February Denver home sales are steady in preliminary results
By Lon Welsh, Your Castle Real Estate
While we wait for Metrolist, Denver MLS to release the official Denver home sales for February, I have compiled some preliminary results. These suggest that the Denver real estate market continues to “hold its own’ especially in comparison to other national markets.
So far, it looks like the number of homes sold in Feb 2010 was about the same as Feb 2009. We saw +9% Jan 2010 vs. Jan 2009 for number of homes sold. This will be more precise in a few days because the Metrolist statistics take some time to compile.
The number of Denver home sales is steady or increasing
Lon Welsh, All Denver Real Estate Blogger
It is actually declining in much of the rest of the country. Looking at average price, we improved +11% from February 2009 to February 2010. The average home price was $265,000. We saw +9% price increase from January 2009 to the same period last year. This mainly a function that there essentially no inventory of small homes to sell. Since we’re mostly selling Cadillacs (we’re out of Chevy’s), the average price is going up. So, this may indicate that the same home has actually not appreciated. It’s a difference in the “mix” of home prices.
The average price of a home sold in Denver has been increasing in the last year. Again, this is a bit misleading. When we saw double-digit declines of home prices a few years ago, that was due to selling many small, nasty REO homes. Nicer homes were not selling. That change in mix drove most of the price decline. We’re now seeing the opposite effect.
Days on Market for home sales declined in Febuary 2009 compared to the same period last year, from 104 to 92 days. We had a similar pattern in January. A decline in DOM, Day on Market, usually foreshadows a market recovery. This is great news for the long term health of our market.
Finally since prices are going up and volume are up, gross commission income (GCI in chart above) for the real estate industry is also improving. That’s a relief after several years of a downward trend.
One Comment
Great to read a generally optimistic set of market stats. We are seeing an increase in activity Costa Blanca but unlike Denver, it is still the cheaper housing stoke that is moving as clients with limited budgets are identifying value in this market sector. The more expensive properties have limited demand right now. There are serious problems with the Spanish economy right now and I feel it will be some time before we see an upturn across the board.
Wishing you continued success in Denver!