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Crazy 2014 Real Estate Market Update
2014 continues to be a record year, in many different ways. As a buyer or a seller, we are seeing trends in the market that we have not seen in the last decade at least. There are opportunities on both sides of the transaction, but you need to be very focused on how to take advantage of those opportunities.
What I think everyone and their mother knows by now is that inventory is low. As in, crazy low. But an interesting statistic is that pending or under contract sales are down 27.5 percent year to date, and new listings (while still lower than last year) are down only 5.5 percent. What that tells me is that the good properties that are priced well have been picked over, and we are starting to see more listings come on the market that may be over priced as sellers are trying to catch the wave of appreciation. Don’t get me wrong, appreciation has CERTAINLY occurred with the average sales price up 8.4 percent year to date at $311,979 for Fort Collins. But, I think there are more and more sellers (and correspondingly their brokers) who are taking a “let’s see if we can get it” type mentality. While I am happy to help you as a seller get the premium for your home, I think pricing accordingly to your appreciation and not just a gut feeling is important.
On the buying side, with interest rates still low, taking advantage of the properties that are priced appropriately still makes sense in the long term. Year to date the average percentage of sold price to list price is right at 99%, so understanding that beating sellers up on price if they are even remotely close to where they should be on price is in most cases not feasible. As long as you as a buyer are willing to move quickly on good homes and have all of your financing in order, then I still think it is possible for you to find the right home.
If you have any questions, or know of anyone looking to buy or sell a home, feel free to contact me anytime!
Fort Collins Real Estate Market Update
The Fort Collins Real Estate market has definitely been an interesting ride for the last 12-18 months! With properties selling so quickly we have had to be not just ready to show homes and write offers at a minutes notice, but get creative on how I obtain properties to show and sell to my clients.
There is good news though for both buyers and sellers going into the summer. For sellers, homes are still selling quickly and pretty much right at list price (we’re at 98.5 % of list price in Fort Collins so far in 2014). We are still maintaining the appreciation that we’ve seen over the last couple of years, so that is great news for the equity in your home if you are a seller.
On the buying side, there is some good news there as well! Interest rates have stayed low (while not 3% like they were last year, 4.5% is still historically VERY low) which has kept buyer’s purchasing power higher than it was a few years ago. We also have stabilized pricing because if you look at the average sales price percentage increase for 2014 we are at 2.4%. The only issue is that we are creeping up on $300,000 as an average sales price for Fort Collins, we are currently at $292,893. But, with homes sitting on the market a little bit longer, the frenzy should hopefully start to slow at least a little bit. We are at 3.12 months of inventory on the market, where we had been at under 3 months since October of last year. To put that in percentages, homes are sitting on the market 7.1% longer than they were at this same time last year.
There are opportunities for both buyers and sellers right now, so if you or anyone you know are looking to make a move, please give me a call so we can sit down and chat about what might be best for you. Have a great week!
Investment Properties, Interest Rates, And Cash Flow
I hope you are all having a great start to your February! Real estate is still selling very quickly in Fort Collins, and myself, buyers, and sellers are all keeping up with the speed of the market by being proactive. On the buying side that means me looking for properties that may not have hit the market yet, and sending mailings to neighborhoods to see who would have a property that would fit my buyers’ criteria. On the selling side that means having all the marketing in place before putting it on the market, because most likely we will be bombarded with showings. That also means preparing sellers for the potential for multiple offers, and the different ways we can deal with those situations.
Let’s talk about investment properties now though. Many investors have been sitting on the sidelines for 2013 because of the lack of inventory. As we progress into the spring of this year though, I’m hopeful that we will see more properties coming on the market. Meaning investors will at least have homes to look at, a big change from last year! It is important to understand what types of cash flow targets us investors will be seeing as the interest rates increase. While we were spoiled with investor rates at 4 and 4.5% last year, that gave us great cash flow because monthly payments were less. A single family home (3 bed 2 bath around campus) we were seeing $300-400 per month after all costs (assuming 25% down). As we see the rates increase, we just have to understand those cash flows will be down a little bit (probably closer to the $200-250 mark). The benefits to purchasing investment properties will still exist though, including writing off the interest, depreciating the home on your taxes, and best of all building equity over time as a retirement plan.
If you have any questions about purchasing investment properties here in Fort Collins and what I can do for you, please call me at 970-673-7285. Thanks!
It Keeps Getting Better For Fort Collins!
Fort Collins has received yet MORE praise, this time in the form of being the 3rd Best Performing City on the 2011 Milken Best-Performing Cities list. They judge this list on job and economic growth and sustainability of those factors. This should help bolster the real estate market here in town that has already been regaining traction all of 2011.
The biggest problem we have right now is the lack of inventory of homes, because there are many buyers out looking to spend their money and take advantage of all time low interest rates on properties whether it is for a home for their family or an investment property. Hopefully this good news, along with the article in the Coloradoan HERE that talks about the strength of our real estate market will give sellers more confidence to put their homes on the market.
If you know someone who is considering selling their home here in Fort Collins, but has doubts about how quickly it would sell, please have them give me a call so I can sit down with them and give them the real numbers that we are seeing and how things could be in their favor.
Happy New Year and I hope 2012 is a great year for all of you!
Fort Collins 2nd Most Healthy Housing Market
So while sometimes it feels like good news is hard to come by for real estate, not for the Fort Collins area! We seem to keep getting awards piled on us, which I certainly can’t complain about. Builder Magazine just voted Fort Collins the 2nd Healthiest Housing market, due to expected employment and household increases and Colorado State University being one of our major employers.
With Fort Collins’ inventory incredibly low for the amount of demand, I am hoping that some of these good news stories will encourage sellers to get their properties on the market if they are looking to sell. Buyers don’t have a heck of a lot to choose from right now, so if you have an investment property or anything in Old Town that you have been holding off on putting on the market because you heard it was a bad time, give me a call and we can talk about why that is not the case right now.
