Denver Lofts and Condos

Forbes Ranked Colorado Fourth Best State for Business: Forbes.com's latest ranking of the best states for business ranks Colorado at No. 4, up from No. 6 last year. The ranking measures six categories for businesses: costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life. Colorado finished in the top 15 in four of the six main categories, including quality of its workforce (1st), prospects for growth (2nd), and economic climate. read more here

Denver Home Prices Rise Again, Getting Closer to 2008 Levels: Home prices in the Denver area rose in July for the fifth straight month, and prices are creeping closer to where they were a year ago, according to Standard & Poor's closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Index. read more here

Vestas Hiring Workers for Brighton Plant, Plans Job Fair: Vestas Nacelles America Inc. is recruiting workers for its planned Brighton wind-power factory and will hold a career fair Thursday. Vestas announced last year it will build a $290 million plant in Brighton for assembling wind-turbine nacelles and making blades. The facility is expected to be in operation by next year. The blade factory will employ about 650 people and the nacelle plant will have about 700 employees, Vestas has said. read more here

Record Streak Continues for Pending Home Sales: Pending home sales have increased for seven straight months, the longest in the series of the index which began in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors®.Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the housing market momentum has clearly turned for the better. "The recovery is broad-based across many parts of the country. Housing affordability has been at record highs this year with the added stimulus of a first-time buyer tax credit," he said. read more here

Colorado Mortgage Rates Hit 4.9%, Lowest in Months: Mortgage rates in Colorado dipped to 4.9 percent Tuesday September 29^th, their lowest level in several months, and were headed lower Wednesday, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace reported. Local rates for 30-year-fixed mortgages topped 5.3 percent in early August and have been heading more or less downward ever since, according to Zillow data. read more here

Is the Vail Valley Economy Starting to Rebound? The Vail Valley's giddy boom days of 2007 are long past, but there may be some signs the local economy is starting to show some signs of life. read more here

Denver No. 7 as Youth Magnet: The Wall Street Journal enlisted the help of six experts to determine the 10 most attractive cities that for attracting young professionals, and profiled the top 5. Denver ranked No. 7. read more here

The Senate is slated to take up a bill this week that extends unemployment benefits and it might include an extension of the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit. Proponents of the first-time homebuyer tax credit that is due to expire Nov. 30 were planning to offer amendments to unemployment benefits bill that would extend and possibly expand the tax credit. But now it appears Senate lenders are working on a compromise that could be tucked into the bill as a manager's amendment. Such an approach would increase the chances that the first-time homebuyer tax credit would be extended by at least six months. And depending on the costs, it might include features of a proposal sponsored by Senators Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., that extends the tax credit through June 30. The Dodd-Isakson-Lieberman proposal expands the tax credit to all buyers and raises the income limits to $150,000 for individuals and $300,000 for joint returns.

It seems we've been surrounded by an exorbitant amount of hardship over the past year, but there is an energetic buzz around town (as well as the nation) that things will soon turn around (even Ben Bernanke is saying that the recession is likely over). I recently came across an article which has exhibited some hard evidence that perhaps things will start to look up in the Denver home, Denver loft, and Denver condo sales market, and I would like to quickly summarize the write-up from which I read this information for you http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/09/07/daily32.html:

Although Denver single-family home, Denver loft and Denver condo sales are down Year over Year (YoY change compares the current results to the results 12 months prior), they are relatively stable.  Last month Denver single-family, Denver Loft, and Denver condo sales dropped 14% YoY. Sales were down12% from July.  Average selling price decreased only 3.87%YoY to $251,008 with only a minor drop of .68% drop from July. 

The median selling price (the midpoint between highest and lowest prices) of single-family homes YoY was flat at $227,000 down .89%. Last month's selling price was down 1.26% YoY.

Both houses and condos sold faster in August with fewer days on the market YoY and from July

• Single-family home sales: Down 14.38% YoY
• Single-family home average selling price down 3.71% YoY
• Single-family home days on market (DOM) selling faster with DOM of 94, down 3% Yoy
• Condo sales dropped 12.7% YoY
• Condo average selling price fell 3.87% YoY
• Condo average DOM 94, down 5.77% YoY
• Year To Date (YTD) total home sales dropped 16.38% from same period of '08
• YTD Total average selling price down 6.67% from first 8 months of last year
• YTD DOM down 1.92% YoY

So what does this all mean?!? And where is the good news? Well, to begin with, the fact that Denver homes, lofts, and condos are enjoying fewer days on the market is fabulous. The selling price for single-family homes, lofts and for condos has only dropped 3.71% and 3.87% which is also a good indication that things are stabilizing and people are selling their homes for an amount relatively consistent with their requests. 

If you're in the market to purchase a home, loft or condo for the first time there is also the $8,000 tax credit, as incentive to buy, and there are also a bunch of great deals out there: many of the loft, condo, and home builders are trying to sell, sell, sell and that means low prices (not to mention the bank owned lofts, condos, and homes). Interest rates are insanely low too (some food for thought: 25 years ago a normal 30-year fixed mortgage was approximately 13.27%, and today the interest rate is hovering around 5.8%)!

Denver shows more signs of a recovering housing market

Housing Statistics Continue to Improve in Denver

Click Here for this story and more area sales statistics and trends in our August Newsletter

 Highlights Include:

-The average sold price for residential and condominium sales in Denver increased 6.3 percent.

-The sales volume for residential and condominium sales the Denver Metro area increased 15.4 percent.

-At the end of June, 20,853 homes were for sale. This represents a 5.0-month supply at the current sales pace, which is an improvement from May 2009, when there was a 5.7 month supply. A 6.0 month inventory is considered equilibrium, thus the current market is beginning to favor sellers!

-The number of residential homes and condominiums which were under contract (pending sales) increased 6.0 percent.

-The average list price of residential homes and condominiums increased 0.6 percent to $482,482.

-The percentage of listings sold in Denver increased 14.9 percent