Denver-area home prices drop the least of 20 cities surveyed
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tax Credit Gets Buyers Off the Fence
The new $6,500 move-up Homebuyer Tax Credit is apparently motivating buyers, according to a Campbell Communications survey of 1,500 real estate practitioners.
Existing home owners accounted for 41 percent of home purchases in November, up from 38 percent in October, the survey found.
“Current home owners jumped at the credit,” says survey research director Thomas Popik.
Source: Housing Wire, Austin Kilgore (12/22/2009)
http://www.realtor.org/rmodaily.nsf/pages/News2009122302
Existing home owners accounted for 41 percent of home purchases in November, up from 38 percent in October, the survey found.
“Current home owners jumped at the credit,” says survey research director Thomas Popik.
Source: Housing Wire, Austin Kilgore (12/22/2009)
http://www.realtor.org/rmodaily.nsf/pages/News2009122302
Monday, December 28, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Easier Money, Steadier Sales
2010: The Year of Growth
If 2009 was the year of economic recovery, 2010 will be the year of growth, says Yun.
Existing-home sales in 2009 rose to an estimated 5 million units for the year, a 2 percent increase over the 4.9 million sales in 2008. For 2010, Yun is forecasting sales of 5.7 million units, a 13.6 percent increase.
The key to recovery in 2009 was the lower end of the existing-home market. Fueled by the huge number of distressed sales—which drove down prices nationally by an average of 13 percent for the year—buyers returned to the market looking for bargains.
Also helping were continuing low interest rates (5.2 percent on average for 2009) and the first-time home buyer tax credit, which the IRS says had been tapped by an estimated 1.4 million households halfway through 2009, a figure that includes 350,000 to 400,000 consumers who wouldn’t have bought without it, according to NAR and other industry estimates. Close to 2 million buyers were expected to use the credit by the end of November, according to industry projections.
As a result of the sales pick-up, inventory for homes priced at $250,000 and under, which is well under the $417,000 conforming loan limit, improved to just 4.6 months in 2009, according to NAR data. That’s below what’s considered sustainable and has been inviting multiple bids in high-demand markets, including parts of California. Even the inventory for homes priced at $500,000 and below, which is well within the $729,750 conforming loan limit in high-cost areas, is at a sustainable 5.2 months, NAR data show.
In part because of the difficulty of obtaining jumbo financing, no such turnaround was seen in the upper-end housing market. Indeed, nationally the inventory of homes above the $729,750 threshold remained above 40 months throughout 2009.
But Yun is forecasting improvement in 2010, as the strong performance at the lower end helps kickstart the upper-end market. In time for the spring selling season, spreads between jumbo and conforming loans are narrowing considerably. In the fourth quarter of 2009, spreads narrowed to about 70 basis points from about 150 basis points a year earlier, and that trend is expected to continue with more lenders returning to the jumbo space.
The new-home market is expected to improve as well. NAR estimates sales this year to jump to 549,000 units, up from 397,000 units in 2009, and housing starts to reach 752,000, compared to 564,000 units last year.
Yun and Varvares make clear that, even under their best-case scenarios, the performance of 2010 will lag behind what they consider to be a market in equilibrium. Although Yun’s estimated 2010 sales volume of 5.7 million is close to what it was in pre-boom 1999, that level is low when the country’s population, now 30 million larger than it was a decade ago, is factored in. Ideally, sales should be closer to 6 million, he says.
One reason for the subpar performance is continuing slow household formation, a key precursor to home sales. Until young people stop doubling up in rental units or living with their parents in such large numbers, sales will continue to lag, Yun says. That shift will be fueled by job growth and consumer confidence.
Once household numbers increase, sales may ignite because the market is seeing a lot of pent-up demand. More than 16 million renter households at the end of 2009 had sufficient income to buy a median-priced home, up from just 11 million in 2000, before the boom, Yun says. Once they get off the fence, sales will start heading up to a level reflective of the population.
http://www.realtor.org/rmonews_and_commentary/economy/1001_outlook_2010
If 2009 was the year of economic recovery, 2010 will be the year of growth, says Yun.
Existing-home sales in 2009 rose to an estimated 5 million units for the year, a 2 percent increase over the 4.9 million sales in 2008. For 2010, Yun is forecasting sales of 5.7 million units, a 13.6 percent increase.
The key to recovery in 2009 was the lower end of the existing-home market. Fueled by the huge number of distressed sales—which drove down prices nationally by an average of 13 percent for the year—buyers returned to the market looking for bargains.
Also helping were continuing low interest rates (5.2 percent on average for 2009) and the first-time home buyer tax credit, which the IRS says had been tapped by an estimated 1.4 million households halfway through 2009, a figure that includes 350,000 to 400,000 consumers who wouldn’t have bought without it, according to NAR and other industry estimates. Close to 2 million buyers were expected to use the credit by the end of November, according to industry projections.
As a result of the sales pick-up, inventory for homes priced at $250,000 and under, which is well under the $417,000 conforming loan limit, improved to just 4.6 months in 2009, according to NAR data. That’s below what’s considered sustainable and has been inviting multiple bids in high-demand markets, including parts of California. Even the inventory for homes priced at $500,000 and below, which is well within the $729,750 conforming loan limit in high-cost areas, is at a sustainable 5.2 months, NAR data show.
In part because of the difficulty of obtaining jumbo financing, no such turnaround was seen in the upper-end housing market. Indeed, nationally the inventory of homes above the $729,750 threshold remained above 40 months throughout 2009.
But Yun is forecasting improvement in 2010, as the strong performance at the lower end helps kickstart the upper-end market. In time for the spring selling season, spreads between jumbo and conforming loans are narrowing considerably. In the fourth quarter of 2009, spreads narrowed to about 70 basis points from about 150 basis points a year earlier, and that trend is expected to continue with more lenders returning to the jumbo space.
The new-home market is expected to improve as well. NAR estimates sales this year to jump to 549,000 units, up from 397,000 units in 2009, and housing starts to reach 752,000, compared to 564,000 units last year.
Yun and Varvares make clear that, even under their best-case scenarios, the performance of 2010 will lag behind what they consider to be a market in equilibrium. Although Yun’s estimated 2010 sales volume of 5.7 million is close to what it was in pre-boom 1999, that level is low when the country’s population, now 30 million larger than it was a decade ago, is factored in. Ideally, sales should be closer to 6 million, he says.
One reason for the subpar performance is continuing slow household formation, a key precursor to home sales. Until young people stop doubling up in rental units or living with their parents in such large numbers, sales will continue to lag, Yun says. That shift will be fueled by job growth and consumer confidence.
Once household numbers increase, sales may ignite because the market is seeing a lot of pent-up demand. More than 16 million renter households at the end of 2009 had sufficient income to buy a median-priced home, up from just 11 million in 2000, before the boom, Yun says. Once they get off the fence, sales will start heading up to a level reflective of the population.
http://www.realtor.org/rmonews_and_commentary/economy/1001_outlook_2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Another Big Gain in Existing-Home Sales as Buyers Respond to Tax Credit
Existing-home sales rose again in November as first-time buyers rushed to close sales before the original November 30 deadline for the recently extended and expanded tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 7.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 6.54 million units in November from 6.09 million in October, and are 44.1 percent higher than the 4.54 million-unit pace in November 2008. Current sales remain at the highest level since February 2007 when they hit 6.55 million.
http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2009/12/another_respond
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 7.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 6.54 million units in November from 6.09 million in October, and are 44.1 percent higher than the 4.54 million-unit pace in November 2008. Current sales remain at the highest level since February 2007 when they hit 6.55 million.
http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2009/12/another_respond
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Nine Consecutive Gains for Pending Home Sales
http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2009/12/nine_sales
Washington, December 01, 2009 Pending home sales have risen for nine months in a row, a first for the series of the index since its inception in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors®.The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in October, increased 3.7 percent to 114.1 from 110.0 in September, and is 31.8 percent above October 2008 when it was 86.6. The rise from a year ago is the biggest annual increase ever recorded for the index, which is at the highest level since March 2006 when it was 115.2.Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said home sales are experiencing a pendulum swing. “Keep in mind that housing had been underperforming over most of the past year. Based on the demographics of our growing population, existing-home sales should be in the range of 5.5 million to 6.0 million annually, but we were well below the 5-million mark before the home buyer tax credit stimulus,” he said. “This means the tax credit is helping unleash a pent-up demand from a large pool of financially qualified renters, much more than borrowing sales from the future.
Washington, December 01, 2009 Pending home sales have risen for nine months in a row, a first for the series of the index since its inception in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors®.The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in October, increased 3.7 percent to 114.1 from 110.0 in September, and is 31.8 percent above October 2008 when it was 86.6. The rise from a year ago is the biggest annual increase ever recorded for the index, which is at the highest level since March 2006 when it was 115.2.Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said home sales are experiencing a pendulum swing. “Keep in mind that housing had been underperforming over most of the past year. Based on the demographics of our growing population, existing-home sales should be in the range of 5.5 million to 6.0 million annually, but we were well below the 5-million mark before the home buyer tax credit stimulus,” he said. “This means the tax credit is helping unleash a pent-up demand from a large pool of financially qualified renters, much more than borrowing sales from the future.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
New Price in Dakota Station: $219,900
Great home in DAKOTA STATION. Home includes a hot tub with a private hot tub room. Water Heater was replaced in 2008. Fireplace insert was installed in 2006. Close to Aspen Grove Shopping Center, Easy Light Rail access, convenient access to 470, and Chatfield Reservoir. As a n added incentive, this home comes with a Buyers Home Warranty.
http://www.postlets.com/res/2893466
http://www.postlets.com/res/2893466
Friday, October 2, 2009
HGTV is looking for first-time sellers!
High Noon Entertainment and HGTV are back together again, casting for the first season of a new show in the Denver/Metro area!!! "My First Sale" showcases homeowners who are selling their first place (and their agents). The format is very similar to our hit show, "My First Place" but this time we want to show the inherent drama and selling strategies being used in the current real estate market in the Denver area. The selected first-time sellers will be rewarded with a compensation check at the end of taping to thank them for being on the show. Don't hesitate to call or email me with any questions or concerns you may have.
Friday, September 18, 2009
$8,000 FTHB Tax Credit "Time is running out"
As part of its plan to stimulate the U.S. housing market and address the economic challenges facing our nation, Congress has passed legislation that grants a tax credit of up to $8,000 to first-time home buyers.
This tax credit requires that one has closed on a new home on or before November 30, 2009.
In an effort to stay ahead of the currrent, please feel free to contact me for more details.
CORE Real Estate Services
303.627.7667
This tax credit requires that one has closed on a new home on or before November 30, 2009.
In an effort to stay ahead of the currrent, please feel free to contact me for more details.
CORE Real Estate Services
303.627.7667
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