Denver Real Estate Discussion / Opinion Thread (NO Data Charts) (Colorado Springs: median income, vs.)

[2bindenver]

The eviction moratorium is still in effect until 12/31/2020.

[sammy87]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

No!
You are ignoring the size of the down payment.
Examples:
* retiring Boomers who sell old house and use some retirement savings
* people moving from more expensive areas—sell high, buy low in Denver

Yeah theres a lot of PPL buying homes in my hood from CA, NY and NJ. They have the cash from a sell to do that.

TBH I dont know that many "natives". Those I do know really dont like CO anymore and where its going. The transplants love it. Its the hairstylists, and labor workers that are getting pinched. They dont have the income to buy anymore. If they sat out on the market they lost out on thousands of equity.

I know I won't retire here. I dont want to be here very much longer, but its been good to me.

[Count David]

My little street in Arvada:

One house on an arterial road corner sold for $330K and is currently being flipped. I expect it to list at $470K MINIMUM any day now.

The house across the street from it has been on the market for years, originally at $650K. Now at $500K. It's a complete gut, and looks like 1974 in there.

Another house a few down from me, sold at full list of $495K four days after listing. It's not even that nice, but does have a view.

Two houses in the opposite direction from me sold at $465K a month after listing. Again, not really nice (clean, but not updated), but with a bit of a view.


I'm glad that my street is finally turning over some (seems a better/more productive element is moving in), and that values are holding/increasing.

[daprara]

interest rates are almost a negative number. If you have the seed money its a good time to buy for the long term.
A possibility the echonomy will continue to adjust down

[nebloke]

Good for home values if you already have one, not so much for quality of life. Denver, which is already completely overrun, is getting even worse because of covid:

REAL ESTATE NEWS

Denver suddenly has one of the most competitive housing markets in America
PUBLISHED MON, OCT 5 2020

It’s a destination for tech workers fleeing the pricey Bay Area and for metropolitan East Coasters looking for more expansive outdoor space. The new work-from-anywhere culture of the coronavirus pandemic is one of the top reasons Denver is experiencing its most competitive housing market in history.

In September, Denver had a record-low number of homes for sale, not by a little, but by nearly half. There were 3,041 single-family homes listed for sale, down from the previous low of 5,693 in September 2017, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

Homes are getting snapped up quickly, with the median days on the market falling to a record six from the previous record low of nine in September 2015 and 2016. Combining single-family and condominium homes, there were more closed and pending sales than ever before.

Stiff competition resulted in another surge in home prices. The median prices for single-family and condo homes in Denver hit record highs of $510,000 and $334,752 respectively.

New listings did come on the market in September, a record number in fact, but they were no match for the intense demand.

“Home sellers are hesitant to sell as the thought of moving and logistics of that process may feel daunting during a pandemic,” said Andrew Abrams, chair of the DMAR market trends committee. “Homebuyers, on the other hand, may be spending a great deal more time at home and realizing they want more space, while also looking to take advantage of the low interest rates.”

By the end of September, there were more than 5,300 active listings, but that is still the lowest amount of available inventory for any September by more than 2,200 properties.

While homes are selling at all price points, the luxury segment is thriving. Sales of homes priced above $1 million were up 80% annually. Year to date, the luxury markets is seeing 15% higher volume than in 2019.

The demand for luxury properties is being echoed as well up in the mountains west of Denver. Signed contracts to buy existing homes in Aspen doubled in September compared with a year ago, according to Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuels, a real estate appraisal firm. Sales in Snowmass Village were up 650%.

“While the excess demand partly caused by the spring market shutdown has been largely satiated, the market remains considerably more active than the year-ago period,” said Miller.

Now that more people are able to work from anywhere, the choices of where to live are basically limitless. Metropolitan markets like Denver, with its easy access to the mountains, are in high demand. The same is true of Miami, which is also seeing a steep surge in home sales.

[nebloke]

Never understood the appeal of Denver other than proximity to the mountains which are now a nightmare to get to and from on weekends due to insane traffic on I-70 which is basically the only way up and back.

It’s land locked, the closest other major city is at least a days drive and the typical housing development is a sea of houses with homes built on postage stamp size lots on what was once dusty barren prairie land. The houses are built 20 feet apart from one another, lack character, have small fenced in back yards with 5 or 6 other houses looking into it, and a driveway that is about a car length long.

Traffic in and around Denver is a nightmare, the air quality is not that good, and the climate is way too dry. Housing prices are now on par with the places that people are fleeing and pretty soon the voting will be too which means much higher taxes are only a matter of time.

Has all the makings of a real estate bubble.

[Mike from back east]

People don't want shared walls; they don't want to smell the smoke and cooking odors of others and they don't want the noises either. SFHs are the gold standard for having some sense of privacy, even if closely spaced.

Water is expensive in COLO thus small lots as people don't want to pay the tab for watering those quarter-acre lots like we had back in VA. Nor do people want to spend all day Saturday grooming all that crappy grass.

Zoning boards know that large lots create much higher costs to build-out the "last mile" of utility infrastructure, so more homes on smaller lots is more economical for utilities as well as more property taxes collected per acre of land.

Those 3 aspects make the small lots the preferred approach.

Bubble? I think there's some truth to that. Tax cuts of 2017 put $1T into the hands of people whose two best options to invest that money are the stock market and the housing market. Lots of homes being bought up, both by private individuals and by REITs, to put into the rental market. This housing grab worsens the bubble aspects, and interest rates near zero adds to the frenzied buying.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by nebloke

Never understood the appeal of Denver other than proximity to the mountains which are now a nightmare to get to and from on weekends due to insane traffic on I-70 which is basically the only way up and back.

It’s land locked, the closest other major city is at least a days drive and the typical housing development is a sea of houses with homes built on postage stamp size lots on what was once dusty barren prairie land. The houses are built 20 feet apart from one another, lack character, have small fenced in back yards with 5 or 6 other houses looking into it, and a driveway that is about a car length long.

Traffic in and around Denver is a nightmare, the air quality is not that good, and the climate is way too dry. Housing prices are now on par with the places that people are fleeing and pretty soon the voting will be too which means much higher taxes are only a matter of time.

Has all the makings of a real estate bubble.

You obviously cared enough to take yet another dump on an area you haven't lived in for 30+ years. FWIW, not everyone finds the Bos-Wash corridor appealing, either.

[sammy87]

Originally Posted by nebloke

Never understood the appeal of Denver other than proximity to the mountains which are now a nightmare to get to and from on weekends due to insane traffic on I-70 which is basically the only way up and back.

It’s land locked, the closest other major city is at least a days drive and the typical housing development is a sea of houses with homes built on postage stamp size lots on what was once dusty barren prairie land. The houses are built 20 feet apart from one another, lack character, have small fenced in back yards with 5 or 6 other houses looking into it, and a driveway that is about a car length long.

Traffic in and around Denver is a nightmare, the air quality is not that good, and the climate is way too dry. Housing prices are now on par with the places that people are fleeing and pretty soon the voting will be too which means much higher taxes are only a matter of time.

Has all the makings of a real estate bubble.

This sums it up for me. I work remote most of the time now and dont have a central office so I am going to see if I can get approval to move soemwhere else.

I dont think its a bubble though. The COL is still low vs the coasts and a very strong economy here. It will be healthy for a long time.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

... not everyone finds the Bos-Wash corridor appealing, either.

Amen to that, which is the area we waved goodbye to in 2005.