How is the real estate market in CO? Help please (Denver: equity, relocating)

[momandwifefromcali]

We are moving to CO in a few months. My husband is a Real Estate agent. And we would really like to know how is the Real estate market doing in CO.
We are moving to Castle Rock. But he is looking to do bussiness everywhere in Colorado.
We have two little kids and we really need to know if we can make it there.

Please, please, please help!
Thank you very much.

[anteater24]

I am planning on making a move to Colorado in the next year. Does anyone here know anything about Castle Rock? It seems like a great place to buy a home and to raise a family. I would appreciate some input on Castle Rock, Colorado. Please keep in mind that i am relocating there from Orange County, California. Thanks

[jazzlover]

Nice way to starve, unless you are very good at your job. Colorado's real estate boom has grown a huge crop of real estate people. Quite bluntly, many of the newbies couldn't find their *** with a map. I know--I've had to work with them on numerous occasions. You will be competing with seasoned people who know the area quite well already. Most of the successful real estate people I know have been at it in this area/region for 20 years or more. I just sold a property using an agent that has been in the business for many years. She works in a huge real estate outfit, and she and a handful of other "old-timers" there are the only ones making a decent living--the rest are barely getting by, at best, these days. This when the real estate market probably isn't nearly as comatose as it is probably going to get. Real estate is the LAST profession I would pick to ply in Colorado for awhile. By the way, when it tanked here in the early 1980's, a ton of real estate agents and brokers either had to figure out something else to do for a living, or move elsewhere. I think we're in for a repeat.

[hello-world]

as usual, i basically agree with jazzlover here. my sense is that real estate is VERY about connections which can take time to make. and i, too, have found there are a LOT of people in the housing and real estate business here. i know of some that have been at here for a long time that are now working at least two jobs while things have gotten slow. some others that i believe have moved away from lending and real estate as their primary income. what's more, i think that it can take a while and it can take knowing someone to find some of the higher paying jobs here (i.e., the jobs that can support a family). i'm not sure that's going to get better before it gets worse in the region (or many other regions in the nation, for that matter).

in 2002, when there was a bit of a recession here, something like 21300 people in the building industry lost jobs, seemingly (to me) an indication of how it might have been to be selling things that must not have been selling (if building was ceasing). there is discussion (including a link citing this number) here:

Why are the prices of houses falling in CO?

the expectation seems to be in some informed quarters that things might get more pronounced than that this time around here. ("here" being colorado overall) granted there are others that think things will not slump much here, though from what i see, they are already slumping at least somewhat here.

good luck.

[vegaspilgrim]

Up until very recently, I myself was thinking about going into a career in real estate development. The more and more I hear about what's going on with that industry, I've been having second thoughts. I understand that suburban sprawl-type construction is at a stand still now-- but what about urban redevelopment projects going on in and around downtown? That seems to be going full blast, with the the cranes there. I took a walk around downtown, uptown, the Coors Field area, and the central Platte valley areas a week ago, and the amount of mid/high rise condos being built seems impressive. Denver's historic districts seem to be doing just fine. And what about commercial real estate development? Is it the entire industry that's in the slumps, or just the market for single family homes in the suburbs?

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

Up until very recently, I myself was thinking about going into a career in real estate development. The more and more I hear about what's going on with that industry, I've been having second thoughts. I understand that suburban sprawl-type construction is at a stand still now-- but what about urban redevelopment projects going on in and around downtown? That seems to be going full blast, with the the cranes there. I took a walk around downtown, uptown, the Coors Field area, and the central Platte valley areas a week ago, and the amount of mid/high rise condos being built seems impressive. Denver's historic districts seem to be doing just fine. And what about commercial real estate development? Is it the entire industry that's in the slumps, or just the market for single family homes in the suburbs?

commercial vacancy rates seem to be about 15% and declining in denver. it appears to me that there is some competition from space in the sub- and ex-urbia, though rents are rising. commercial sales appear to be about 55% off of what they were in the 2nd half of 2006. it seems retail space vacancies are inching upwards. as for residential in denver proper, it appears to me that prices are falling on average (about -5% for all residential, about -15% for condos relative to mean sales prices last year this time) and time on market is about 100 days from what i've seen. as a guess, some of the building you are still seeing might have been contracted from before, and/or in some "hotter" areas.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by anteater24

I am planning on making a move to Colorado in the next year. Does anyone here know anything about Castle Rock? It seems like a great place to buy a home and to raise a family. I would appreciate some input on Castle Rock, Colorado. Please keep in mind that i am relocating there from Orange County, California. Thanks

Where are you going to work?
What line of work are you in?
What is your housing price range?
Why are you leaving Orange County? The OC board makes OC sound like the greatest place in the world to live.
Why Colorado?
Why Castle Rock?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by momandwifefromcali

We are moving to CO in a few months. My husband is a Real Estate agent. And we would really like to know how is the Real estate market doing in CO.
We are moving to Castle Rock. But he is looking to do bussiness everywhere in Colorado.
We have two little kids and we really need to know if we can make it there.

Please, please, please help!
Thank you very much.

Why are you moving?
What's wrong with California? Everybody makes it sound like a great place, like you can go skiing in the morning and surfing in the afternoon and there are lot of movie stars there. Great weather and best of all, diversity.
Why Colorado?
Why Castle Rock?

[jazzlover]

Right after I wrote this yesterday, I got a phone call from a friend who is a real estate broker in one of western Colorado's "hot" real estate market areas. His perspective on the market in his area: "Real" sales volume--that is, properties that actually sell and close--is about half what it was a year ago. Time-on-market has shot up dramatically--average 9 months to a year for some types of property, especially "higher-end" residential. A lot of sellers are reluctant to reduce prices yet, many because, if they do, they will be "upside-down," having used the "housing ATM" to suck all of the inflated "equity" out of their property. He mentioned seeing a number of sales where the seller actually had to bring money to the closing. Bad. He also told me he is getting numerous calls from people desperate to sell their homes before they go into foreclosure. He mentioned a few property sales made within the last month or so that were up to a 30% lower sales price than the properties sold for a year or so ago.

As for my friend, he's been around the business for a lot of years and weathered bad markets before. His house is paid for and he has other work he can do besides selling real estate. He is looking forward to seeing a lot of his competitors disappear in the next year or so (already happening, according to him), and doing a little personal "bottom-fishing" when the market really goes in the tank--his thinking is that will occur within the next year or so, also.

[rmm64]

I agree, real estate sales is NOT a viable career choice in Colorado now. I'm in graphic design and created advertising for quite a few of the larger real estate companies (both residential & commercial.) This past year the market slowdown made my job TONS easier. Very few new listings and the majority of what was being advertised didn't change. Inserts that took me 3 full days to put together last year were only taking 3-4 hours due to the stagnation of the market, and this was in Grand Junction, the supposed "hot-spot" of real estate in CO (according to Money magazine, the #3 market in the nation.) As I understand it, the market began falling on the front range some time ago. Overall, it has the same feeling that it did back in '82 before the bust, which is why I just left CO for greener pastures.