Good News Bad News
The Boulder County real estate market has started the year a little slower than in 2013. Last winter, tight inventory + very low interest rates + a sense of recovery in Boulder county real estate led to huge numbers. Sales were strong, with multiple offers and by year’s end, values were up.
And this positive trend was mirrored nationally. Core Logic reports January 2013 to 2014 home values gained 12%. Nationally, January marks the 23rd month of year over year price gains.
So the good news is a sense of recovery, home values climbing. What is the bad news? Low inventory. The persistent lack of well priced homes is affecting the Boulder county real estate market.
Through February/2014 Boulder county real estate single family homes sales are down 296 vs. 354. So are attached units down 9.5% (123 vs. 136) . Overall the Boulder county real estate market is down 14.5%. And the biggest culprit for all of this is the lack of inventory.
Fewer active listings would lead one to believe there would be fewer sales.
IMHO, there is another factor as well. Interest rates. Beyond our control, the rate at which home buyers pay back their mortgages is up. Rates this year are around 4.25%. This time last year? About a point lower. Buyers rushed to get those low rates last year. Not quite so much this year.
Higher interest rates are also contributing to a slowing of the market
As always, I will be touching on the high and low sale in Boulder momentarily. I do want to add a thought. I hear buyers and friends and folks at parties worry about a repeat of the recession. Or a new housing bubble. I saw a great graph in a presentation a few weeks ago. It showed Denver’s home values. There was this spike downward in 2008 – the bottom of the recession. And then nothing but upwards gains since. So much so, in fact, that Denver’s market is above the pre recession levels of five years ago. And that is the really important item to remember in Boulder and Denver. The recession bottomed out FIVE years ago. We are deep into a recovery and there is great opportunity out there for home buyers. I will be writing more this here: Link to Part two.
High and Low Boulder county real estate sales this week
Talk about an affordable Boulder home. 835 35th Street Boulder 80303 sold this month for $320,000. This three bedroom one bathroom home was listed at $340,000 and took a significant $20K price reduction. MLS # 724392.
At the other end of our Boulder county real estate market, there were five closings over one million dollars. The highest sale this week was for 2233 4th St Boulder, 80302 (MLS 705884), closing at $1,600,000. A premium home on a 10,000 square foot lot. Spared from flood damage, this lovely home on Boulder’s west side took just shy of a year to sell.
See these Boulder county real estate listings now – click this link.