Here we are two days before Thanksgiving, a storm is expected to bring heavy snow to the high country
and before you know it the holiday season will be in full force. Usually this means that the real estate market goes into hibernation, waiting for spring. But this year has been a bit different than past years. Recently I likened the 2010 market to a sharks fin, steady up and then off the cliff. Well since July we have been riding on the back of the shark, just sliding along at a constant pace.
Today I decided to use a couple of statistics to measure how we are doing in terms of activity. I like to use under contract percentage and inventory (other people call it absorption rate) to compare the market activity across time. Here is what I found.
I found that the local Boulder area real estate market is doing fairly well. Right now the percentage of homes under contract in Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Longmont, Suburban Mountains and Suburban Plains are all at higher levels then they were back in July, August and September. We have fewer homes on the market right now but still I think this shows some good backbone to the market. Some baseline strength.
Inventory is a measure of how long it would take to sell all active homes on the market given a historic sales rate (past 12 months). Again, this months numbers are lower than any month since the tax credit expired.
The attached presentation shows these statistics graphically.
