Home Prices and Interest Rates Start to Creep Up - A Great Time to Buy!

The data's in!  2010 finished the year with the average month-to-month home price actually HIGHER than it was in 2008 and 2009! Hard to believe, isn't it?  Everyone's complaining because their house isn't worth what it was, and in most areas, neighbors watch anxiously each time a new "For Sale" sign goes up. "How much less will THIS one sell for?",  they worry.  .

The good news is that despite our freezing weather, in January, active listings got more showings  than they had on average in the dismal months after the expiration of the tax credit.  Lots more!  The number of showings is typically a pre-cursor to the number of sales, so if showings increase, sales won't be far behind.  There's comparatively fewer homes on the market too, than at this point a year ago, so this should contribute to an overall upward pressure on prices.  This doesn't mean we're going to experience a huge jump in values. 
After all, home prices are down an average of 16% from the peak in 2006.  (This is an AVERAGE - some  neighborhoods experienced huge drops of 70-80%, while others stayed relatively stable.)

Each neighborhood has its own special characteristics, and therefore, its own price trends.  Here at Your Castle, we  generate a price change map for most Denver Metro area neighborhoods.  Let me know if you'd like one for your area - you can tell exactly what's gone on. The maps include price changes, short sales & foreclosure stats.

There's one more factor that will shape the future of the housing market.  Interest rates have begun to creep north.  In April, mortgage insurance monthly payments will take a big jump also.  This means homebuyers will need to figure more interest and a higher mortgage insurance premium into their housing budgets and will have to search for a lower priced home than they might have been able to buy last year. 

All signals point to a GREAT time to buy!  Prices are still comparatively low.  Interest rates are still fairly low, and the new mortgage insurance requirements haven't kicked in yet.  This is an unbeatable combination for buyers!

 

The Denver Real Estate Market starts 2011 with Less Than a bang - Buyers Market Continues!

Some interesting stats on the current Denver Metro real estate market... Bottom line is that the Buyers Market continues.  There's some good news though.

Marketwatch.com has named Denver the 6^th best city (out of 102) to do business in, and, in

a second report by Allied Van Lines they said that Colorado had the 2^nd highest or best relocation rate in the country. Only Texas had more households relocating to their state. 

Unfortunately, 2010 saw the fewest number of residential real estate closings since 1996.  The number of closings (Denver Metro) in 2010 dropped 7.7% to 38,818 closings, the lowest level since 1996. The number of homes placed under contract in 2010 dropped 12.2% to 49,313. This means that nearly 10,500 buyers did not close on their purchase or 21% of them did not close! OUCH!!!

In December of 2010,  we saw:

Residential

• Available inventory was at 13,941 units, up 14% compared with month ago figures. BUT the number of homes on the market was down 11% compared with the same month, year ago.  Fewer people are selling now than at this time a year ago.

• Closed Sales were up 13% from month ago to 2,422 units sold. Units sold are up 4% from December of 2009.
• Over all though YTD sales volume fpr 2010 was at 30,777 units, down 7% compared with YTD 2009 sales of 33,114 units. 

• The average sales price was $274,625.  This is DOWN compared to November 2010's average of $218,466, and DOWN compared to the same time last year. The average sales price for December of 2009 was $281,756. 
• Median sales price was $225,000, down 4% compared with prior month, and up 2% from Dec 09.
• Average Days on Market (DOM) was at 111 days, up 26% compared with a year ago.  Homes are taking an average of 26% LONGER to sell. This is probably a result of the "feeding frenzy" we had in late 2009 due to the new homebuyer tax credit. 

In a  nutshell, INVENTORY is UP and homes are taking longer to sell.  This means its a BUYERS Market and a great time to buy a new home!

Here's the stats on the condo/townhouse market:

• Available inventory was at 4,316 units, up 3% compared to last month, but DOWN compared to December 2009. 

• 602 units sold in Dec 10, up 15% compared to November 2010 and down 5% from December 2009
• YTD sales volume was at 8,041 units - DOWN 10% compared with 8,956 units sold YTD 2009
• Average sales price was $166,841, UP 1% versus November 2010,  and UP 4% compared to Dec 2009
• Median price was $139,900, UP 12% compared to November,  and up 7% versus December one year ago
• Average Days on Market (DOM) was at 132 days, UP 42%  from one year ag