2009 City of Louisville Real Estate Sales Statistics – Zip code 80027

The City of Louisville, Colorado has been a consistent performer on the local real estate scene.  Louisville is a town of roughly 20,000 people located approximately 7 miles northeast of Boulder, Colorado.  It has been honored by Money Magazine as the “Best Place to Live” in its size category for two straight years.  Whenever I look at comparative statistics such as, under contract percentage or absorption rate (an indication of market flow), Louisville always ranks at, or near the top when compared to the rest of Boulder County.

There were 271 sales (single family, condos, investment) within Louisville during 2009, twelve more than were recorded in 2008.  At any given time it is common to find low a inventory of homes on the market and in contrast to its close neighbor, you can find a very nice 3 bedroom home for the median price of $331,000.  Median prices have increased every year over the past decade and were up almost 4% during 2009.  The rest of Boulder County was down 3% last year.

 

The absorption rate is a measure of market flow which relates the current inventory to the number of homes that sell during an average month.  In Louisville, the absorption rate is approximately 3.5 months.  This means that it would take 3.5 months to sell all of the homes currently on the market given the sales rate over the past year (a theoretical study but interesting nonetheless).  For comparison the average absorption rate in the City of Boulder is about 6.5 months.

Louisville has much going for it right now but the future looks especially bright.  Conoco Phillips is in the process of building a major corporate campus on the old Storage Tek site.  This campus’ first phase is scheduled to be completed in 2013 and will bring multiple thousand jobs to the area.  If you are interested in making an investment in Louisville Colorado give me a call.  All statistics are from data collected from IRES MLS and are compiled by Neil Kearney, Broker/Owner of Kearney Realty Co. Metro Brokers.

2009 City of Boulder Home Sales Statistics – 80301, 80302, 80303, 80304, 80305

Real estate sales within the city limits of Boulder were more deeply affected by the tough market conditions in 2009 than Boulder County as a whole.  Total sales of all types of residential real estate were down 21% within Boulder while the broader market of Boulder County was down 15% when compared to 2008 sales.  The main reason why the sales were down more in the city than in the county was price.  The median price in the City of Boulder is nearly twice than those in the county as a whole and this year the lower price ranges were selling much better than the higher priced homes.  

Median prices within the City of Boulder for all residential sales was down just 1.8% at a combined price of $393,000.  The median price of single family detached homes in the City of Boulder were $525,000.  This represents a decrease of 2.4%.  For condos the median price for all sales during the year was $242,000; this represents a decrease of 2.8% for the year.

Absorption rate is a statistic which analyzes both inventory and sales.  The result of the equation is a number which shows the number of months it would take to sell all of the current inventory given the sales rate over the past year.  The charts below show year end absorption rates for both single family homes and condos within Boulder Colorado.  The closer you get to zero, the better the market (at least for a seller).  Currently, it would take between six and seven months to sell all of the available homes. 

November 2009 – Boulder County Real Estate Market Report

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November 2009 Boulder Real Estate Report

The report above are the latest market statistics for the Boulder Real Estate Market and it includes multiple charts with annotations.  The numbers include sales from all of Boulder County including: Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Longmont, Superior, and unincorporated Boulder County.   Just click on the slide presentation and take a look, no registration required, just good information.

The highlights for the real estat market this month are a huge increase in the number of sales compared to last November.  We are at levels very similar to 2007.

Boulder Real Estate Weekly Activity Index

The activity in the market continues to surprise me.  I just did a quick preview of November sales and total sales in Boulder County are going to be way up for November compared to a year ago.  I see three major factors fueling the real estate market in the Boulder area:  higher consumer confidence, first-time homebuyer tax credit and low interest rates.

The unemployment rate in Boulder County is 6%, well below the national average.  It looks like many of those happily employed people are deciding to buy real estate while the conditions are just right.

On a related side note.  Segate, a large employer who has employees in Longmont Colorado had layoffs and mandatory 10% pay cuts about a year ago.  From what I have heard, the company has reinstated the original pay scale.  This type of action frees up the wallets of all of the employees who are no longer afraid for their jobs.

Boulder County Home Values

The top headline in the Boulder Daily Camera this morning was:

“Boulder County home values see first annual drop in 21 years

Boulder median price falls $40,000 since last October”

The top headline was technically correct but the sub-headline was very misleading and did not correspond with the first statement.  Here’s the deal.  According the FHFA the government agency that tracks home values, Boulder County’s home stock lost an average of .056%  over the past year.  True, this was the first time since 1988 our fine county has seen red figures, but at just over 1/2% this corresponds to just over $3,200 based on an average price last year of $573,000.  This percentage still ranks us well above the national average of -3.76% over the past year and ranks us 80th out of 297 metropolitan areas they track.

So where does the $40,000 drop come from?  The Boulder Area Realtor Association releases statistics each month and last October the median price of sales that occurred during October was $573,000.  During October of this year the sales mix just happened to have a median price in the within the city of $533,500.  Taking one month of data and drawing broad conclusions is not a good way to go about reporting statistics.  During the same month sales were up 11% from the previous year, but it would be preposterous to say that “sales are up 11% since last October”.

I’m not saying that some sectors in the Boulder area real estate market are not losing value.  The high end especially is under price pressure.  I’m just saying that letting the public believe that home values have dropped $40,000 based on 1/12 of the data needed to make an informed reporting is just not correct.

Below is a chart that shows historical data from FHFA.gov and compares Boulder County appreciation to the Nations.