What is happening in the Boulder real estate market? That’s a tough question but I think I will answer by giving some perspective.
The normal cycle for selling homes in the Boulder Colorado starts slow in the winter, then activity picks up during the spring until it reaches its peak in May or June. After the peak we usually go in a stair step pattern back down to the holidays. The shape of the sales curve during most years is a bell curve. This picture only includes sales so for contracts written you must move the curve to the left 1 month. So where does this put us now that we are in the last week in July? By all accounts we have reached our peak for the year, the only question is how strong the rest of the year will be.
Interest rates are incredible and any buyer who is sitting on the fence worried about the state of the market will be kicking themselves if they don’t take this opportunity. NOW is the time to act!
The chart above shows weekly activity in the Boulder County real estate market since April of 2009. Here you can see the cycles of accepted contracts in blue and closed sales in red. I have highlighted the time frame of late June to late July during 2009 and this year so that it is easier to compare market activity. This year after reaching a climax in contracts on April 30th (end of tax credit) we have seen a sudden a sharp drop which has now stabilized at about 70 contracts accepted in any given week. This is about 10 below last year.
Another measure of if houses are selling is under contract percentage. The higher the percentage, the more activity in the market. As a rule of thumb anything above 15% is considered healthy and strong. Here are some current market statistics for Boulder County.
- All price ranges – 12% of active homes are under contract.
- $400,000 and less – 13.7% of active homes are under contract.
- $400,000 – $800,000 – 13% of active homes are under contract.
- $800,000 – $1.2 million – 8% of homes are under contract.
- Greater than $1.2 million – 4.2% of active homes are under contract.
- City of Boulder – 12.3% of active homes are under contract.
So the answer to the question ‘Are Houses Selling in Boulder County?’ is yes! There is still market activity but frankly I’m surprised more buyers are not taking advantage of fixed rates that start with a “4”.
