Denver Real Estate Blog

Denver’s Crazy Market

Wed, 8 Feb 2012 12:37:27 -0700

Denver’s real estate market is verging on being a little bit crazy right now. I’m feeling sorry for all the buyers out there that are trying to find a home and having trouble. And also for those of you who have written offers but keep losing out to other buyers.

I’ve got a good explanation for this. Inventory. Inventory is the amount of homes available for sale right now. In 2007 we had over 43,000 homes on the market available for purchase. Unbelievable numbers and one of the reasons homes were sitting for a long time. At the beginning of 2011 we had 17,000 homes on the market, I know, less then half of the homes from 2007. Right now we have just over 10,000 homes on the market. If your wondering why things are going so fast and many times with multiple offers, and higher then asking price, this is your answer.

What can you do?

You need to have the ability to act fast. You need to receive daily searches that meet your criteria, both new on the market and price drops. Most people don’t have the ability to send you price drops, but find somebody that can, like me, because then you are going to see homes that others might not realize have hit their price range until too late. Make sure the search sends you the homes the day of listing. Many websites take two to three days to receive the listings, and often this is too late.

If you need help or want one of these services then call, text, or email me and I’ll get you setup.

Daniel Herron - 720-323-9178 - danielherron@kw.com

Denver Ranks 9th in Best City to Move too

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:17:50 -0700

Denver ranks 9th in the best cities to relocate too. CNBC did an article on research done by a fellow named Bert Sperling of bestplaces.com.

He said back in the 90’s it was low crime and good schools. Well given the current economic situation the most important things for people have changed. Now its based on jobs and affordability. Makes things very interesting.

Here’s what they said about Denver.

9. Denver-Aurora, CO

Denver-Aurora also scored points for stability and affordability - and because it has a very attractive downtown.
The city has a lot to offer in the way of arts - not just museums but also a lot of public art. Plus, it's one of the few cities that has teams from four major sports - the Denver Broncos football team, Colorado Rockies baseball team, Colorado Avalanche hockey team and Denver Nuggets basketball team.
Plus, the city is surrounded by some of the highest mountain peaks in the nation, making for sweeping vistas and an outstanding array of outdoor activities, such as hiking, biking and skiing. Aurora is an eastern suburb of the city, with a lot of shopping and cultural events, plus it has more than 1,800 acres of park land, at least a dozen golf courses and a 200-acre nature center.
The unemployment rate is 7.4 percent, below the national average of 10.2 percent. Indeed ranks it as the No. 11 job market, with two job seekers for every job available.
Companies That Are Hiring Now: Raytheon, Kaiser Permanente, HCA, HealthONE and Deloitte, according to Indeed.com.

For more of the article go too.
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/best-cities-to-move-to-in-america.html

Federal Reserve set for action - Now what?

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 13:54:05 -0600

The federal reserve is meeting this Tuesday and Wednesday and looks set to make some dramatic moves to try and kick start the sluggish economy.

We recently had one of the top economists who advises the high faluting political types in to address Keller Williams as a region. He seemed to think that we are in for more of a mess before anything gets better. He also thinks that interest rates will be moving lower. His name is Roger A Arnold and he’s written several books on economics.

The word is that the fed will be pumping hundreds of billions more dollars into buying treasury bonds in order to get things going. Some worry this might artificially prop up the markets again, much as the tax credit did earlier this year. Its hard to tell whether these things just slow down the inevitable or whether they actually make a difference. The tax credit certainly put us in a short term buying frenzy which definitely helped those involved in any part of real estate, but did it pull us out of a slump or was that already happening. Would we be in this slow market now or would the market have steadily picked up?

I tend to think its better to let the markets sort themselves out, especially after the experience of the recent tax credit.

Read more from these articles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/business/economy/02fed.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0116098920101101

Foreclosure Fiasco

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:45:39 -0600

I’m sure most everybody has heard of the foreclosure fiasco over the last couple weeks. The question I’ve been asking myself is how is it going to affect my clients; buyers, sellers, and investors. Well I’ve come to a couple conclusions that I wanted to share with you.

Word had been coming down the pipeline that banks we getting ready to unload their shadow inventory during this 4th quarter of 2010. That would make sense for many reasons which I won’t talk about here. It looks like the fiasco may have slowed that process down, and whenever a process slows down it has time to be re evaluated. If you got my falls newsletter in the mail, I made the prediction that the banks would be unloading the shadow inventory, but now that looks not to be the case.

This should be a good thing for sellers, because with lots of inventory coming on the market we expected prices to go down. WIth that said the only properties that have been selling right now are those in great shape or at great prices.

For buyers it means more of the same. Prices have been trending down a bit in Denver, but mostly because our buyer pool is still weak from the affects of the tax credit, and so there is lots of choices on the market.

For you investors, its tricky, this 4th quarter should yield some good deals, but not quite as many as we had anticipated with the shadow inventory being released. The end of the year always sees banks trying to unload some properties. It should also mean this market will continue until the banks release the shadow inventory, which then we need to be prepared to jump and buy as much as possible, because after the fact it seems foreclosures will be fewer and farther between.

You can read more analysis from the following articles

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2010/10/14/chilling-effect-foreclosure-freeze/

http://www.usfinancialpost.com/bank-foreclosure-fiasco-freeze-will-have-rippling-effects/851093/

Apartment Vacancy Rates Drop for first time in 7 quarters

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:11:57 -0700

Apartment vacancy rates dropped from 9.1% to 7.4% during the third quarter of the year. Vacancy rates are directly tied to unemployment and an indicator of improved economic conditions. Last year in the third quarter vacancy rates were at 6.6% so we are not quite back to those levels but definitely at marked improvement. Read the full article from the Denver post by clicking on the link below.

http://www.denverpost.com/economy/ci_13775923

Here are some other interesting details around the Denver Metro from another article.
Arapahoe County and Denver tied for the highest countywide vacancy rate, at 8.5 percent. Douglas County reported the lowest rate, at 4.3 percent. Vacancy rates for other counties surveyed were: Adams, 6.7 percent; Boulder/Broomfield, 5.5 percent; and Jefferson, 6.3 percent.
The average rent of $882 was up from $870 in the second quarter but down from $892 in the same period a year ago. Only Arapahoe and Douglas counties reported increases in rents compared with the third quarter last year.
The highest average rent was in Douglas County, at $1,058, and the lowest was in Jefferson County, at $818. Average rents for other counties were: Adams, $848; Arapahoe, $862; Boulder/ Broomfield, $951; and Denver, $888.
Read that full article by clicking below.
http://www.denverpost.com/economy/ci_13715427