Denver Colorado Real Estate | July 2010 Market Statistics
August 11th, 2010 categories: Market Trends
The news today was about the recession. That’s been the news for two years on a daily basis and today was no different. The Fed is buying more Treasuries and investors are moving out of riskier investments.
And what are Denver real estate buyers doing? It would seem that many were sitting on the sidelines during the month of July. Sales slowed considerably from last year. We still had a good number of closings, the pending sales from the tax credit frenzy of buying earlier in the year.
Our total inventory for single family and condos is now up by over 12% from July 2009 to 23,450. Inventory increased by over 3% since June.
The number of homes we put under contract in July was down by nearly 28% from last year and down by nearly 2% from June.
The bright spot? Prices are still up year-over-year. We’re 6.72% higher in our average sale price since last year, but down a little since June.
I heard rates quoted today as low as 3%. Buyers who are serious about moving should jump at the chance now. There are plenty of great properties to choose from and you can buy so much more house that you could a few years ago.
We’re likely to have an increase in inventory for a few more months, and then it will slow down over the winter as sellers opt to wait until spring to sell. Less homes on the market over the winter may help shrink time on the market, but it we may see a neutral effect as there are typically fewer buyers out during the winter months.
If banks continue to add their inventory of foreclosed properties (REO’s) to the market, we’ll have an even larger jump in inventory. That will effect every seller who hasn’t sold yet. Sellers - get your house next in line for an offer. If you aren’t competitively priced and in perfect showing condition, you’ll bolster the buyers’ decision to buy the other house, not yours.
Buyers compare. They’re comparing your house to the competing properties in your area. They’ll note if your lot is smaller, but your price is higher. They’ll note if your basement isn’t finished, but your price is higher. Give them a reason to choose your house so that you can be included in the next set of market stats as a closed property.
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Denver Colorado Real Estate | June 2010 Market Statistics
July 12th, 2010 categories: Market Trends
The Dog Days of Summer may have arrived early. Denver real estate sales are cooling even while we turn up the temp on our AC.
Cooling is relative. The Denver area market has improved considerably from a year ago, and with rates at their lowest in 50 years, there are still buyers off the fence and in the market. The average price has increased by nearly 6% from last year and days on market are down by 18%. Houses are selling faster and for more money.
But with inventory increasing, and likely to continue to do so, home sales may bump along for awhile without a discernible spike in activity like we experienced a few months ago. The Denver Post article last week about the local market succinctly concluded that a cooling trend is evident.
Denver and Colorado have the benefit of an educated and stable work force. Unemployment is higher than we’d like it, but below the national rate. Consumer confidence is evident at the mall, the garden stores and the summer street festivals. We are a community of hardworking Colorado enthusiasts.
What the table above doesn’t illustrate is the micro level activity in specific neighborhoods and price ranges. Luxury home sales have increased, primarily due to large and realistic price-reductions and more favorable jumbo rates. Interestingly, we’re seeing more all-cash deals in every price point.
Lower and mid-priced homes held steady for the first half of the year, and drove a lot of the higher end sales too. Move up buyers have a terrific opportunity in this market.
This is the time to list or buy a house. Buyers have the benefit of the lowest rates in 50 years and the lowest home prices in decades. Sellers have the opportunity to take advantage of what’s left of the summer. Dog days or not, selling is hot.
Looking to buy or sell a home in Denver? Look no further than www.GretchensDenver.com for all of the information you’ll need.
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Denver Colorado Real Estate | May 2010 Market Statistics
June 10th, 2010 categories: Market Trends
What an interesting time to be a real estate broker. Is the market sizzling or softening?
The Home Buyer Tax Credit had a lot more to do with our March and April sales than I expected it to. I naively thought there was enough pent-up demand to see us through the end of the year.
I thought buyers weren’t going to sacrifice the “right home” for a tax credit. In retrospect, I may have been wrong on that count.
One thing I was right about was the trickle up effect, boosting sales in the higher price ranges that didn’t qualify for the credit.
Now, all price ranges have slowed down. Showings have dropped off and it seems that we pushed the June and July business forward into the first quarter of 2010.
What does this mean for Buyers? Great time to buy. You’re a wanted quantity. But do your homework and don’t assume you can just negotiate the Dickens out of any deal. Some houses are already priced right. My partner just had buyers go $15,000 over asking in a bidding war - in the low $400,000 price range. The house was on the market for 5 days, was in a unique and beautiful setting and nothing else like it was on the market. It had also been updated and was ready to go. They still need to get it to appraise, but the buyers saw the value.
What does this mean for sellers? Stay on the top of your game. Showing condition has to beat out the competition and the price has to be aggressive enough to launch you to the top of the list.
Last month we had 3,883 properties under contract, which bodes well for June closings. But this is a 41% decline from April! We were busy in April. These numbers didn’t actually come as a complete surprise. We expected a slowdown when the credit ended, but not 41%.
Look at sold properties year-over-year. Denver experienced an increase in sales of 20%. The market in 2010 is very different from 2009 and 2008. We’re plugging along - the tax credit helped. Low rates are helping. When employment picks up steam, property markets will continue to pick up too and that’s when we’ll see prices rising.
I’m happy to be in my chair and looking back at last year. I’m happy that sales are up 20% since then. I’m also hopeful that the drop from April to May will be a slight bump in an otherwise excellent real estate trend.
If you’re a buyer looking for the “right home” look no further than www.GretchensDenver.com.
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Denver Colorado Real Estate | April 2010 Market Statistics
May 11th, 2010 categories: Market Trends
Busy. Swamped. Slammed. Insane!
Real estate in Denver, Colorado is different. It’s different and the same.
Different than last year, and really different from 2008. We fell off a cliff that year, and we’d been dangling from it for a few months prior.
Ever since the 2008 correction, it’s been a slow climb back. Real estate in Denver has felt a little better every month. Many transactions are fraught with difficulty, but overall Denver real estate seems more and more on solid ground.
Now this. A complete frenzy. It’s been a busy month, with sales, closings, price reductions, tax credits.
Will the end of the tax credit signify the end of the recovery? Not likely. Most of the buyers and sellers I’ve been working with wouldn’t have qualified anyway. Or else they didn’t want to sacrifice “the right house” for a tax credit.
Look at the April market statistics. Pending sales have increased nearly 28% from this time last year. 28%!
We’ve seen an increase in closed properties of over 23%. The days on market has dropped by nearly 23 days, meaning it’s taking less time to sell a house.
Trends indicate we’re in a “value” driven market. Buyers are searching for value, and pricing must meet their expectations. If the price doesn’t meet with buyers’ value model, a seller will be faced with two scenarios:
1. No offers for weeks or months while other homes in the neighborhood are selling.
2. An offer so low that sellers feel it’s not realistic.
In fact, it may be realistic, or at least close to realistic. Sellers should always counter an offer. Never reject. You’ve lost control of the deal if you refuse to counter, and you aren’t engaging with someone who actually liked your house enough to bother making an offer.
The next two months will be interesting. We probably pushed some of the late spring and summer buying forward with the tax credit. Even if things slow a little, we’re still in good shape from this time last year.
Search Denver Real Estate at Gretchen Faber’s web site: www.GretchensDenver.com.
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Denver Colorado Real Estate | March 2010 Market Statistics
April 8th, 2010 categories: Market Trends
The statistics have arrived! What does the past foretell about the future? Not much, but we certainly do learn from patterns and trends.
Denver, Colorado’s real estate market has been exhibiting signs of stability in certain price points for several months. The Case Shiller report, out two weeks ago, put Denver at #6 in housing price increases, year-over-year for January.
This wasn’t too much of a surprise to the real estate brokers in Denver who are feet-on-the-ground every day. More contracts and more closings are in 90 days or less and brokers are busy. One surprise is the increase of sales in the million dollar plus price point. I’ve said for months that when we see stability in the lower prices, there will begin to be a trickle-up effect to the higher prices. But it’s also the price reductions high end sellers realize are a must to get their houses sold.
Negatively impacting our recovery in high-end prices is the continued expense and difficulty in obtaining jumbo loans. Without competitive jumbo mortgages and with appraisals still dicey, sellers are feeling the pinch.
Look at our under contract numbers. An increase of 22 1/2% from last year and nearly 34% since last month is nothing to sneeze at. This will portend well for closings this month and next.
What then? The tax credit will end and most bets are on a gradual interest rate increase over the next several months. A lender I know told me of 3 rate increases in one day last week. Unheard of in the past couple of years.
But prices are up in Denver. Over 7% since this time last year, and our inventory of available properties is still down by nearly 3%. And look at Days on Market. Way down! Homes are selling faster and for more money.
If your house has been on the market for months and isn’t getting a bite - time to face some tough decisions. Is it price? Probably. The buyers are out there and they’re placing value on something. Is it location? Could be. Is it the size of the yard or the living room? Perhaps. But at the end of the day - those are just disguised price objections. A buyer who values your property compared with what else she’s seeing will make an offer. If you’re not getting offers, then you’re justifying to buyers why they’re making an offer on your competitor’s listing.
Colorado offers an easy-going western lifestyle. Denver’s housing market continues to shine a light on our local real estate recovery.
Gretchen Faber is a broker with The Kentwood Company at Cherry Creek in Denver, Colorado. Visit www.GretchensDenver.com for the latest inventory in the Denver real estate market.
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Denver Colorado Real Estate | February 2010 Market Statistics
March 15th, 2010 categories: Market Trends
The Denver area real estate market statistics for February 2010 were released by Metrolist last week.
The Denver market is firming, and luxury properties are breathing a few gasps of life too. There were 51 closings above $1,000,000 in Denver last month. The Kentwood Companies represented approximately 26 of those.
Denver still suffers from a lack of inventory, which is proving frustrating to buyers. This will translate to rising prices, but we’ll need stable employment to really say we’re through the worst.
Last month, we had 17,465 properties on the market in Metro Denver. This month, 18,869. That was a needed increase at the time of year we typically begin to add more inventory. We’re off by nearly 6% from this time last year, which will translate to pent-up buyer demand.
Rates are extremely low for the time being and the home-buyer tax credits are still in effect until the end of April. We’ll continue to add inventory through the summer, but the pace will probably slow. Buyers - begin to think what your must-haves are and what you can live without. You may need to make some compromises.
Average prices have come up from January and from last year. This is still primarily in the mid to lower price points. Higher end will take another 12-18 months to begin to see significant price appreciation.
Sellers - get your house on the market soon if you’re thinking of selling. Have it totally spiffed up and ready to go - you’ll appeal to buyers desperate for their dream home!
Gretchen Faber writes LifeStyle Denver and has been selling homes in Denver since 1996. There isn’t a neighborhood in Denver that Gretchen hasn’t shown in or sold a house in!
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Denver Colorado Real Estate | January 2010 Market Statistics
February 8th, 2010 categories: Market Trends
What are real estate brokers working on these days in Denver? Listings. Sellers are getting their homes ready for the market, and our increase in number of available properties illustrates just that.
We’ve added 1,009 properties in the past month. 767 new single family residences and 242 condominiums. And more are on the way. I predict that the natural growth in inventory this time of year will continue to increase through the spring and may flatten out a bit over the summer.
This is good news for buyers who feel they’ve seen everything but nothing on the market fits their needs. Buyers who are in this boat must understand that they won’t be able to bargain like they once could. With the floor back under our real estate market and Days on the Market continuing to shrink, the bargain has already been factored into the price. On average, properties are selling nearly 12 days faster than they did a year ago.
Another interesting point to notice is average price - up nearly 13% for single family residences from last year. However, the prices were down from December to January. Sellers in December were realists and wanted to get their property sold and closed.
One final interesting tidbit - look at number of properties that went under contract last month. We’re down from last year! What does that mean? It means that sellers, even with all of the good news above, need to stay realistic about their chances to sell their home. We look to written production to forecast what is pending. There were fewer offers written this January than January 2009. So with the increase in inventory, sellers have only two ways to compete - price and condition. You must stay on top of what the market is telling you. And what your broker is telling you! As I’ve said in the past, you can’t market your way out of this.
Do I appear to contradict myself? That’s because every house, every nuance of the transaction, even the players in the deal are all distinct from other deals. Real estate is local, hyper local. One house might be well priced and in analyzing comparable sales should sell for near the asking price. Another house might be very over priced, and based on a similar analysis should be reduced. We also try to quantify for location issues, non-finished basements and improvements. Pricing isn’t an exact science, it’s a bit science and analysis and a bit of a meeting of the minds. This past month 2,353 people had a meeting of the minds in Denver, Colorado.
Gretchen Faber writes LifeStyleDenver. Visit Gretchen’s web site for property searches, mapping and relocation information.
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Bad Score, Bad Score - What You Gonna Do?
January 18th, 2010 categories: Market Trends, Relocation Tips
What you gonna do when they deny you?
I got my 
credit score the other day. We’re about to refinance our house and this was the beginning of the process. My score was always stellar - high 700’s at one time over 780.
This time my score was just below 720. By some people’s standards, not bad. Well, in this lending climate it’s not great.
When I began selling real estate over 14 years ago, a score of 620 or higher was considered pretty good. At the end of the last decade, 680 was the minimum needed to get favorable rates. Last Spring, the minimum score needed for the good rates was 720, and now lenders say borrowers need a score of 730 to 740.
What drove down my score and what should borrowers pay attention to?
1. My former husband had two credit card accounts that were closed, but for some odd reason were being reported with balances. I never had this particular brand of credit card, but I was listed as an “authorized user.” This was bad news for two reasons: first was the reported balances, and second was that these two cards, on top of my actual credit cards, skewed my ratios to look like I had way too much unsecured credit.
2. I got in a fight a few years ago with a certain Visa issuer (Chase.) One day, I decided to check my account on their site. This somehow changed my bills to paperless, but I didn’t realize the change had happened. Subsequently, I read that this happened to scores of people.
I waited weeks for my bill, called Chase and told the rep I hadn’t received it, and his response was, “huh, we mailed it.” A week later, still no bill. I again called and authorized a draft over the phone. What did Chase do? They reported me as “seriously delinquent.” More than 30 days late.
I called Chase again and begged. Pleaded. Explained that I’d had their stupid card for years and had never missed a payment. Their response? “Well, you missed this one.”
What did I do then? Totally peeved, I closed the account. Take that Chase!
Guess what that did to my credit report?
Again, this was bad news for two reasons: first was that I had a “serious delinquency” and the other was that the account stated, “delinquent, closed.” That does not look good to the credit agencies. Plus, a seasoned or older card is much more valuable on your score.
3. Finally, two of my credit cards were nearly up to the credit limits. Credit reporting agencies want to see your revolving credit be only about 30% of the limit. So if you have more than one card, spread the love, but not more than 30% of it. And of course, pay by cash as much as possible. That’s our new mantra - cash. Forget the miles. Use the cards a little to keep the credit agencies interested and your score high.
The good news is that these items can be relatively easily fixed for many people.
- Pay off as much revolving debt as you can, spread your debt over the cards you have.
- Don’t cancel cards you’ve had for a long time, just stop using them. Seasoned cards bear a lot of weight on your report.
- Don’t apply for too many credit cards.
- Make sure that your credit report is correct and dispute cards or other debt that appear and don’t belong to you.
After 30 days, your score will begin to come up and it should happen pretty quickly. MSN Money has written about fixing your credit score and you can check your credit report at Experian. Keep in mind that you do not need to pay for your credit report, you can access a free one every year. However, these reports typically do not include the FICO score that lenders use to evaluate you.
According to my lender, the basic fixes I did should positively impact my score in about a month. If you’re thinking about buying or refinancing a house this year, begin to get your score straight now. You may need more than 30 days or you may already be Platinum!
| Discussion: 14 Comments »
Denver Colorado Real Estate | December 2009 Market Statistics
January 7th, 2010 categories: Market Trends, Selling Strategies
December. The end of the year. The end of the line?
Not really. December was another interesting month in Denver Real Estate. Inventory was naturally down, as it typically is this time of year. We’re down to 16,456 active listings. That’s the lowest number of homes on the market since before 2006 when the available MLS records stop. Meaning buyers have less to choose from than in the past 5 years.
The highest number of listings was in July of 2006 with 31,989 homes on the market. We’re almost 50% off that number.
I remember one day back in 2006 pulling up listings in Highlands Ranch to show to buyers I was working with. I had a match of over 500 homes for their criteria. It was a chore to eliminate properties to get a rational number to view. First everything with an unfinished basement was tossed. Then the small yards, then homes that were near busy streets.
Only the creme de la creme made it to a showing.
This month, we’re struggling to find properties to show to buyers. There are some great homes still on the market, but many are stale for a variety of reasons. Some have location issues, many are still over priced, some aren’t finished as nicely as their competition.
Sellers have an opportunity. Right now! They need to get their house in top showing condition and get it on the market.
Average sold price is up: 7.13% since November and 13.59% since this time last year. This number has been driven up by the sales in the lower price points. High end homes are still lagging.
Sellers - now is your time. Buyers want to take advantage of the home buyer tax credits. They have pent up demand. They don’t want to miss out on low rates. Get your house ready and get it on the market.
Buyers who were worried that the tax creidt was expiring in November hurried up their closings, and November sales were way up. December closings were down, but with the tax credit extended, the holidays over and rates still low - sales will undoubtedly begin to increase this month. The contracts written in January will close in February and March, so watch for closed properties to increase in those months.
The state of the economy is still in debate, but what is the average Joe doing? Joe the Plumber? Joe the Snowboarder? They’re starting to think this might be a good time to move.
Check out all the Denver area listings on my website; www.GretchensDenver.com and let me know when you want to buy a new house!
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Denver Colorado Real Estate | November 2009 Market Statistics
December 21st, 2009 categories: Market Trends, Real Estate News
Busiest December Ever!
That’s not an exaggeration. It’s December 21st and I just got an offer on a listing which went under contract today. Our office rocking. The contracts keep coming in.
And we all had a great time dancing to the King of Pop last week at our office party. The mood is light years away from the dreadful, scary, morose feeling everyone had a year ago.
Not to say that things can’t fall apart on a dime. We’ve learned that a few times in the past decade. But when the going’s good you need to embrace it.
The Denver real estate market is setting the tone for an excellent 2010. This will be a very different year and buyers and sellers should be prepared to adjust quickly.
Looking at November’s market statistics (Christmas cookies took over for timely posting) you can see that Denver’s inventory is extremely low. This is more than just a typical seasonal adjustment. It’s a reflection of sellers’ pricing reality and buyers’ pent-up demand.
Our market is up 23% from this time last year! That’s an incredible statistic. In the words of Steve Harney, “You have to be dumb or broke not to buy a house right now.” A new house, an investment home, a move up, a downsize - this is your time, baby.
The average price is also up just a shade from last month and over 5% from last year. Sellers - don’t expect this number to magically increase at a rapid rate. Prices will remain deflated for awhile, but as the market picks up steam, prices will too.
With average days on market at 81 days, inventory will continue to sell off quickly and buyers’ lament will be that there’s nothing to look at.
After January 15th -when the market breathes new life every year - we should see an increase in inventory, and an increase in sales. Properly priced and showcased homes will not languish on the market in 2010.
Happy Holidays to everyone! Thanks for reading LifeStyleDenver for two years. Keep coming back and let me know if you want to list your house or find a new home in 2010.
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