September was a very interesting month for the Boulder real estate market. Sales were strong, but the mid-month flooding definitely broke some momentum in the local home market. Sales of all residential properties increased by 18.6% over September of 2012 and this stretched our year-to-date increase to 12.5%. At the end of the month the percentage of homes that were under contract fell roughly 3 points from a month ago to 26%. This was all good and strong information.
Flooding hit the area starting September 12th and during the next week we saw very little activity in the real estate market. Many homes that had water damage that were on the market were pulled from the market and those that might have come on the market during September didn’t as owners cleaned up and fixed up as needed. The inventory of single family homes on the market in Boulder County dropped 24% from August 31st to September 30th.
As mentioned above the percentage of homes that are under contract fell just three points as compared to last month. However, the gross number of homes that went under contract during the month fell by a significant 25%. Since the number of homes on the market decreased at roughly the same pace of the fall in contracts the overall “under contract %” doesn’t jump out at you until you take a closer look.
To view all of the statistical graphs with my annotations click on the slideshow below.
