I’ve just finished The Kearney Report which summarizes the local real estate market in a colorful mostly graphical format. It is 17 pages of great statistical information for Boulder County real estate including breakout sections for Boulder, Gunbarrel, Longmont, and East County (Superior, Louisville, Lafayette, and Erie). To view the entire report click here.
Here are a few excerpts from the summary:
The local real estate market showed surprising strength through the holidays and soon after the calendar turned, buyers were out in force. Buyers currently have many reasons to purchase real estate. Some of the most compelling at the moment are; low interest rates, economic recovery, recognition that prices have bottomed out and are heading up, and increased buyer confidence (based upon the three previous reasons). These causes have had one effect on the local housing market, super high demand. Through the first quarter, sales in Boulder County are up 16% from a year ago and up 33% from the first quarter in 2011. The market is humming along!
It’s too soon to know how much prices have risen but so far this spring I have seen quite a few homes with prices that I thought were way too high go under contract very quickly. According to the latest FHFA.gov price appreciation report, prices in Boulder County had risen 2.08% for the year ending December 31, 2012. Anecdotally, I have seen some homes in some areas sell at levels approximately 15% higher than they would have been a year ago. We’ll see where the averages fall but it is definitely a sellers market.
Multiple offers are very common on homes that are in good condition and are asking a fair price. There is an urgency to make decisions and if a house lasts more than a week or two on the market it is most likely overpriced. A typical scenario right now is where a seller lists their home at a price level that is pushing the market (just to see if anyone will bite). They get 15-20 showings during the first week and then when no offers come in they start chasing the market with price reductions.
