To say the real estate market in Boulder is busy is an understatement. The market is red hot! New 
listings are getting as much attention as piece of cheese at a mouse convention.
Here is some hard evidence which illustrates what is going on in the market. The list below shows the new listings that have come on the market in the city of Boulder priced under $600,000 over the past two weeks. As you can see there have been 16 new listings. Of those, 11 are already under contract. Of the five that are not under contract; two are brand new listings today, one was listed yesterday, one was listed four days ago and the worn listing of the bunch has been listed a whopping eight days! On the chart below A/B under the status column signifies that is under contract but taking backup offers.
After a long cycle where buyers have been in the drivers seat the market has clearly shifted to a sellers market. Let me give you a few examples of seller confidence as seen in the listings above.
875 38th – This home is a nicely maintained and modestly updated home in the starter home neighborhood of Baseline Subdivision. Over the past year the average price per square foot in this neighborhood has been $312. The price per square foot on this listing came to $380. The previous high over the past year on a per square foot price was $362. This home was listed on February 21st and it was marked as under contract by February 25th with what the listing agent says is a “close to full price offer”.
804 Brooklawn – This is basically a vacant lot listing. The house probably won’t be worth saving since it sits on a very large lot. The house across the street is under contract and is listed for just under $1.1 million. This home closed on February 19th for $430,000. It came back on the market four days ago for $550,000.
3255 Emerson – This house is brand new on the market today. They know the market is hot. They have announced in the listing that all offers will be presented Sunday at 4 pm. I wonder how many they will get?
We put a house on the market last week and within four days we had four offers. The property went for well above list price and we have a backup offer.
What is causing this dramatic sellers market? Buyers are out in force ready to buy and the supply of homes is no where near satisfying the demand. At the end of January there were 1171 properties on the market in all of Boulder County which didn’t have a contract on it. As we progress toward spring you would expect more properties to be available but the opposite is true. As of this morning, exactly four weeks later there are 900 single family residential listings on the market available.
How long this will last will be anyone’s guess, but for the moment we have extreme competition for the best new listings and that competition is causing prices to rise.
