BlogFun Facts October 15, 2021

In Perspective

Let’s put today’s home prices in perspective.

Appreciation has been significant over the last 18 months. Some people are wondering if it can last and if there might be a housing bubble.

There are two ways to look at prices. One way is in absolute terms. This is simply looking at the dollar amount a home would sell for at some point in the past versus the dollar amount it would sell for.

The other way is in real terms. ‘Real’ is an economics term which means that inflation is factored into the valuation.

For example, a gallon of milk costs more today in absolute terms than it did 15 years ago. However, in real terms, the cost is about the same as 15 years ago because inflation is factored in. The price of milk has essentially escalated at the same rate as inflation.

So, how about home prices? As we know, prices in absolute terms are higher than 15 years ago. To be exact, prices are 43% higher Nationally compared to 2006 according to Case-Shiller.

However, in real terms, prices are the same as 2006.

Over the last 15 years, homes have appreciated at essentially the same rate as inflation.

BlogFor Sellers March 15, 2021

Finding the Right Agent to Sell Your Home

Showing

Selling your home is a collaborative effort between you and your real estate agent. As you prepare to sell your home, it’s important to find an agent who not only can answer your questions throughout the selling process, but who also cares about the happiness and goals of you and your household, as well.

Before You Begin Your Agent Search

 Once you’ve made the decision to sell, there are some things to consider before selecting an agent to work with.

Communicate your reason for selling

  • Behind every homeowner who decides to sell their home there’s a story, and every story is unique. In the early stages of working together, your agent will be processing a lot of information about your timeline and financial goals. Having these details ironed out and ready to communicate will help them understand your motives and guide the process effectively.

 Think about selling strategy

  • Part of a real estate agent’s expertise is knowing the optimal selling strategy to pursue, but no one knows your home better than you. Putting time and effort into thinking about things like how your home will be marketed and how showings will be conducted will help inform your agent’s strategic advice.

 

Finding the Right Agent for You

You and your agent will be communicating throughout the process of selling your home. You’ll be relying on them for updates and information each step of the way. Though your goal in working together is ultimately the sale of your home, your agent’s ability to connect with you on a human level through the emotional ups and downs of the selling process is just as important as their professional attributes. Accordingly, you’ll want to consider what qualities you’re looking for in an agent.

To set yourself up for identifying good candidates, talk to people you trust who know your personality and goals. Get referrals from your family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors. If they recommend someone, follow up with that agent to see if they are a good fit for you.

Searching for an Agent

To give yourself the best pool of potential agents, conduct your search both online and in-person. Exploring an agent’s social media profiles and reading reviews online can be useful in assessing whether they’re someone you want to work with. If in-person showings and open houses are occurring in your market, consider dropping by to get a chance to interact with the agent first-hand. After you have narrowed your agent search, ask for client references to get more insights into what it’s like to work with them.

Agent Certifications

Some agents choose to earn additional certifications or designations that showcase their commitment to additional training, coursework, and learning to help them specialize and advance their capabilities. Depending on your specific needs, certain designations may appeal to you as you go about finding the right agent to sell your home. The National Association of REALTORS® offers the largest number of professional designations. Explore them here: NAR Designations and Certifications

 

BlogFor Buyers March 4, 2021

The Importance of Pre-Approval

To set yourself up for a smooth and successful home purchase, getting pre-approved is perhaps the most productive first step you can take. It strengthens your buying credibility, informs your home search, and speeds up the closing process.

The Pre-Approval Process 

There is an important distinction to made between two important steps of your mortgage application process: pre-qualification and pre-approval. They are similar in that they both help to inform your financial standing, but there are key differences between the two.

Pre-qualification

Pre-qualification is the first step in your mortgage application process. It will help you to understand the approximate loan amount you can expect to qualify for. You’ll begin by sharing your financial information—debt, income, assets, etc.—with you bank or lender. After reviewing the information, the bank or lender will give a loan estimate. The process is relatively simple, only taking a few business days to process.

Pre-approval

The pre-approval process is more involved than pre-qualification. After submitting a mortgage application, your lender will require all the necessary info to conduct a thorough credit history check and review of your financial health. Getting pre-approved will give you a better idea of how much you can borrow, estimated monthly costs, and what interest rates you can expect on your loans. Mortgage pre-approvals are typically valid for 60 to 90 days.

Benefits of Pre-Approval

Credibility

The truth is, each home on the market can only go to one buyer. To maximize the chance that your offer is accepted, sellers need to know that your offer is serious. Getting pre-approved shows that you are financially prepared and, in the event that your offer is accepted, there will be no hold ups in obtaining your mortgage. This assurance is what sellers want to know about their potential buyers, especially in a seller’s market.

Home search

Not only does pre-approval help to bolster your case as a buyer, but it also Indicates your affordable price range. By knowing your budget, you will be able to hone your home search and start preparing offers, eliminating any potential wasted time looking at houses you can’t afford.

Closing process

Once your offer is accepted, you’ll be counting down the days to move-in. Unfortunately, the closing process can often drag on, leaving buyers feeling like they’re in post-purchase limbo. Pre-approval will speed up the closing process, since the mortgage approvals have already been taken care of, allowing you to focus on next steps like appraisals and inspections.

When to Get Pre-Approved

Being financially prepared for a home purchase is a solid indicator that you’re ready to go about getting pre-approved, but what does that look like? Buying a house means taking on serious debt, so it’s important to either have your remaining debt paid off or have a clear path to becoming debt-free before getting pre-approved. Having adequate savings for a down payment is a sign that you’re ready to make your offer. For any questions about the pre-approval process and to get connected to a mortgage professional, contact your Windermere agent.

Writing

BlogFor Buyers & SellersFun Facts January 29, 2021

Job Bounce

“How could the real estate market be so strong in the middle of a pandemic?”

That is a fair question and one we hear frequently from our clients.

There are several reasons for this but two stand out.

  • Interest rates
  • Jobs

Employment has bounced back much quicker than most people expected.  When COVID first showed up, the expectation was that many industries would be hit hard for a prolonged period of time.

The reality is that only a few industries were severely impacted by COVID and the rest were able to get back to a near-normal level of business relatively fast.

Additionally, what we find along the Front Range is that our ‘job bounce’ is even better than the national average.

 

Here are the numbers…

The COVID-peak unemployment rate for the Front Range looked like this:

  • Larimer County = 11.1%
  • Weld County = 10.1%
  • Metro Denver = 12.3%

Today it looks like this:

  • Larimer County = 5.2%
  • Weld County = 5.2%
  • Metro Denver = 6.4%

 

Nationally, unemployment peaked at 14.8% and now stands at 6.7%.

So, a main reason why demand is high now is because jobs have bounced back, and the bounce is even higher than the average across the country.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun FactsNorthern Colorado Real Estate May 11, 2018

66% Off

This just in…

For the month of April, the average price of a home in the city of Boulder was $1,247,000. This is according to the latest from our IRES MLS system. 

If you want to own a home about an hour down the road in another really nice college town and get a 66% discount, you may want to check out Fort Collins 🙂

Yes, despite the recent uptick in prices here locally, we are still a bargain compared to Boulder. Here are median single-family prices for our markets and their relative price to Boulder:

  • Fort Collins = $414,237 (66.8% off)
  • Loveland = $360,150 (71.1% off)
  • Greeley = $290,000 (76.7% off)
  • Windsor = $306,450 (75.4% off)

Grab a copy of our Investment Kit so you can see the simple steps to get started without stress or complication. Email us at rdupont@windermere.com and I will send you a video which clarifies the process and our Investment Checklist so you can see what to do first.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun Facts April 27, 2018

Under $300,000

If a real estate buyer walks into one of our offices in Northern Colorado and tells us they are looking for a single-family home under $300,000, unfortunately there will not be many properties to choose from. Depending on where they are looking the choices may be very limited.

Here is a list of the number of single-family homes currently for sale (excluding manufactured homes) in Northern Colorado:

  • Fort Collins = 0
  • Loveland = 7
  • Windsor = 0
  • Wellington = 0
  • Timnath = 0
  • Greeley = 27
  • Evans = 8
  • Milliken = 2

If our active market has you thinking about investing in real estate in Northern Colorado. Check this out…

Grab a copy of our Investment Kit so you can see the simple steps to get started without stress or complication. Email me at rdupont@windermere.com and I will send you a video which clarifies the process and our Investment Checklist so you can see what to do first.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun Facts October 27, 2017

Short vs Long

There are short-term questions about real estate and there are long term questions about real estate.

Clients often have short-term questions like…

How much will prices go up next year? Should I sell my house this Fall or next Spring? Will interest rates go up next week?

We encourage our clients to evaluate those questions in the context of the long-term. There are decades of data on the Northern Colorado market which reveal certain patterns.

When we show our clients these patterns they feel confident and secure in the investment they have made into their home and their rental properties.

For example, the long-term appreciation rates based on up to 41 years of research are as follows:

  • Larimer County = 5.36%
  • Weld County = 4.25%
  • Metro Denver = 5.56%

So over the course of a year prices may go up a lot or go up a little, but in the long term they will stay true to these long term averages.

To see an update as to what is happening in the Northern Colorado market, contact me to receive our quarterly “Scoop” report.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun FactsNorthern Colorado Real Estate October 6, 2017

Price Per Square Foot

At some point this weekend it’s likely you will make a stop at the local grocery store. When you are there you might pick up some produce. That produce, as you know, is priced by the pound.

Homes, aren’t priced by the pound of course. But they are priced by the foot.

An interesting way to examine an entire real estate market or a specific home is to look at the price per square foot.

For example, right now our company has a 2,470 square foot home right on the water in Seattle listed at $4,995,000. That comes to $2,022 per square foot.

Meanwhile, we also have a 2,549 square foot home for sale in Timnath priced at $445,000 which is $175 per square foot.

Price per foot is driven by many factors the most important ones being location and finishes.

Here is the average price per foot for our main markets across Northern Colorado:

  • Fort Collins = $181
  • Loveland = $160
  • Greeley = $126
  • Windsor = $136

If you would like to know what your home is worth, per square foot, contact me and I will get that information into your hands right away.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun FactsNorthern Colorado Real Estate September 29, 2017

Memory Lane

Today we will take a fun trip down memory lane.

Did you know that it was the fall of 1981 when mortgage interest rates hit their all time peak? Yes it was this time 36 years ago when 30-year mortgage rates hit 18.39%

Yikes!

It’s important to note that in those days, not many home buyers were opting for a 30-fixed loan because rates were so high. There were a lot of people looking at adjustable rate products as a way to reduce the monthly payment.

Just for fun, let’s look at what a monthly payment would look like if those same rates from 1981 existed today.

If rates were 18.39% today, a $350,000 home with a 20% down payment would have a monthly principal and interest payment of…

$4,309! Yikes!

Thank goodness rates aren’t that high today. They are actually about 15% lower!

Today’s 30-year rate sits at 3.83% (which by the way is roughly half of the long term average).

A monthly principal and interest payment on a $350,000 home with 20% down is…

$1,309. Three thousand dollars lower than it would be using 1981 ‘s rates.

For a detailed look at what’s happening across Colorado, request our quarterly market report called “The Scoop.”

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun Facts September 15, 2017

Greeley’s Major Milestone

The Greeley market is about to hit a major milestone.

We project that in the first quarter of 2018, the average price for a single family home in Greeley will surpass $300,000.

Today the average price sits at $289,870.

Just a year ago it was $262,828.

Guess when Greeley broke the $200,000 barrier? It was only about 3 years ago in June 2014.

So what ‘s going on?

Double-digit price appreciation is being fueled by a healthy Northern Colorado economy, low interest rates and local affordability. Greeley prices can look really attractive compared to Fort Collins.

We don’t see anything on the horizon that will significantly change the trajectory of the Greeley market. It is a fundamentally a very strong place to own real estate.

For a detailed look at what ‘s happening across Colorado, request our quarterly market report called “The Gardner Report“, written by Windermere Real Estate’s Chief Economist, Matthew Gardner.