There seems to be some increased activity in the Boulder Colorado real estate market. Spring is coming and March is usually a month when we see more listings and more sales. A gradual lead-up to April and May which are traditionally our top months for activity. ‘More activity’ is a very vague term so I will try to bring some clarity by providing some statistics.
I measure market activity by using both absorption rate (also called inventory) and under contract ratio. Today in part one we will look at under contract ratio. Simply put, this is the percentage of homes active on the market that are under contract. The higher the percentage the more activity there is in any given area or price range. The chart below shows the percentage across different areas in our market. The levels have decreased in all areas when compared to last year.
This next chart shows the under contract percentage by price range. This is very interesting because from my chair it seems like the lower priced homes are moving. The statistics confirm this; 15% of homes under $250,000 are under contract while just 3% of homes above $1.5 Million are under contract.
Homes are selling but we are not up to a normal level in most price ranges. Spring activity may bring us back to where we would expect but it would certainly take increased volume at all price levels, not just the lower levels.
In part 2 I will discuss the inventory levels in all areas and price ranges.
