Welcome 2009. Good riddance 2008.

The Denver real estate market trailed off quietly into the new year, burdened by poor economic news and low pending sales from the past couple months, then ending with a 40-year-high snowfall that shut the city down in the week prior to Christmas. Not a strong ending.
Hope springs anew for 2009, but the Denver housing market will be looking further into the year for good news. December ended with a 36% decline year-over-year decline in home sales. While November sold a little over 1,000 homes, December could only muster results in the mid-900’s. The average units sold for this time of ye ar has been easily twice that over the past six years.

The median price is down 8% and the average down 15% from the marks set 1 year ago. You should expect to see final accounts showing the median price around $254,000. At the peak of the market, the median topped $302,000.

January isn’t shaping up to be much better, due to slow December performance. Only a little over 600 homes went sale pending for the month. Two to three times that number is the December tradition. Complete results will be out around the 15th and some of these numbers could shift some. We must keep in mind however, the Denver real estate market is not nearly as bad as other areas in the U.S.

Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to 2009 and will be making some changes and announcements at re:PDX this year.

15 Things I Observe About Today’s Real Estate Market

Author: Marc Rasmussen

1. Big Discount - Home buyers want a big discount from list price. If the market value of a home is $400,000 and you price it at $375,000 to sell it quickly, buyers still want a large discount from list price.
2. Sellers Pain - If the home seller does not appear to be in pain many buyers won’t feel like they are getting a good enough deal. Even, if they are getting a heck of a price for the home.
3. Foreclosures - Buyers tend to think that all foreclosures are a sweet deal. That is not always the case.
4. Short Sales - Many banks still stink at getting a short sale approved quickly. A friend of mine recently had a short sale close and said the bank had 17 different people touch the file. No wonder the banks are in trouble.
5. Bad News - Sellers are quick to ignore the bad real estate news but very quick to latch on to the good news.
6. Good News - Buyers are quick to ignore the good real estate news but very quick to latch on to the bad news.
7. Time to spare - Many home buyers feel like they have all of the time in the world.
8. Lost opportunity - Recently, one of my listings went under contract. I had three Realtors contact me to let me know that their buyer was about to put in an offer. All three buyers had ample time to put in an offer. People want what they cannot have.
9. Wholesale - I get contacted several times a week by people who want to buy property at a wholesale price. Finding buyers for a property selling at wholesale is not difficult. Finding a property selling at wholesale is another story.
10. Acceptance - More and more sellers have accepted the fact that their property is worth less than what it was worth two and three years ago.
11. Crazy sales - The real estate news is bad, there are lots of foreclosures, the buyers are skiddish and home prices are dropping but every now and then a home sells for way more than it should.
12. Oversupply? - I have a list of buyers wanting to buy homes in Sarasota, Florida. Yet, with all of the properties out there for sale I have a hard time finding them a viable property. When you discard the junk and overpriced properties there isn’t as much to choose from as everyone thinks.
13. Exit - We have been in a declining real estate market for four years now. Fewer Realtors got out of the business than I expected.
14. Money Can Be Made - Realtors can make money when the market is declining. People still want to own homes. Those people are just harder to find today than three years ago.
15. Wisdom - Times are tough. Not too many people can deny that. When the country pulls out of this mess we will all be a little wiser from it. The next time you see back to back years of 25%+ increases in home prices start selling your real estate.