Boulder County has one of the hottest real estate markets in the entire country. There continues to be three major factors operating in the Boulder County real estate market; low inventory, strong buyer demand and rapidly rising prices. Interestingly, despite the high buyer demand, sales actually decreased over 14% for the quarter. The only cause that seems to have a direct correlation is the lack of inventory of active listings. At the end of the quarter the available inventory of residential properties for sale throughout the county was down 15%.
It’s competitive out there! During the first quarter, 42% of the properties that sold through our regional MLS system sold for a price above the asking price. Presumably most of these sales were multiple offer situations. The average premium paid above list was $21,865 or an average of 5.33% above list. Another 20% of sales sold for exactly list price.
Because of low inventory and high demand the prices are rapidly increasing. At the end of the 4th quarter of 2015 Boulder County ranked 7th in the nation for home appreciation with over 13% for the proceeding 12 months. The trend has not slowed one bit during the first quarter. Prices at the end of the 1st quarter were up over 13% from a year ago. In the City of Boulder the change was even more pronounced, up 22% from the year-ago quarter. That is a spot number, not an average over four quarters but even still, the appreciation is astounding. Below are some quick facts about the Boulder County real estate market for the most recent quarter.
The chart above shows prices in Boulder County over the past five years (average price =blue line, median price = green line) compared to the United Sates average (orange line). The chart below shows the percentage of sales in each price range. The comparison shows data from the first quarter over the past three years. There has been a definite shift to the right as prices have risen throughout the county. Two years ago 32% of the sales were $250,000 or below, this past quarter it was 12%.
