$700-Plus

The average price in Larimer County is well over $700,000.

For all closings in April, the numbers came in at $721,000.

People who have lived in Northern Colorado may have a hard time believing that.

The market here has certainly seen significant growth in the last 20 years.

Here is something remarkable about the April numbers.

Of the 300 closings last month in Larimer County, 48 were priced over $1 million and only 16 were under $400,000.

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Out of the Gates

How is the year starting? All of us in the real estate industry are especially curious to see how 2024 is starting off after the first slow real estate year in a long time.

Rates have settled down and are trending down.

Prices have shown resilience and continue to go up.

But, how about transactions? Are they picking up after a year that saw an 18% decline in the number of closed residential properties?

It turns out the year is starting off strong but not unusually strong.

Pending transactions are up in Larimer County 7% year over year and up 3% in Weld County.

So, we are already seeing signs that 2024 will be a year of growth compared to last year.

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Top Three

Here are the top three reasons why prices are unlikely to crash even though the market has cooled off:

  1. Inventory – Ultimately, prices are driven by supply and demand.  Although supply has increased, it still remains relatively low with less than two months’ supply in most areas.
  2. New Homes – New home construction still lags behind the demand stemming from population growth.  New home starts today are roughly 2/3 of what they were in 2005.
  3. Credit – Home buyers today are highly qualified which protects the market from a glut of ‘distressed’ properties hitting the market in an economic downturn.  The average credit score of buyers is now 776 which, by definition, is ‘excellent.’   Only 2% of loans today are given to buyers with scores under 640 whereas in 2001 25% of buyers had that low of a score.

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Top Three

Here are the top three reasons why prices are unlikely to crash even though the market has cooled off:

  1. Inventory – Ultimately, prices are driven by supply and demand.  Although supply has increased, it still remains relatively low with less than two months’ supply in most areas.
  2. New Homes – New home construction still lags behind the demand stemming from population growth.  New home starts today are roughly 2/3 of what they were in 2005.
  3. Credit – Home buyers today are highly qualified which protects the market from a glut of ‘distressed’ properties hitting the market in an economic downturn.  The average credit score of buyers is now 776 which, by definition, is ‘excellent.’   Only 2% of loans today are given to buyers with scores under 640 whereas in 2001 25% of buyers had that low of a score.

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Housing Math

It’s interesting to look at what population growth means for housing.

 

On average, along the Front Range, 2.5 people live in each housing unit.

 

What that means is 4 housing units are needed for every 10 people who live here.

 

So, for every 1000 new people moving to our area, 400 new housing units are required.

 

The population of Metro Denver is just under 3,000,000 and the population of Northern Colorado is just over 650,000.

 

Assuming the Front Range grows in population at 2% per year, that means 60,000 new people in Metro Denver and 13,000 new people in Northern Colorado each year.

 

To house those people, 24,000 new housing units need to be built per year in Metro Denver and 5,200 in Northern Colorado.

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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Economist’s Perspective

Our Chief Economist made a video for all of our clients where he shares his perspective on COVID-19’s impact on housing.  You can watch it by clicking the image below:

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Economist’s Perspective

Our Chief Economist made a video for all of our clients where he shares his perspective on COVID-19’s impact on housing.  You can watch it by clicking the image below:

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Compound Effect

If you have driven on I-25 lately you may have noticed that the Front Range is a popular place.

The projections show that it will only get more popular in the future.

Today, 4.8 million people live along the Front Range from Fort Collins down to Pueblo.

In 2030, just 11 short years from now, 5.7 million people will live here. Yes, that’s almost 1 million more than today.

This is all according to the Colorado State Demographers Office.

While this seems like a big increase, keep in mind that this assumes that population growth occurs at a fairly modest 1.7% per year.

It seems that our state will continue to grow and there will continue to be a demand for housing.

 

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