by neil kearney | Mar 12, 2007 | Colorado Lifestyle
Spring Activity
I usually limit my postings to relevant real estate news and statistics, focusing on Boulder County. Today my post will be a 
bit more general in nature but with a bit of a real estate tie-in at the end.
Spring is in the air and this year (after a more snow than usual (typical understatement)) it is more appreciated than ever. This weekend the roads were full of bikers. In Boulder bikers means people riding bicycles, more often than not titanium and costing more than a kitchen remodel, but I digress. The runners were out as well. Most every Sunday of the year the Boulder Road Runners holds a group run that we see as we head to church. The group has dwindled to a hearty few to none this winter, but Sunday they were back in full force enjoying the ice-free trails. People were also out working in the yard, walking the dog, washing the car and generally enjoying the extra hour of sunlight that the early daylight savings time brought us.
Another sign of spring is baseball. I spent part of Sunday helping to pour concrete at the North Boulder Little League fields. We are putting in two batting cages and a safety net for the fans between the fields. My son starts practice today and with 7o degree weather it should be a great start to a long season.
I love spring for many reasons. One of them is that it is a busy time for real estate. It is easier to show properties because of daylight savings time and sellers are making plans for summer moves. Have a great week!
by neil kearney | Mar 7, 2007 | Uncategorized
Ranking Overstates Colorado Foreclosures
Over the past year or so the Colorado Division of Housing was feeling that Colorado’s ranking as the state with the highest foreclosure rate was overstated. In response to this “feeling” they compiled their own statistics from each Colorado county and compared that to the numbers reported by RealtyTrac a national company that tracks and markets foreclosed properties. The results were recently compiled and the Colorado Division of Housing reported that the number of foreclosed properties in the state, 28,435 was about half of what was reported by RealtyTrac. This computes to one foreclosure for every 58 households. RealtyTrac had reported that Colorado had a nations worst,one foreclosure for every 33 households. The discrepancy most likely came as a result of how Colorado has a transparent three-tiered process for foreclosures. While this is better news and will probably put Colorado out of the top ten, the state still has not seen this many lost homes since the late 1980’s.
Of the 11 Denver Metro Counties Boulder had the fewest foreclosures with one foreclosure in every 144 households. The county which has been hardest hit in our area is Adams County with one of every 32 households affected.
Maybe RealtyTrac can use this data and figure out where their system has broken down. I’d sure like to see more good news in the media about real estate.
by neil kearney | Mar 5, 2007 | Boulder County Housing Trends, Statistics
National and Local 4th Quarter 2006 House Appreciation Data
Boulder/Longmont ranks 223 in appreciation
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) released 4th quarter 2006 data last week. Nationally, home prices are 5.9% higher than last year and show a 1.1% increase for the quarter. OFHEO uses data compiled from conventional loans (new purchases and refinances less than $418,000) to compare same house sales over time. I think the statistics are fairly sound but I have one knock with them. In many markets including Boulder, there is a large percentage of homes that sell without using conventional financing. Most of these homes are in higher price ranges and these statistics do not include this sales data. That said, on with the data…
The Boulder/Longmont MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) showed a 1 year increase of 1.68% and an increase of .14% for the 4th quarter. The annual appreciation rates us 223rd nationally out of 282 MSA’s. Six months ago we were ranked 218th with an annual appreciation of 3.55 and a quarterly appreciation of 2.6%, obviously the market has slowed since last spring. Hopefully, we will see a jump in the next few months. Colorado is ranked 43rd with a 3.32% annual appreciation rate, but the quarterly rate of .87% ranks 33 nationally. The appreciation rate has decelerated nationally.
The states with the greatest rates of appreciation between 4th quarter 2005 and 4th quarter 2006 were: Utah (17.6%), Wyoming (14.3%), Idaho (14%), Washington (13.7%), and Oregon (13.5%). The states with the lowest appreciation for the same period were: Michigan (-.4%), Massachusetts (.5%), Ohio (1%), Indiana (2.3%), and Minnesota (2.5%).
Some other interesting statistics:
- California saw quarterly appreciation rates that were negative in 21 of the 26 ranked cities on OFHEO’s list.
- Prices in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina showed double digit growth, caused by lack of housing supply.
- Annual rates of appreciation slowed in all nine census division (Pacific, Mountain etc.) relative to the third quarter.
For more data and information please go directly to http://www.ofheo.gov/
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 2, 2007 | Uncategorized
Happy New Year!
I’d like to wish everyone a very happy and successful 2007! I’m looking forward to it and spring into the year with loads of energy and enthusiasm. I will be compiling my year end statistics during the next week and will be posting those results.
Our area was “discovered” long ago and has been growing ever since. The allure of Boulder has been written about since the 70’s. Remember when Time magazine touted Boulder as the place where the “Hip meet to trip”? I can imagine that the Chamber of Commerce didn’t especially like that tag line. Well, the press has improved and here are the latest accolations from the media about Boulder. This list was taken straight from the Boulder Chamber of Commerce website http://www.BoulderColoradoUSA.com
2006
Top 10 Places to Retire – Bottom Line Retirement, January 2006
Place You Dream of Living – Backpacker Magazine, February 2006
Best City for Cycling – Bicycling Magazine, March 2006
Best of the Best – Men’s Journal, April 2006
Top 10 Greenest Cities – Homestore.com, April 2006
Best Place to Retire for Outdoor Addicts – Fortune Magazine, June 2006
#10 in “Top 25 Small Cities & Towns for Art” – AmericanStyle Magazine, June 2006
#3 in “Top 10 Brainiest Small Cities” – Bizjournals.com, June 2006
Best City for Singles – Forbes.com, July 2006
#1 in “20 Dream Towns” – Outside Magazine, August 2006
Top 12 Best Veg-Friendly Places to Live – VegNews, August 2006
#4 Heart-Healthiest City – Men’s Journal, August 2006
#9 Best City for Green Meetings – Meetings and Conventions, August 2006
2005
#1 Best Place to Live – Men’s Journal, March 2005
#1 Best Place to Live – Successful Meetings, 2005
Colorado’s Best Workplaces for Commuters – United States EPA, April, 2004 #6 in “The 100 Best Art Towns in America” by John Villani#7 Best Running Cities in America – Runner’s World Magazine, August 2005 #7 in Top 10 Cities for Masters athletes – GeezerJock Magazine, September 2005#18 in the Top 25 Art Cities – American Style Magazine, June 2005 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live – book by Gregory A. Kompes, November 2005
Top 20 Greenest Spots in the Country – Vegetarian Times, July/August 2005
The Best Cities for Relocating Families (Boulder/Longmont) – Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation, 2005
2004#1 of Top 20 Boom Towns – Business 2.0, March 2004Top 10 cities for Animal Wellness in North American – Animal Wellness Magazine, March 2004Colorado’s Best Workplaces for Commuters – United States EPA, April, 2004 Five Impressive Cities; Making a Difference in the Environment -Delicious Living Magazine, April 2004 Bicycle Friendly Community – League of American Bicyclists, April 2004Nation’s Reigning Bike Friendly Community – The League of American Bicyclists, June 2004Best Place in the Country for Singles (Denver-Boulder) – Forbes.com, June 2004The Best Small Cities – Men’s Journal, June 2004The Best Cities for Relocating Families (Boulder/Longmont) – Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation, Sept. 2004
