BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun Facts March 17, 2017

Now What?

The Federal Reserve raised their benchmark interest rate 0.25% this week.

So what does this mean for real estate?

Some perspective is in order…

First, mortgage rates are not directly tied to the Fed Funds rate. They are, however, closely tied to the 10-year Treasury.

While the Fed was raising their rates this week, mortgage rates actually dipped lower (although slightly).

Mortgage rates today on a 30-year loan are essentially 4.25%.

The long term average for mortage rates, going all the way back to 1970 is 7.5%

For every 1% rise in rates, there is a corresponding 10% impact to the monthly payment.

Mortgage rates have increased about 0.75% since the election.

Most economists expect rates to increase another 0.5% by year-end.

I am watching mortgage rates closely and will continue to keep my customers updated as to where the experts think they are heading.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun Facts March 14, 2017

The Results Are In!

You’ve probably heard that prices are up in Northern Colorado

Another source just confirmed this.

The Federal Housing Finance Authority recently released their quarterly report on 260 metropolitan markets across the country.

Get this, Colorado has 4 cities ranked in the top 15 for yearly price growth. 

Northern Colorado is well-represented on this list.

  • 11th Fort Collins/Loveland
  • 12th Greeley
  • 15th Boulder

By the way, Denver is 14th. And in case you are wondering, Palm Bay Florida is ranked 1st.

All of the Northern Colorado cities have had just over 10% appreciation in the last year meaning that prices are growing at about double the long-term average.

To receive a copy of the full FHFA report, simply email me at rdupont@windermere.com and I will get one in your hands right away.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun Facts March 6, 2017

Luxury Market Spotlight

So how’s the luxury market? Let’s look…

Today there are 88 single family homes for sale in Larimer and Weld County priced at $1 Million and above.

Over the last year, 63 of these properties have sold.

This means it would take 17 months to sell all of these luxury properties at the current pace of sales.

Where do most of these sales occur? The most active city is Fort Collins with 18 luxury sales followed by Loveland with 13.

The most active neighborhood in all of Northern Colorado for luxury properties is the Harmony Club in Timnath with 8 sales.

Windermere Real Estate is proud to have represented the most expensive home to sell in Northern Colorado in the last two years – a $2,800,000 property in the Harmony Club which featured a gourmet French Kitchen, reclaimed barnwood floors and handmade peg wood beams.

Contact me to learn more about our Premier Properties program which is custom designed to sell luxury homes.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins Realtor February 28, 2017

Northern Colorado Real Estate Forecast

Spring selling season is right around the corner.  We are seeing the activity buzz starting already in the market.  If you missed our Forecast event we held in January, we have put together a quick recap video for you to review.  Click on the video below to hear more!

Additional questions?  Let me know!

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun Facts February 24, 2017

Is Fort Collins the Next Boulder?

The hottest question we get in Northern Colorado is this “do you think Fort Collins is the next Boulder?”

Let’s look closely at that question and start with what is similar. They are both beautiful college towns nestled against the foothills. They both have affordability issues which push real estate buyers to satellite communities (what is happening is Wellington is not unlike what happened in Louisville).

Yet there are differences at a fundamental level that will forever keep these two places very different from each other. For example, the average Household Income in Boulder is 60% higher than Fort Collins. Here is another big deal, Boulder is only half the size of Fort Collins (25 square miles versus 57 square miles). And get this, the City of Boulder owns 71 square miles of open space in and around the City.

Essentially Boulder is a small island surrounded by an ocean of open space inhabited by very high income-earners. That is why the average price of a single family home in Boulder is now over $1 million.

We put together a short video which shows you more detail about this hot question. You can watch it here: 

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun Facts February 18, 2017

Stadium Impact?

Today we are looking at one of the hot topics in Northern Colorado. Is the new CSU football stadium impacting real estate values in the surrounding neighborhoods?

The answer, based on the research we’ve done so far, is… yes!

Here are the details…

We looked at the residential properties in the 1-mile radius surrounding the new stadium. We pulled the sales over the last three years in that area. Then we compared that area to the market as a whole.

Let’s talk about prices first. Residential prices inside the City Limits of Fort Collins went up 11% last year and 12% the year before that. Within the stadium’s 1-mile radius, prices only went up 1% last year, but 14% the year before that. It seems that recent construction has impacted prices.

Now what about number of sales? Residential transactions have gone down 5% per year each of the last two years. Near the stadium, the decrease has been even larger at 7 to 8% per year.

It does seem that the stadium has had an impact. We will continue to keep our eye on this trend!

One footnote is that last year had more condominium sales than the year before which has an impact on average price.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun Facts January 27, 2017

Our Crystal Ball

Last week Windermere’s Chief Economist Matthew Gardner joined us for our annual Market Forecast events in Colorado. We were pleased to host over 500 customers at two events in Denver and Fort Collins.

Here are some of the big takeaways that we shared:

  • Interest rates will increase to 4.6% by the end of the year
  • First-time buyers are back and will make up 47% of all buyers in 2017
  • Inventory will remain at record lows and will continue to drive up prices
  • Appreciation is expected to be between 9% and 7% accross our Front Range markets
  • Home builders will get creative in order to hit lower price points – we will see more “tiny homes” and more homes without basements

Click HERE to see Matthew Gardner’s infographic on the 2017 Forecast.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun FactsUncategorized September 18, 2016

Remember When…

chain-623169_1280

With lots of focus on the presidential election it got us thinking about the last time we were getting ready to elect the leader of the free world.

Do you remember what you were doing in 2012? Back when Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were the candidates…

Do you remember what the real estate market was like? As it turns out, there is a $100,000 difference.

Here’s a walk down memory lane to real estate in 2012.

Average price of a home in Greeley = $170,500 (almost $100K less than today)

Average price of a home in Windsor = $297,800 (also $100K less than today)

Average price of home in Fort Collins = $259,994 (yep, $100K less than today)

Here’s the deal- in every case the price increase in 4 years has been almost exactly $100,000 in each community!

This is a pretty awesome place to own real estate!

Wonder where prices will be in another four years? Contact me to get my take on the market.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins RealtorFun Facts September 9, 2016

Signs of Slowing

It's not just temperatures cooling off as we transition from summer to fall, there are signs that the market is cooling as well.autumn-974882_1280

The numbers are in and both Loveland and Fort Collins had their slowest August in several years.

Loveland had 127 single family home sales last month. This is 16% lower than August 2015 and the slowest August for Loveland since 2012.

Fort Collins had their slowest August since 2011 with 206 single family sales. This is 13% lower than last year.

This is good news for buyers who may have been reluctant to enter the multiple-offer frenzy that occurred this past spring. It looks like we are moving toward a more "normal" market.

BlogFort Collins Real EstateFort Collins Realtor August 24, 2016

August Housing Report

Low housing supply continues to be the headline for the current market conditions.  Curious to see the full picture of what the Real Estate Market in Northern Colorado did last month?  Click HERE to get the full report.

market update