Denver Metro area home sales - flat or fluffy?

Posted by theskinnyonrealestate - June 6th, 2007

Yesterday’s headline in the Rocky Mountain News trumpeted: “Metro Home Sales Flat in 07”. As a Realtor I obviously hate to see things like this in general. But I REALLY hate to see things like this when I think it’s largely exaggerated or inaccurate. I don’t know about you, but that headline immediately leads me to believe things aren’t very good in the housing market in the metro-Denver area these days.

Yet according to Metrolist where home sale data is gathered, the average sales price for residential homes (not incl. condos) in June was $318,904 while down from April’s $322,510, it’s up from a low of $292,143 in February. Average Days On Market was down to 98 in June with a high of 125 in February. If you’re a seller, you know damn well how all-important that DOM number is. (That’s actually an entire mortgage payment.) The number of total houses sold was at an all time high for 2007 of 3,952. The number of homes that expired without selling was down to 1,242 from 2,362 in January.

While the housing market isn’t blazing away as it has in the past, where in some areas you could barely get a sign in the yard before it went under contract, I would say the word “flat” is hardly accurate. A cooler housing market is good news for buyers, especially first time buyers who would actually like to be able to afford a home for once! It’s also good news for investors who would like to purchase a property to flip or rent out.

It’s definitely not horrible news for sellers though – it just means you need to be at the top of your game. Your curb appeal needs to be great; buyers have a lot to choose from so make your house one they can’t refuse from the minute they pull up to the front door. The house needs to be clean, updated and staged well too.

Ultimately the house needs to be priced correctly. I can’t emphasize this enough. I’ve personally seen it at work. For instance, just because you installed gold plated faucets in your home doesn’t mean you can charge extra for them if similar homes in the neighborhood aren’t selling for the same price.

And unfortunately, just because you’ve refinanced your home several times and now owe more on your mortgage than similar properties are selling for, doesn’t mean that you can automatically sell it for what you owe. Unfortunately that sounds harsh but it doesn’t make it any less true.

If you currently owe more than your house is worth, but you aren’t in dire straits financially, it’s probably best for you to hold on to your home for now. But if you really want to sell your house, you may just have to resign yourself to actually bringing money to the closing table to get the sale completed at a price for which your home can actually sell. Yes, that sucks, but everyone makes mistakes and you may just have to chalk this one up to a good lesson learned the hard way.

On a closing note, consider this article from the Realty Times an online real estate newsletter which points out that the cost of living in Denver is 40% lower than San Francisco and San Jose. There are indeed 2 sides to every coin!

Need a Realtor who works for YOU? I can be that Realtor, all you have to do is call!

(photo courtesy of www.freephotosbank.com)