Absorption Rate Changes

by Paul Hunter

You may have heard the real estate market is changing. While this is true, if you have read any articles that say the sky is falling please understand that scary stories get you to click on news websites, and that’s what they are counting on!

I have tracked the Fort Collins absorption rate since 2011 and keep a running spreadsheet on a quarterly basis of inventory levels and the rate of absorption (the rate at which available homes are sold in a specific real estate market during a given time period. It is calculated by dividing the average number of sales per month by the total number of available homes). The good news for sellers is that inventory is still historically VERY low, it was at only 1.81 months and a balanced market is 6 months. The interesting number was the much lower absorption rate of 55%. We haven’t seen numbers that low on a consistent basis since the end of 2013 heading in to 2014. All this means is that homes are not being “absorbed” in to the market as quickly, so that could mean some great opportunities for buyers. With increasing interest rates and appreciation still on the horizon, now could be a good time to find a home and potentially not even have to compete with 10 other offers (Buyers should be cheering for that right now!).

If you have any questions on how this data could affect your decision to buy or sell, just give me a call or shoot me an email. I’d be happy to take you to coffee or lunch to discuss!

About the area • Buyer Tips • Fort Collins Real Estate • Investment • Loveland Real Estate • Real Estate • Seller Tips • Wellington Real Estate • Windsor Real Estate • September 8, 2017

Friday Fun Facts! Fall vs Spring And Listing Your Home

by Paul Hunter

Fall vs. Spring

A question I start to hear from clients this time of year is “am I better off waiting until the Spring to sell my home?”

The perception is that Spring is the busy time for home sales and that a Seller would be better served waiting to sell their home.

The reality is the numbers show that your odds of selling your home in the fall (and even the Winter) are just as good as the Spring. The reason is that the competition from other sellers is much lower in the Fall and Winter.

Let’s see what the numbers say…

I did an analysis of the number of homes that sold last year in each month versus the homes for sale that month and then looked at the ratio. For example, if 500 homes were for sale and 250 of them sold, the ratio would be 50%.

Here are the ratios for certain months in our 3 major Northern Colorado markets:

Fort Collins

· March = 38%

· October = 38%

· December = 55%

Loveland

· March = 39%

· October = 43%

· December = 46%

Greeley

· March = 48%

· October = 49%

· December = 82%

So the numbers tell us that there is no advantage of waiting until the Spring.

Also, all of my clients who are listing their home now see the advantage of dealing with the “known” versus the “unknown” when it comes to interest rates, demand levels and other market factors.

If you would like to see the odds of selling in your particular neighborhood and your particular price range, contact me today.