Denver Real Estate Blog

Housing is a bargain in the Denver Area

Fresh evidence suggests the Denver-area housing market may be in the early stages of recovery, even as the national housing market faces an even bigger slump.
From May to June, Denver homes showed a 1.3 percent appreciation in value, the second highest of 20 metropolitan areas surveyed, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller Home Price Indices. Denver has been beating the nation as a whole for four consecutive months. From June to July, for example, Denver’s market appreciated by 0.8 percent, with only Detroit doing better at 1.3 percent, and all 20 areas dropping by an average of 0.6 percent.

In a report produced by S&P and Yale University economist Robert Shiller. Shiller states the nation as a whole is “in a bit of a housing crisis, and it is likely to get worse before it gets better”.

Adjusting for inflation, housing prices nationwide have soared by 86 percent in the past decade. Some cities, such as New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., saw larger jumps than other places in the country, including Denver. The Denver-area housing market peaked in February 2001, with a 15 percent year-over-year appreciation, slightly higher than the nation as a whole. Many other markets across the country continued on an upward swing, and the Denver growth rate slowed down,” she said. “Now, Denver seems to be going in an upward direction.

Economist Michael Kone, principal of Boulder-based Housingmetrics, said there is still “intense pain” for the lower end of the housing market in the Denver area, with a “huge bump” in foreclosures to come, as subprime mortgages adjust upward. Colorado is on pace to see more than 37,000 foreclosures filed this year, a 30 percent increase over the record set last year. Colorado and the Denver area are among the top 10 worst areas in the county for foreclosure rates. Expensive houses, Kone said, are doing much better in the metro area. Also, as always, there are pockets of strength.

Home prices in the Denver area have fallen much less than the nation as a whole, according to a closely watched, national report. The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices shows that home prices in the Denver area dropped by 0.7 percent through July, compared to a 3.9 percent drop for the composite of all 20 cities. And for the 10 cities, including Denver, which the report has been tracking longer than all 20 metropolitan areas, the trend was even more negative with a 4.5 percent drop.

The top performing metropolitan area was Seattle at 6.9 percent, followed by Charlotte, N.C., at 6 percent. Other cities faring better than Denver included Portland at 3.8 percent; Atlanta at 1.2 percent; and Dallas at 0.8 percent. Metropolitan areas that showed bigger percentage declines than Denver included Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

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Jeffery McClintock, is a real estate broker in Denver and prides himself on providing clients with professional guidance in all phases of residential new construction, including market research, product development, consulting, marketing and advertising. His personal mission is to bring to you a level of knowledge, experience, commitment, high standards and results to answer your real estate needs. He believes, the most effective way to provide superior service is to build a strong working relationship with you. His system includes regular consultations and feedback, which is the best tool for identifying and clarifying your real estate objectives and help define strategic solutions.