the development’s first full year of existence, more than a third of the homes in Charter Pointe were owned by people who didn’t live there.

Where did those investors come from? Thanks to data from the Ada County Assessor’s office, we can answer that.

They came from 28 states, including Idaho, but most came from California.  In 2005, out of 134 homes in Charter Pointe that weren’t owner-occupied, 71 were owned by people living in California. Idaho investors accounted for 37 of those non-owner-occupied homes. Next on the list is Arizona. Investors there held a comparatively paltry five homes in the subdivision.

The rate of investor ownership in Charter Pointe declined as the recession took hold and the development expanded. Today, about a quarter of the homes in the development are owned by people who live out-of-state or elsewhere in Idaho. California continues to lead the pack. Investors there now own 104 out of Charter Pointe’s 927 residences.  Idaho investors hold 79.