by neil kearney | Feb 27, 2007 | Statistics
Showing Activity
A good gauge of market strength is the number of showings that are being set up by listing offices. Roughly 2/3 of the offices (a guess) set up showings using our MLS providers showing service. These showings are searchable by area and time frame and gives an interesting frame of reference on where the action is taking place.
The weather finally broke a few weeks ago and it has been great to see the ground clear of snow. It looks like the buyers are liking it as well. During the seven days starting January 15th there were 749 total showings for single family homes in Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Superior and Longmont. During the first week of February we were had 687 showings, the second week 829 and the third week 1,007 showings. There were 46% more showings the third week than the first week!
I also searched by price range for the month to see how many showings the average listing had per price range.
- Less than $200,000 2.26 showings thus far in February
- $200,001 – $400,000 2.56 showings thus far in February
- $400,001 – $600,000 2.70 showings thus far in February
- $600,001 – $800,000 2.05 showings thus far in February
- $800,001 – $1,000,000 1.12 showings thus far in February
- Greater than $1,000,000 1.13 showings thus far in February
Not many showings per listing for a three and a half week period but, as I mentioned before this does not represent all of the showings set during the month but it does give a good comparison across time, area and price range. It seems like the market is heating up a bit.
by neil kearney | Feb 14, 2007 | Statistics, Uncategorized |
While we don’t have 02114 in Boston, 10021 in New York City or 90210 in Beverly Hills in our local market. We do have 80302 and 80304! The chart below shows the median price for all residential sales by zip code for some of our local areas. It is interesting to see the difference.
by neil kearney | Jan 15, 2007 | Boulder County Housing Trends, Statistics
As a full time Realtor®, I get this question a lot. Before answering I try to understand their situation and then give them the information. Our market is not as seasonal as some areas but I suppose it more so than others. Homes sell every month of the year and no matter when you put your home on the market it has to be ready for the market. That is, clean, in good condition and most importantly priced correctly. The chart below shows closed transactions for each month for the past three years. To get the time when these homes actually found a buyer subtract 30-45 days.
You can see that June has traditionally been the month with the most closings so that means that the end of April through the begining of June are the “hotest”times in the market. It is interesting to note that while the number of sales was down during 2006 the market timing remained the same.
Tomorrow I will reveal if there are any similar pattern to prices. Do you get more by listing your house in April?
by neil kearney | Jan 15, 2007 | Statistics
In the next few days I’d like to present a few more recent statistics compiled from year end sales figures from IRES (our Northern Colorado MLS). Today I’d like to present inventory numbers by price range for Boulder County. Next I will present a graph that will show you the best months in which to sell your home.
As I have mentioned before, inventory as I figure it is a comparative statistic. If you take one figure itself it may not agree with other figures such as Days to Offer or Days on the Market. Inventory shows the relative strength of a given area, year and in this case price range. It freezes a point in time and says “given what we know, how will the future look”. In this case we know how many homes have sold for any given range during the past twelve months. We then compare this known on a monthly basis to another known, how many homes on the market. We then compare these two figures by dividing the number of active homes currently on the market by the average number of sales per month during the past tweleve months. This gives us the number of months it would take to sell all of the current listings assuming that there are no new listings coming on the market (of course this would never happen).
So for today I’d like to show the relative strength of different price ranges in Boulder County for both single family homes and attached dwellings and compare those numbers to what I compiled at the end of the third quarter.
Single Family Homes – In general you can see that as prices rise so does inventory. The price ranges through $700,000 are around 5 months of inventory while the prices above $1,000,000 are at least 10 months and up to 20 months for homes above 1.5 million. You can see that all inventory numbers are below those recorded at the end of September. We did have a reasonable fall but I think some of this has to do with sellers taking their homes off the market for the Holidays.
Attached Dwellings – There is less variability in condos and townhouses until you get to the luxury segment above $600,000. Most of the numbers are between 4 and 8 months with the average being 6.02 months.
Have a great week! Note the photo of the Flatirons shown above was shot this morning from the parking area of the
29th Street Mall across from my office. Cold, but a beautiful blue sky!
by neil kearney | Jan 10, 2007 | Statistics
Median prices of single family homes in Boulder County were up 5.11% for the year. All communities showed some appreciation with the exception of Lafayette which had just a slight decline. Average prices were up across the board for the year. The chart below shows the increase of median prices over time. As you can see the gap between Boulder and its neighbors has become more pronounced as time has gone by. This is mostly due to the proliferation of new and remodeled, high end properties in the city of Boulder.
The median price for an attached dwelling in Boulder County increased by just under 1% for the year. In the City of Boulder the median price in December 2005 is exactly the same as it is now $240,000. The largest increase was in Louisville where the net gain was 6.4% for the year.
Days on Market and Days to Offer remained roughly the same as compared with year end 2005 figures. On average it took 74 days to obtain an acceptable offer. In my experience this number is a lower than it should be due to the realities of agents and sellers withdrawing homes from the market and re-listing them to “refresh” the listing. This practice happens in all markets so I believe the comparison across years paints a fairly accurate picture.
by neil kearney | Jan 9, 2007 | Statistics
While I’m already into 2007 working and planning toward another successful year helping buyers and sellers, it is very helpful to look back on 2006 to see where we are and where we may be headed.
Before I present some of the stats I have compiled, I’d like to share with you some of the thoughts I have regarding the market that are not necessarily easy to see in the numbers. Here is what I noticed in 2006:
- There were a ton of vacant houses and condos for sale. This is a result of the softer than normal rental market. Many landlords have decided that selling was a better idea than trying to get a tenant only to find that it was a pretty tough year to find a buyer. Especially when the property was not in pristine shape.
Many houses did not sell and were withdrawn from the market after many months of trying. Only well priced homes are selling quickly. Buyers have many homes to see and it is very hard to fool “the market”.
Once a buyer for a house was found the negotiation tended to favor the buyer on inspection issues. There were many new roofs, furnaces, hot water heaters etc. paid for by the seller this year. Many had the attitude of “just let me be done with it”.
Although the statistics show at least some appreciation, many areas have been losing value. This year I represented a Buyer in buying a house for $11,000 less than the Sellers had purchased for 5 years ago!
One of the statistics I love for comparison purposes is “months of inventory”. This statistic relates houses currently on the market to the number sold during the last 12 months. The chart below shows the amount of inventory in months for the different sub-areas in Boulder County. The inventory is derived by dividing the number of current listings by the average number of sales per month during the preceding 12 months. It answers the question, “how long would it take to sell the homes currently on the market?”. The inventory is the greatest in the mountain areas and the lowest in Louisville. Both Erie and the mountain areas showed improvement from December 2005.
Although the figures for the County are similar, in general the inventory is higher for attached dwellings. 
I will continue highlighting year end statistics in the coming days. Stay tuned!
