Denver is PASSED BOTTOM

When Will We Hit Bottom? How to Know When the Market Hits Bottom

Not only did the TODAY show rank Denver the #1 city in America for the real estate rebound, but there is much hard evidence that Denver is passed bottom (including the number of bids on every good property under $200K...some up to 37 offers!).

Explaining the Charts Below:

The National Association of Realtors defines a "balanced" market as having 6 months of inventory:

• Less than 6 months is a Seller's Market: homes are selling relatively quickly and there are more buyers chasing homes.
• More than 6 months is a Buyer's Market: homes are selling relatively slowly and there are too many homes on the market.

While Denver has been a Buyer's market the past several months, the inventory of homes on the market in Denver has been declining. This is not true in many regions of the country.

Denver is at about 5 months of inventory...1 month LESS than a balanced market, making it actually a Seller's Market according to NAR. I've actually experienced this writing offers for clients - if the house is well-priced in a good neighborhood, or well under market-value, it's almost guarenteed there will be a bid war between buyers. The home ends up selling for more than the asking price!

It's a mixed issue. Lower cost areas, such as Thornton, are seeing inventory move fast. Sellers (mainly banks) don't have to wait long for offers. Thornton's average price in the last year was around $250,000 and the average MOI (months of inventory) was about 3 months. Greenwood Village, on the other end of the scale, had about 13 MOI and an average price of about $1.4 million. Sellers are suffering there. The city of Denver is about in the middle.

The second CHART below compares REO's (lender owned) homes to regular homes regarding inventory, solds, and months of inventory. It is jam-packed, but very helpful once you look at it. The main principle here is that neighborhoods with homes under $225,000 are selling fast, while upscale neighborhoods like Cherry Creek and Hilltop have significant levels of inventory and it's taking a long time to get homes sold, especially over the $1 million price barrier.

Everyone Needs a Nerd...

Nerds are often the target of many jokes...and not surprisingly so. However, nerds are very needed in today's day & age... and sometimes even envied. Nerds usually have an expert knowledge is some field: math, science, computers, comics, superheros, magic, computer games, etc. Nerds also have a certain loveable way, like the show Beauty and the Geek, many times beauties will fall in love with the geeks (unexplainable). Now, I'm not that kind of nerd, but I am a nerd when it comes to real estate. My company, Your Castle Real Estate, are known as the experts of Denver market real estate knowledge. We have come up with a maximus intelligensius ton of Denver market knowledge using our two custom software packages. The first appraises all 20,000+ properties on the Denver market to uncover the small number of exceptional values. Our clients often save $20,000 to $50,000 on the properties they purchase with us. The second software system does extensive economic research on what is going on in the 350 Denver Metro neighborhoods, and what is driving those trends. It happens to be the source for the Denver Post price change map. Among other things, we study price changes by neighborhood, discount trends, marketing time trends, and the impact of foreclosures on the market. We do this for homes, condos, and income properties.

That makes me a nerd. But not just any nerd...your Denver real estate nerd. And you need one.