Home prices dip again
Average house still costs 4.8% more than it did last year
By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News
October 25, 2002
rockymountainnews.com
The average price of a previously owned home sold and closed in the Denver area in October fell to $266,954, the third consecutive month home prices have dropped and about $3,000 less than the average price in September.
The average price of a home has risen only 4.8 percent in the past year, which could be a sign that the days of double-digit appreciation enjoyed by sellers for years has come to an end. The median, or middle price, of a home sold showed a similar percentage gain.
"After several years of double-digit or near double-digit appreciation, the average sold price for 2002 should end up about 4.5 (percent) to 5 percent higher than last year," said Jerry McGuire, an agent with RE/MAX Professionals. "Spectacular performance when compared to other investment opportunities, but well below the gains achieved over the last decade in the Denver metro real estate market."
And while 2,306 homes were placed under contract this month - 11 percent more than the 2,076 sold in October 2001 - last October was the worst in 11 years for sales because of the economic turmoil caused by the attacks of Sept. 11.
McGuire said the market will "continue to perform in a less than spectacular fashion" this year, and with a record supply of 23,769 homes on the market, it will become even more a buyer's market.
One piece of surprising news from Coldwell Banker, which releases data based on Metrolist figures near the end of each month, is that the median price of a single-family home sold actually rose to $223,500 in October from $222,500 in September. A year ago, the median price for a home was $212,750, about 5 percent less than today.
Most agents expected the median price to fall this month, because of the glut of unsold expensive homes on the market.
"That doesn't seem to fit," said Norman Waugh, with Metro Brokers Northwest. "There have been some significant price drops."
On the other hand, he put a home in Arvada on the market last Friday at about $245,000, and when he returned from the Colorado Association of Realtors convention in Colorado Springs on Tuesday morning, he had three full-price offers.
"Buyers can be very picky, but when they find something priced right, they do react to it," Waugh said. "And there's still quite a bit of activity under $250,000. When you get over that amount, there's quite a bit of supply to choose from."
Denise Reich, an agent with RE/MAX Central, said she has been seeing "amazing" price reductions.
"People have lost their jobs, people are scared," Reich said. "There's a whole new reality. . . . But some buyers are still on another planet right now and are trying to hold on to the prices they could have gotten a year or two years ago." |
