Double Lumber

The price of lumber has doubled in three months.

 

Lumber is just one of several examples of skyrocketing materials costs which are impacting both home builders and home buyers.

 

The cost of lumber is now at a record-level $1000 per 1000 board feet.

 

These rising costs not only add to the sales price of a home but also add to the inventory shortage issue.  Some large, publicly-traded home building companies are slowing production in hopes of building costs dropping over the next few months.

 

Many people expected lumber prices to drop, or at least level off, when the tariff on Canadian lumber changed in December.

 

However, because demand has been so high from both building and remodeling, lumber costs continue to climb.

Construction

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Job Bounce

“How could the real estate market be so strong in the middle of a pandemic?”

That is a fair question and one we hear frequently from our clients.

There are several reasons for this but two stand out.

  • Interest rates
  • Jobs

Employment has bounced back much quicker than most people expected.  When COVID first showed up, the expectation was that many industries would be hit hard for a prolonged period of time.

The reality is that only a few industries were severely impacted by COVID and the rest were able to get back to a near-normal level of business relatively fast.

Additionally, what we find along the Front Range is that our ‘job bounce’ is even better than the national average.

 

Here are the numbers…

The COVID-peak unemployment rate for the Front Range looked like this:

  • Larimer County = 11.1%
  • Weld County = 10.1%
  • Metro Denver = 12.3%

Today it looks like this:

  • Larimer County = 5.2%
  • Weld County = 5.2%
  • Metro Denver = 6.4%

 

Nationally, unemployment peaked at 14.8% and now stands at 6.7%.

So, a main reason why demand is high now is because jobs have bounced back, and the bounce is even higher than the average across the country.

Bounce

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Prices Still Up

Prices Still Up

It seems that COVID-19 did not cause prices to decrease and certainly didn’t cause them to crash.

Average prices are up compared to last year:

·         2.8% in Larimer County

·         5.4% in Weld County

·         3.3% in Metro Denver

Low supply, sustained demand, and incredibly low interest rates are all fueling the price growth.

 

At Windermere Real Estate we are taking Safer at Home and Social Distancing very seriously.  Our people are following our Safe Showings protocol, staying connected to their clients, and providing help wherever needed.

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Supply and Demand

Northern Colorado gave us a real-life economics lesson in January 2020.

Compared to one year ago…

  • Inventory was down 10% (Supply)
  • Homes under contract went up 31% (Demand)
  • Prices were up 5% (Result)

 

If you would like to see a video recap of our annual Market Forecast you can watch that HERE.

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