May Sales Statistics for Boulder County

May was another great month. So far this year we have become accustomed to large gains when compared to the same month the previous year but this month the number of sales in Boulder County increased just 1.5%. Inventory increased by 140 units or 16% during the month which has helped take a little bit of the pressure off of buyers. 37% of the listings are currently under contract. This is a decrease of a few percentage points from last month.
View the slideshow for all of the details and year over year comparisons.

The Market Strength Continues

The themes so far for the year in the Boulder real estate market are; low inventory and high demand.  This is a great combination has lead to increases in prices and quick sales.  Great for sellers, not so much for buyers.

Typically the months of April, May and June are the busiest months here for real estate transactions and this year so far is no different.

In order for the market to run efficiently you need enough listings to fill demand.  So far this year we have had a definite shortage.  The chart below shows the number of new listings that have come on the market in Boulder County on a weekly basis over the past four years.  The purple line is this year and we have been lagging behind all year.  It is interesting that when there were few buyers and low demand in 2010 there were many new listings.  Maybe this has something to do with the practice of withdrawing and re-entering a listing on the MLS if it has been on the market for an extended period, hmmm.

The second chart shows the number of properties that have gone under contract on a weekly basis.  It compares same week data over the past four years.  You can see how the purple line (this year) has been really strong all year compared to the data over the past four years.  From this chart you can see that the most activity in the market actually took place in late March.  Since then the market has cooled a bit but is now gaining strength again as summer begins.  We usually see a fall off in market activity sometime in June.

April Real Estate Statistics

The Kearney Report – 1st Quarter 2013

I’ve just finished The Kearney Report which summarizes the local real estate market in a colorful mostly graphical format.  It is 17 pages of great statistical information for Boulder County real estate including breakout sections for Boulder, Gunbarrel, Longmont, and East County (Superior, Louisville, Lafayette, and Erie).  To view the entire report click here.

Here are a few excerpts from the summary:

The local real estate market showed surprising strength through the holidays and soon after the calendar turned, buyers were out in force.  Buyers currently have many reasons to purchase real estate. Some of the most compelling at the moment are; low interest rates, economic recovery, recognition that prices have bottomed out and are heading up, and increased buyer confidence (based upon the three previous reasons). These causes have had one effect on the local housing market, super high demand. Through the first quarter, sales in Boulder County are up 16% from a year ago and up 33% from the first quarter in 2011. The market is humming along!

It’s too soon to know how much prices have risen but so far this spring I have seen quite a few homes with prices that I thought were way too high go under contract very quickly. According to the latest FHFA.gov price appreciation report, prices in Boulder County had risen 2.08% for the year ending December 31, 2012. Anecdotally, I have seen some homes in some areas sell at levels approximately 15% higher than they would have been a year ago. We’ll see where the averages fall but it is definitely a sellers market.

Multiple offers are very common on homes that are in good condition and are asking a fair price. There is an urgency to make decisions and if a house lasts more than a week or two on the market it is most likely overpriced. A typical scenario right now is where a seller lists their home at a price level that is pushing the market (just to see if anyone will bite). They get 15-20 showings during the first week and then when no offers come in they start chasing the market with price reductions.