Denver Neighborhood News

We calculate Denver home inventory using a twelve month period. Home inventory is the number of months required to sell all the homes currently on the market if they were to sell at the same rate at which they’ve sold during the past 12 months.

Home Inventory = Properties for Sale ÷ Properties Sold Past 12 Months x 12

Our graphs represent Denver home inventory by price point for more meaningful analysis.  In some cases a home might be on the market at a price point that has not sold in the past 12 months.  Since division by zero is undefined, we assume that “Properties Sold Past 12 Months” equals one.  In such cases we represent the assumption with an orange line.

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Central Denver’s available inventory continues to fall as unsatisfied sellers and overwhelmed banks withhold homes.  December shows an almost 40% decrease in available inventory compared to the previous December.

Our analysis shows that the drop in inventory cuts across all price points as well.  The absorption rate is the number of months it would take to sell the current housing inventory at the rate at which homes have sold over the past 12 months.  For Denver the absorption rate has dropped 56% for homes over $1 million and 51% for homes under $200,000.

Most analysts attribute the decrease to frustrated sellers with expectations that the market cannot meet and to new government regulations on banking foreclosure procedures.

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We analyzed 7,000+ sales transactions in Denver from the past 12-months to see which type of seller (builder, government, bank, individual, or relocation) was willing to give the biggest discount off their final asking price to get their home under contract (see graph below).

Relocation companies that corporations hire to help sell moving employees’ homes are full of good will and much merry!  In some cases, certainly not all, relocation companies will make up the loss between what their seller paid for the home and how much a buyer is willing to pay for it.  To the home owner, once they are underwater, they don’t care how much of a loss the relocation company will take.  There is a limit to how big the spread can be, but usually it’s quite generous.  Knowing that they have a second round of negotiations for inspection items, sellers are motivated to pass on a bigger loss to the relocation company on the purchase price in order to avoid having to shell out money for inspection items, a cost that most relocation companies will not cover.

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Our Denver real estate market continues to disappear.  October’s numbers show a 28% decrease in available inventory compared to October last year for central Denver (Colfax to Hampden and Quebec to Broadway).  Sadly, prices remain flat at an average of $423,690 compared to $424,518 a year ago.  It appears that buyers are taking their ball and going home as well.

[Denver Business Journal] “Consumers are not putting their Denver homes on the market unless they have a pressing need to sell,” said Gary Bauer of Littleton, an analyst of Metrolist data.

The inventory of listed unsold Denver homes stood at 15,794 in October, down 8 percent from September and 28 percent from October 2010. There were 21,851 homes on the market in October 2010.

“We are moving into new territory with the current level of unsold Denver homes,” Bauer said, noting people aren’t putting homes on the market because of concerns for jobs and the economy.

Read the whole article

Uncategorized Denver real estate

[Denver Business Journal] Home prices in metro Denver posted a year-over-year decline in August for the 14th consecutive month, but they rose from the previous month for the fourth time in the last five months, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Index, released Tuesday.

Denver’s single-family home price performance also bested the average for 20 major U.S. cities covered by the closely-followed monthly report, both for month-over-month and year-over-year changes.

The prices are for resales of stand-alone single-family homes in Denver only, not new construction or condominiums.

Read The Whole Article

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Work is also under way on the Kent Place property, Denver real estate’s latest addition, as crews continue clearing and grading the site, constructing retaining walls and installing underground utilities.

Kent Place is the proposed development of the former Denver Seminary site that covers 11.4 acres of land at University and Hampden. The original proposal put forward by developer Continuum Partners was to build 270 to 300 luxury residential condominium units along with about 52,000 square feet of retail and office space.

However, the economy brought about changes to the Denver Real Estate market. The current plan calls for construction of a retail development on half the site and will include a new concept King Soopers specialty grocery and food store as the major tenant. The elevations, along with color and material samples for building that will house the grocery store received Denver city approval.

Read the whole article

Uncategorized Denver real estate, kent place, new homes

Denver’s Country Club neighborhood is among the 10 most-searched U.S. neighborhoods, based on search activity for for-sale homes in September at Zillow.com, the online real estate company reported.

Zillow estimates the median value of homes in the Country Club neighborhood at $665,600, which is 244 percent above the estimated median value of $193,500 for homes citywide.

Four of the five most-searched U.S. neighborhoods — and five of the top 10 — are in Portland and Seattle.

View the full report: Top 10 hottest neighborhoods for real estate searches.

Uncategorized denver country club, Denver real estate

Appraisals these days are as anxiety ridden as an appointment with your accountant or dentist. A below-value appraisal will stick with a property for 4-months with an FHA loan application. Here is a strategy for both home sellers and refinancing home owners to relieve some of that anxiety.

The 2,300 page Dodd-Frank Act enacted July, 2010 states, among many other things, that it is a Federal crime for anyone with an interest in financing a home to:

• Compensate, coerce, extort, collude, instruct, induce, bribe, or intimidate an appraiser
• Mischaracterize the appraised value of the property
• Seek to influence an appraiser or otherwise to encourage a targeted value

So don’t do any of that; however, you do have the right to ask an appraiser to:

• Consider additional, appropriate property information, including the consideration of additional comparable properties to make or support an appraisal
• Provide further detail, substantiation, or explanation for the appraiser’s value conclusion
• Correct errors in the appraisal report

Before the appraisal:

Call the appraiser and ask how many homes he has appraised in the neighborhood in the past 12 months. Tell him that you plan to meet him at the property and that you have additional information to share (the appraiser packet). If you are not satisfied that the appraiser knows your neighborhood, or if the appraiser does not seem receptive to your offer, then ask the lender to assign a new appraiser from the appraiser pool.

• Contract, listing history, and listing brochure (for home sale)
• Form 1004MC (we can provide this to you)
• List of all property upgrades, completion dates, and costs
• Any previous measurement sketches
• County assessor records
• Comparable properties that support your price (listed, pending, sold)
• Your cell phone number

On appraisal day:

• Make sure your home is clean, well-lit, and fresh (yes, it matters)
• Remove your pets from the property including the backyard
• If you have an attic, remove the cover and set-up a ladder
• Spread out your appraiser packet on a table
• Be warm and friendly, but do not follow the appraiser around the house
• Once the appraiser has completed his inspection, present your appraiser packet

Make the appraiser’s job easy without being annoying and you will win some reciprocity so you can ask for the favor.  The favor you want to ask the appraiser before he leaves is to contact you before he submits the appraisal if his calculations do not support your financing needs. Only 8% of below value appraisals are reconsidered once the paper work is filed.  Obviously, you want to make sure that you have a second shot at correcting the appraisal before it is filed.  Building rapport with the appraiser will give you that second shot.

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The Central Denver Market continues to perform extraordinarily well. Below are the market statistics for the combined area of the following neighborhoods:

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The Cramer Group had their annual client appreciation party at the Denver Chop House recently.  We’ve posted pictures from the event and the Shutterbooth photo booth on our new Facebook Page, and we hope you’ll check in and click on the “like” button.  If you were at the party and would like a higher resolution photo of any of the pictures, let us know and we’ll email them to you.

Uncategorized Denver real estate, realtors, The Cramer Group

Central Denver Housing Prices

Uncategorized denver home prices, Denver real estate, denver real estate prices

If you’ve had a chance to read our previous market updates, you know that Denver has a buyer’s market for expensive homes, and a seller’s market for less expensive homes. We wanted to know how that difference played out in negotiations between buyers and sellers.

We looked at the difference between the last list price and the final contract price on homes sold in Denver, Cherry Hills Village, and Greenwood Village over the past twelve months by price point. The graph below shows what we found as a percentage difference.

As you can see, on average buyers purchasing a home between $400,000 and $600,000 were able to negotiate their final price down by only 3.91% from the last offered price. Between $1.0 and $1.2 million, however, buyers were able to negotiate down a whopping 9.93%. Luxury home buyers have 150% more negotiating power than lower end home buyers.

You probably noticed that the negotiating power for buyers is slightly higher in the first two columns than the third. We took a closer look at the data and found that quite a few of the properties in the first two price ranges, especially between $0 and $200,000, were real dogs. Sellers have a tougher time negotiating a price on properties listed as “uninhabitable”, “possible mold”, or “as is”.

You can see from these numbers that a luxury seller who drops their price $50,000 has not really enticed a new pool of buyers much. $50,000 is about half of what an interested buyer would negotiate down anyway. On the other end, a buyer who expects to purchase a $400,000 home for $360,000 will on average find it frustrating to come to agreement with a seller.

Of course every deal is different and each has to be given its own consideration, but having a sense of the numbers is essential to getting what you want. If you or someone you know would like to purchase or sell a home, we would be grateful for the opportunity to put our knowledge to work.

Uncategorized real estate price points

During the past 12 months 17 homes over $2 million have sold in Denver out of 7400+ transactions. Recently The Cramer Group sold this home at 3481 E Kentucky for $2.1 million. Among the 17 homes sold, the average difference between the original list price and the final list price was 17.6% — our transaction difference was only 8.7%, or less than half.

Put The Cramer Group’s technology, marketing, and negotiation expertise to work for you.

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The luxury real estate market, homes over $1 million, has had a rough deal from the deck for the past three years both nationally and here in Denver.  While inventory remains high and prices continue to drop, some luxury homes still manage to sell (see our sale of the Phipps’ home in Belcaro).

Here is a review of the market for the past twelve months for the combined area of Denver, Cherry Hills Village, and Greenwood Village (see these markets individually).

Sold: 215 grateful sellers have come up aces and successfully sold their homes.  Over 60% of those sold were less than $1.5 million (see chart).  The average reduction from the original list price to the final contract price was 21.5%.  The number of luxury homes sold has edged up slightly to 217 from 205 the previous year.

About to sell: Currently 20 anxious luxury sellers are under contract awaiting their closing day, a happy day that may rival their wedding day or the birth of a child.  Another 5 homes have contracts that require bank approval before they are fully executed as part of a short sale or foreclosure.

Not selling: Another 260 sellers are keeping the faith as they continue to market their homes.  The average days on market for these faithful is 290 days — the market average under a million dollars is 149 days, or almost half.  The most expensive home listed in MLS, 5000 E Quincy Avenue in Cherry Hills Village, is listed for a mere $18,900,000.

The market has 14.5 months of inventory available; meaning that if no other luxury homes come on the market and luxury homes continue to sell at their current rate, it would take 14.5 months to sell all of them.

Given up: 268 sellers have folded and withdrawn their listings from the market.  If you consider the first two categories above (sold and about to sell) as “successful ventures”, and the second two (not selling and given up) as “failed ventures”, then your probability of selling a luxury home is 1 out of every 3.19 listed.

If you or someone you know is thinking about selling a luxury home, knowing the reality of the market is essential to beating the odds.  Feel free to forward this article on to friends and family and don’t hesitate to send us an email.  We appreciate your continued support and referrals.

Uncategorized denver real estate market, luxury real estate denver, luxury real estate market

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Jefferson Park is know for it’s great views of the Central Platte Valley including Six Flags Elitch Gardens, Pepsi Center, REI Flagship Store, The Children’s Museum and the Downtown Aquarium. It sits on a bluff across I-25 in North Denver. Invesco Field at Mile High (“Mile High Stadium” for us Denver old-timers) is located in the southern part of the neighborhood. The Jefferson Park boundaries are Speer Blvd. (north), 20th Ave. (south), I-25 (east) and Federal Blvd. (west). The park called Jefferson Park is a 6.7 acre park located at 23d Ave. and Clay St.

Jefferson Park was originally platted as part of The Town of Highland in 1873. In 1896 The Town of Highland (which had grown and become The City of Highlands in 1890) was annexed and the area of Jefferson Park was defined and named. Homes were built in the area starting in the 1890s and going through the 1950s so there’s a wide variety of architectural styles of the 1890s, 1910s, 1920s, 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s Denver’s urban areas experienced a flight to the suburbs and the recession of the 1970s and 1980s left this neighborhood in disrepair.

Attention and investment returned to Jefferson Park in the 1990s as people realized the value of the location next to downtown Denver and the great views. There were affordable homes available and the city of Denver began efforts to improve the infrastructure and undertake beautification projects. The 2010s are showing a continuation of investment and development in the area with many extensive home renovations and new construction of town homes and condos.

Jefferson Park Neighborhood Highlights:

• Jefferson Park United Neighbors
• 5280 Magazine, May 2010, Where To Live In Denver Now
• Community Facts and Statistics

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The boundaries for the Speer neighborhood are 6th Ave (north) cutting southeast along Speer Blvd to Downing St. (east), Alameda Ave. (south) and Broadway (west). The Speer neighborhood blends into West Washington Park and Baker, as well as into Alamo Placita to the northeast. This area is composed of apartment and condominium buildings, both high-rise and low-rise, as well as single family homes and duplexes. There are also many commercial buildings along the main streets such as Speer Blvd., 6th Ave, Broadway and Alameda Ave. which provide some great restaurants, shops, bars, dry-cleaners, etc. It’s a convenient place to live that has easy access to I-25, Downtown and Cherry Creek Shopping District. The Cherry Creek bike and running path is accessible along Speer Blvd. There are also many parks nearby, Washington Park, Alamo Placita Park, Hungarian Freedom Park and Governor’s Park. The large Denver Health complex is at 7th and Speer.

Speer Neighborhood Highlights:

• Benny’s Mexican Restaurant (great margaritas and the Sloppy Burrito is amazing!)
• Racine’s Restaurant (try the gingerbread pancakes and green chili omelette)
• Lucile’s Creole Cafe (get there early on the weekends, or be prepared to wait… it’s worth it!)
  

  Uncategorized speer denver, speer neighborhood, speer real estate

Five Points is one of Denver’s oldest neighborhoods with some of the most interesting heritage and history. It’s located about 1 mile northeast of downtown bordered by Park Avenue, Downing Street, Stout Street and Tremont Place. The name Five Points comes from the fact that the neighborhood surrounds the 5-way intersection of Washington St., 27th Ave., 26th Ave. and Welton St. This is the junction of the downtown diagonal grid that parallels the south bank of Cherry Creek, and the rectangular grid of Denver.

Five Points has one of the few predominantly African American-owned commercial strips in the country called the Welton Corridor. Some have referred to the area as the “Harlem of the West” for it’s long-standing jazz history where many of the greats, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis played.

Although the birth of the neighborhood was historic and prominent from the 1860’s through the 1950’s, the Five Points community suffered, as many urban areas did, in the late 1950′s through the late 1990′s due to the influx of drugs, crime and urban flight. Many properties were abandoned and the local economy became depressed. The community started to see some promising revitalization with the construction of the Light Rail system through the neighborhood in the 1990’s. The larger Denver community is happy to see that the revitalization efforts are continuing today.

The homes in Five Points are primarily Victorian style and were built in the late 1800’s. Starting in the late 1990’s many of these homes have been renovated and there’s even been some new construction of lofts and housing developments.

The Welton Street Business District, Clement neighborhood, San Rafael community, Curtis Park and Ballpark neighborhoods are located within the larger Five Points neighborhood.

Five Points Neighborhood Highlights:

• Black American West Museum
• Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library
• Five Points Business District
  

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Montclair is great!

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