by neil kearney | Sep 22, 2010 | Uncategorized
Yesterday we hosted a broker open house at 772 Circle Drive. It is listed for $5,900,000 and understandably, brokers and some members of the public at large wanted to see the epitome of luxury real estate in Boulder. We had well over 100 people come and the food started to run out around 11:30. The house got rave reviews from the toughest critics.
The day was beautiful and with all of the people the house really shined as a star for entertaining. People were eating and drinking up on the top deck, the back patio the east patio and near the lower fountain. The accordion doors were wide open, melding the kitchen with the deck. This will be an incredible home to the lucky new owner.
For more information check out the full website.
by neil kearney | Sep 10, 2010 | Statistics
My latest real estate newsletter went out earlier this week. For those of you not on my snail mail list I wanted to share it with you.
Topics in the newsletter include:
- A comprehensive market update.
- An explanation of short sales from the buyer and seller perspective.
- Population trends and how those affect real estate value.
- Home appreciation statistics from Boulder County and around the United States.
I try to make my newsletters rich with content. No recepies or cleaning tips, just local, pointed real estate news that you can’t find anywhere else. If want to make sure that you don’t miss the next issue send me an email with your address and I will put you on my list. Don’t worry I would never give or sell your address. I appreciate the opportunity to be in touch.
Neil@NeilKearney.com
by neil kearney | Sep 7, 2010 | Uncategorized
At approximately 10:30 am on Labor Day a fire broke out just west of Boulder. In the dry conditions and strong winds the fire spread quickly. There has been no official count of “lost” homes but it looks like a substantial loss. One of our family friends rode up Sunshine Canyon with a Sheriff and found their house was burned to the ground.
Currently, there is a steady stream of air tankers shuttling between Broomfield and the fire right over my office. Hopefully, the fire can be brought to containment quickly before more people are displaced.
The picture was taken from my front yard in Gunbarrel yesterday. The sky had a red glow and this morning we woke up with the smell of smoke in our house.
For more details go to:
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=wp&feedId=591
http://www.boulderoem.com/component/content/article/5
http://www.9news.com/
by neil kearney | Aug 25, 2010 | Boulder County Housing Trends, Statistics
FHFA.gov just released their Home Appreciation Index for the second quarter of 2010. I’m always interested in this report as it gives a good outside comparison to see how home values are doing right here in Boulder County. The report computes home appreciation based upon same house sales. That is, when a house sells they go back and research what that exact home sold for in the past. This method gives a good indication of what prices are actually doing in any given area over time.
For the four quarters ending on June 30, 2010 homes in Boulder County lost 1.92% on average. Out of the approximately 300 areas that they track Boulder ranks 72nd in appreciation. In other words, Boulder area real estate has done better than 75% of the other areas in the United States.
On a wider level, average appreciation for the year ending June 30th was -1.6%. Colorado ranked 14th among states with a yearly appreciation of -.25%. Interestingly, California, after a few years of large price depreciation is back on top home appreciation among states with a yearly appreciation of 2.9%.
The graphs below shows home appreciation in Boulder County over time compared to the United States and Boulder County’s national ranking over time.
Just in case you are interested in the areas of the country that are doing the best and worst right now in terms of home appreciation here are the top and bottom 10.
Top Ten Areas for Home Appreciation for Period Ending June 30, 2010:
- Springfield, IL – 2.68%
- Dubuque, IA – 2.41%
- San Jose- Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA – 1.89%
- Santa Ana – Anaheim – Irvine, CA – 1.45%
- Huntington-Ashland, WV, KY, OH – 1.4%
- Kennewick – Pasco – Richland, WA – 1.36%
- Houma – Bayou – Cane – Thibodaux, LA – 1.31%
- Buffalo – Niagra Falls, NY – 1.3%
- Sioux City, IA, SD, NE – 1.16%
- Cedal Rapids, IA – .94%
Bottom 10 Areas for Home Appreciation for Period Ending June 30, 2010:
303. Bend, OR – -18.59%
302. Ocala, FL – -18.55%
301. Madera – Chowchilla, CA – -17.64%
300. Lakeland – Winter Haven, FL – -17.61%
299. Reno – Sparks, NV – -17.31%
298. Orlando – Kissimmee – Sanford, FL – -16.11%
297. Lake Havasu City – Kingman, AZ – -15.09
296. Deltona – Daytona Beach – Ormond Beach, FL – -14.98%
295. Port St. Lucie, FL – -14.42%
294. Las Vegas – Paradise, NV – -13.94%
While home appreciation is not the only indicator of the health of any given real estate market, it does give a good indication of what is going on. To me it looks like the extremes are not quite so divergent and some areas which have been hit by large depreciation don’t have so much to give. We still have a ways to go toward recovery. After all, this is only the 9th quarter in which the United States has every seen home depreciation. It just so happens that it has been 9 quarters in a row.
Boulder County home appreciation, although at -1.92% is fairly benign given that homes have appreciated by 4.72% over the past five years.
by neil kearney | Aug 19, 2010 | Boulder County Housing Trends, Statistics |
The summer is winding down. The kids are back in school. The nights are a bit cooler. The commonly held belief is that summer is the best time to sell a home. That might have once been the case but we have seen a shift. Late spring seems to be when the most buyers are shopping for homes. Typically, the most contracts are written in May and the most closings come in June. Some years this shifts a bit but for most years this is the typical pattern.
During the past few years I have found mid-July to mid-August to be quite slow. Vacations and varied activities seem to get in the way of serious house hunting. I have also found that once school starts we have a bit of a fall surge that lasts through the end of October. Maybe this past week signaled the beginning of the “surge”.
This past week 88 contracts were written and accepted in Boulder County. This represents the most since we had 98 the last week in May. This year our top weeks for contracts accepted were the final weeks in April when we averaged 155 contracts per week.
The interest rates are still great! This means that as a buyer of Boulder real estate you can comfortably afford more home. Let me know how I can be of service.
