The themes so far for the year in the Boulder real estate market are; low inventory and high demand. This is a great combination has lead to increases in prices and quick sales. Great for sellers, not so much for buyers.
Typically the months of April, May and June are the busiest months here for real estate transactions and this year so far is no different.
In order for the market to run efficiently you need enough listings to fill demand. So far this year we have had a definite shortage. The chart below shows the number of new listings that have come on the market in Boulder County on a weekly basis over the past four years. The purple line is this year and we have been lagging behind all year. It is interesting that when there were few buyers and low demand in 2010 there were many new listings. Maybe this has something to do with the practice of withdrawing and re-entering a listing on the MLS if it has been on the market for an extended period, hmmm.
The second chart shows the number of properties that have gone under contract on a weekly basis. It compares same week data over the past four years. You can see how the purple line (this year) has been really strong all year compared to the data over the past four years. From this chart you can see that the most activity in the market actually took place in late March. Since then the market has cooled a bit but is now gaining strength again as summer begins. We usually see a fall off in market activity sometime in June.
