Real Estate Market / Inflation / Recession / Depression (Denver: mortgage, credit, loans)

[dj32]

/Also, Multitrak, can you post that article in Denver forum... I've been saying this all along. I live in a very desirable part of Denver (WAsh Park) and am selling and want to buy in a VERY VERY deisirable part of Denver metro- Southern Hills/Cherry Hills Heights. Things in that area are definitely appreciating and hard to come by these days.

[Bob from down south]

I'm sure that prices in Beverly Hills are holding up as well.

In every market, there are bound to be some affluent areas that buck the general trend. And every realtor in town wants us to believe that those areas define the general trend as well, which is just Pollyanna blather. And to suggest that performance in these small affluent neighborhoods can be used to define the bottom for the market as a whole? Pure wishful thinking.

In the last depression, the extremely wealthy were still extremely wealthy, and I'm sure property values in their favored playgrounds stayed high, just as I'm sure that we won't see Gulfstream V luxury business jets listed in the Aurora Green Sheet anytime soon.

At the moment, I'm just a bit more focused on where the center of the bell curve finds itself. The red areas still outnumber the green ones on the map in the USNWR article. And we're just getting warmed up with respect to disappearing availability of easy, no/low downpayment credit to buy even in the nicer neighborhoods. How many people really have the close to $90,000 in cash needed to close on a $400K house with 20% down?

[suzco]

"Breaking news" from the Denver Post:

Metro home sales, prices slide in March

The median price of a single-family home sold in the metro area last month was $224,900, a 6.3 percent decline from the median price of $240,000 in March 2007; Median condo prices declined 13.7 percent to $132,000 versus $153,000 a year ago.

The number of homes sold last month fell 13.2 percent to 3,709 versus 4,274 in March 2007, while the number of homes placed under contract fell a smaller 4.1 percent.

[sterlinggirl]

Still too high.....

[RangerDuke08]

Originally Posted by hello-world

according to a couple sources online, prices ARE falling in denver. -5% overall (residential), -15% condos (year over year, as of last month) according to one source. condos might be bringing the "overall" into the red. i don't know. if i remember correctly, that was from metrolistings or the multiple listings, posted by a realtor. you can get a somewhat reasonable feel for it (i'd think) from trulia.com or zillow.com. they pretty much comp things for cities, neighborhoods, and for particular addresses. they both indicate falling trends for much of denver metro that i've looked at lately. but, I DON'T KNOW WHAT DATA TRULIA USES (zillow tells you outright - i've never found it on trulia). <<-caveat

The economys down and so have forclosures gone up, but in Colorado it really depends on the zip code as in other places, I mean there's always people moving in to CO and there's always more cookie cluster homes built, it's just a trend and if you can buy a forclosure, more power to you at this time.

[multitrak]

The median price of a single-family home sold in the metro area last month was $224,900, a 6.3 percent decline from the median price of $240,000 in March 2007...The 25,516 unsold homes in March was similar to the 25,037 in February and below the 26,430 of March 2007.

Metro home sales, prices slide in March - The Denver Post

not much new here...the denver case-shiller housing index declined 5.1% year over year 01/07-01/08 (released on mar 28) vs. 6.3% decline 03/07-03/08. the number of unsold homes appears stable 02/08-03/08 and 914 lower from last year. it's amazing how a negative headline can bias the reader to seemingly bad news that really not all that bad...

[LBear]

Originally Posted by sterlinggirl

Still too high.....

$240K for a home is NOT unreasonable. I worked with builders and building a well-built, 2,400 sq.ft home with 4 beds and 3 bath, with nice finishes, good windows, tile, etc. is not a cheap endeavor. Once your down paying all the subs, your lucky to come out ahead with some money after all your time, labor and risk.

No offense, but when I see people complaining that $240K for a newer, well-built and equipped home is still too expensive and they need to come down to $180K or less. I'm sorry, but if you can build a home like that, AT COST, for $180K, more power to you. Start building. Call me when your done...

The reality is labor, supplies, permits, equipment, etc, good quality finishes, costs a lot of money.

If you ever done construction work on your own, you will change your tone, and fast. Materials alone cost a lot. Let alone, the labor, which is the hard part, costs even more.

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by Pettrix

$240K for a home is NOT unreasonable. I worked with builders and building a well-built, 2,400 sq.ft home with 4 beds and 3 bath, with nice finishes, good windows, tile, etc. is not a cheap endeavor. Once your down paying all the subs, your lucky to come out ahead with some money after all your time, labor and risk.

No offense, but when I see people complaining that $240K for a newer, well-built and equipped home is still too expensive and they need to come down to $180K or less. I'm sorry, but if you can build a home like that, AT COST, for $180K, more power to you. Start building. Call me when your done...

The reality is labor, supplies, permits, equipment, etc, good quality finishes, costs a lot of money.

If you ever done construction work on your own, you will change your tone, and fast. Materials alone cost a lot. Let alone, the labor, which is the hard part, costs even more.

It is when the median income for a Denver household is a little less than $45k.

[multitrak]

Originally Posted by formercalifornian

It is when the median income for a Denver household is a little less than $45k.

i guess that's why there's 45% renters in denver co.

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by multitrak

i guess that's why there's 45% renters in denver co.

Where did you get that stat, mulit? I had no idea it was that high!