BlogFun Facts February 16, 2024

Inventory Jump

The most significant trend we notice 45 days into the new year is the jump in inventory.

There are many more properties for sale along the Front Range compared to one year ago.

  • Larimer County is up 40%
  • Weld County is up 39%
  • Metro Denver is up 35%

This comes as welcome news for buyers as we near the Spring buying season.

BlogFun Facts February 3, 2024

Forecast Takeaways

Here are some of the big takeaways from our annual Market Forecast with Economist Matthew Gardner:

  • Interest rates will continue to trend down during the year and reach 6.08% by the end of 2024.
  • Home prices will have another year of modest gains increasing 2.0% to 2.5% in Northern Colorado
  • 53% of homeowners in Larimer County and 38% of homeowners in Weld County are “Equity Rich” meaning that they have at least 50% equity in their homes.
  • Inventory levels will increase in 2024 but will remain below normal which protects prices from any sort of major decline

To receive a copy of the full slide deck from the Forecast, feel free to reach out to us!

BlogFun Facts January 19, 2024

More Normal Range

The length of time that it takes for a property to sell is settling into a more normal range.

“Days on Market” is an insightful statistic that counts how long it takes for a property to go from live on the market to sold.

Today measurement stands at 72 days in Larimer County and 74 days in Weld County.

From January 2021 to November 2022, Days on Market never went above 60. This time period was defined by incredibly high demand and drastically low supply.

The time frame of January 2018 to December 2020, which was more ‘normal,’ had Days on Market between 60 and 90 days.

BlogFun Facts December 1, 2023

Most Surprising News

The most surprising piece of news for our friends and clients is that prices are essentially flat compared to last year.  People find that surprising given what interest rates have done over the last 18 months.  They wonder, how could prices not fall significantly after interest rates jumped considerably?

The answer is the fundamental economic lesson of supply and demand.

There is enough demand in the market for the current supply to keep prices stable even in an environment of higher rates.

Now that rates are (finally) trending down, it gives us even more confidence about the continued growth of real estate prices along the Front Range.

Here is a look at how home prices compare to one year ago:

Larimer County = Down 0.8%

Weld County = Up 3.4%

Metro Denver = Up 0.8%

BlogFor SellersFun Facts October 6, 2023

Increasing Reductions

More and more sellers are having to reduce their listing price.

Nationally, 37% of all home sellers have recently had a listing price reduction. This is according to a recent report from Altos Research.

This is up from 30% in May and is now at the second-highest level since 2018. The highest it has been in the last five years is November 2022 when it stood at 41%.

A “normal” range is between 25% and 30%. Today’s number is a result of softening demand based on higher interest rates.

Proper pricing is always important for a seller and is especially so now as we enter a typically slower time of the year with added challenges related to interest rates.

BlogFun Facts September 15, 2023

$44 Trillion

Have you ever wondered how much all of the residential real estate in the U.S. is worth?

It’s $44.5 trillion.

That’s 44 with 12 zeroes after it.

This data comes from the Federal Reserve’s Quarterly “Z.1” report.

The total valuation increased by $2.4 Trillion over the last quarter and is essentially flat compared to one year ago.

In total, liabilities on residential properties (mortgages, equity loans, etc.) is $12.9 trillion.

So, collectively, residential property owners in the U.S. have a 71% equity share and owe 29% of the value.

Uncategorized September 4, 2023

UPS AND DOWNS

Here is a look at how the market performed in August versus August 2022

 

Prices:

Larimer County Up 4%

Weld County Up 8%

Metro Denver Up 6%

 

Transactions:

Larimer County Down 18%

Weld County Down 31%

Metro Denver Down 15%

 

Inventory:

Larimer County Up 18%

Weld County No Change

Metro Denver Down 4%

BlogFun Facts August 28, 2023

Where It’s At

New Homes are where it’s at.

By ‘it,’ we mean inventory.

Given low supply of existing homes, home buyers have figured out that new homes offer an effective place to find homes for sale.

Here are the stats…

Inventory of existing homes is down 7.7% year over year. And, last year’s inventory was historically low.

Meanwhile, sales of new homes rose 4.4%. This increase was much more than most analysts expected.

New Homes are where it is at.

BlogFun Facts August 21, 2023

PROTESTING!

The number of protests filed with Colorado’s 64 county assessors increased 300% in 2023 compared to the average number of protests from the previous three assessment cycles.

Property owners filed at least 308,298 protests with Colorado’s 64 county assessors this year, which compares to an average of 103,000 annual protests in the last three assessment cycles in 2021, 2019 and 2017.

The increase was due to the amount values increased from this valuation period versus the last one. This was because the time frame considered for comparable sales, July 1 2020 to June 30 2022, was arguably the most robust real estate market in our lifetime.

BlogFun Facts August 11, 2023

Showings to Sell

How many showings will a property have before it sells?

In Northern Colorado, the answer is eight.

This is according to our local MLS system called IRES which tracks the median number of showings a property has before going under contract.

This information is valuable to sellers so they can have realistic expectations while starting the process of selling their home.

It is also a useful guideline to gauge if a property is priced correctly. If a home has had more than eight showings but is not under contract yet, there may be an issue with the price and/or condition.

Counterintuitively, this statistic is lower today than it was in the hot market of 2021. Back then the median was 12 in Larimer County and 10 in Weld County.

The reason why it was higher then, even though the market was stronger, is because there were many more buyers looking at properties. Back then there were so many buyers that many homes only allowed 15-minute showing windows in order to accommodate all of the people who wanted to see homes.