Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 9:18am MST

Colorado mortgage rates drop to 4.65%; new home starts down

Denver Business Journal

Rates for 30-year fixed home mortgages in Colorado slid to a new recent low of 4.65 percent as of Tuesday, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace reports.

Rates are down a bit from last week's average of 4.66 percent, Zillow said.

As recently as mid-summer, Colorado rates were well over 5 percent.

Nationwide, the average rate was 4.66 percent on 30-year fixed loans.

Zillow says its figures on mortgage rates are based on borrower credit scores over 680 and a down payment of 20 percent or more.

Nationally, both mortgage applications and new home construction are on the decline, according to reports Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association announced that its index of applications fell 2 percent for the week ended Nov. 13 as purchase applications tumbled to a 12-year low.

Now that President Barack Obama has signed an extension of the homebuyer’s tax credit through next April, some analysts think mortgage activity will pick up.

Home builders are more cautious. The Commerce Department announced Wednesday that new home starts plunged nearly 11 percent last month to an annual rate of 529,000. That is the lowest level since April and came despite predictions for a gain in starts.

The Commerce Department said that building permits, a sign of future construction activity, also declined.

Compiled by Mark Harden | Tucker Echols of the Washington Business Journal contributed.

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Denver-area home sales pickup in October

Denver-area home sales pickup in October, inventory drops

There were 4,910 homes placed under contract in October, a 9.0 percent increase from the 4,504 homes sold in October 2008, shows a report released today. It was the best October for Realtor-sold homes in the Denver area in at least 19 years. (For more on the sales, read this blog.)

That reverses a trend of most of this year of home sales lagging the number of sales in the comparable month a year earlier. Sales did fall 6.1 percent in October from September, when 5,228 homes were placed on the market, but seasonally, sales typically fall month-to-month in the fall and winter.

“I thought it was a great month,” said Gary Bauer, an independent broker who released the report based on Metrolist data.

“It shows there is still a market out there,” Bauer said. “And with President Obama signing the bill today that will extend the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers that also will provide $6,500 credit for those who have owned their homes for at least five years. That is going to help tremendously.”

One reason that October sales were stronger than a year ago, is because the impact of the recession was starting to hit home in October 2008, Bauer said.

“Last October was one we first saw the dramatic effects of the recession,” Bauer said. “We are not starting to see some growth, which is very positive. I think this is a trend we will start to see continue in the coming months.”

The average price of all homes sold was $261,771, an increase of 4.6 percent from October 2008, when the average price was $250,172. The average price, however, is down from $274,433 in September, which reflects the mix of housing prices, Bauer said.

The median price of all homes sold, at $222,00, increased by 7.7 percent from $206,000 in October 2008, but was down 1.33 percent from $225,00 in September.

Meanwhile, the inventory of unsold homes has fallen below 19,00.

There were 18,945 unsold homes on the market in October, an 18.1 percent drop from the 23,120 on the market a year earlier, a 4.5 percent drop from the 19,834 homes on the market in September.

“I do believe that is the lowest on record for an October,” Bauer said. (For more on the supply levels, read this blog. )

However, the number of placed under contract each week, at almost 6 percent of the inventory, also is apparently a record for an October.

There were 3,958 homes sold and closed in October, up 2.9 percent from the 3,846 closings in September, but down 7.6 percent from the 4,282 closings in October 2008. Closings, however, reflect homes that previously been put under contract, sometimes months before that current month. Last year, homes started taking far longer to close than ever before, a trend that has continued.

Bauer said that especially for homes priced at less than $250,000, there often in a frenzy among buyers. For a breakdown of sales activity by price points, check out this blog.

He is representing one couple planning to buy a home in the $200,000 to $240,000. They looked at seven homes that had recently gone on the market, and by yesterday afternoon, six of them were under contract to other buyers.

“And I’ve got a first-time home buyer who right need feels like he is jinxed,” Bauer said. “He looked at three properties two days ago. He went to extend an offer to one seller, and he said he had accepted another offer an hour or so before.”

That buyer is looking at homes priced from $110,000 to $120,000.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

Home sales jump in West

Monday, November 2, 2009, 8:52am MST | Modified: Monday, November 2, 2009, 8:53am

Realtors: Home sales jump in West

Denver Business Journal - by Jeff Clabaugh Washington Business Journal

A key measure of U.S. home sales rose for the eighth consecutive month in September, the longest streak since 2001, with growth strongest in the West, a region including Colorado.

The National Association of Realtors' index of pending sales of existing homes rose 6.1 percent in September. Pending sales are up 21.2 percent from a year ago, the largest annual increase on record, the NAR says.

In the western states, including Colorado, pending sales in September were up 10.2 percent over August and up 23.7 percent over September 2008.

"What we are witnessing is a rush of first-time buyers trying to beat the expiration of the tax credit at the end of this month," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. "Home values will stabilize sooner rather than over-correcting."

Existing home sales, which make up the vast majority of home sales, are leading the recovery. Reports last week said sales of new homes fell 3.6 percent in September,while existing home sales jumped 9.4 percent.

Existing home sales were at a two year high in September. New home sales are down nearly 8 percent from a year ago.

The NAR predicts new home sales will continue to lag as home builders hold back production to drive down inventory. New home construction also continues to be hampered by an ongoing credit crunch for construction loans.

Click here for the NAR's full home-sales report and a video.

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Google Maps Expands Real Estate Info

Google Maps Expands Real Estate Info
Google has been improving the usability of real estate information in its Google Maps function.

Users can now select the “real estate” option from the “more” button on the top right of any Google Map. They’ll automatically see balloons on the maps of listings, as well as a pop-up real estate refinement panel on the left.

From there, they can refine what they are searching for by checking the boxes for renting or buying, apartment or house, as well as price range, square footage, numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms, and foreclosure listings.

Google is also inviting real estate practitioners to list homes on Google Maps.

Source: eWeek, Clint Boulton (10/30/2009)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Foreclosure filings drop in Denver area

Denver Business Journal - by Renee McGaw

Foreclosure filings in the Denver metro area fell nearly 1.6 percent in the third quarter from the same period a year ago, according to data from RealtyTrac Inc.

The Denver-Aurora area had the 47th-highest foreclosure-filing rate among 203 large U.S. urban areas in the first quarter of the year, according to figures released late Tuesday by RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based marketer of foreclosure properties, in its “Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report.”

A total of 9,235 properties in the area were in some stage of the foreclosure process in the July-through-September period, or one per every 113 households, RealtyTrac said. That was up 5.48 percent from the previous quarter, but down nearly 1.6 percent from the third quarter of 2008.

Cities in California, Florida and Nevada accounted for the 10 highest foreclosure rates in the third quarter among metro areas with a population of 200,000 or more. But five of those Top 10 metro areas reported decreasing foreclosure activity from the third quarter of 2008, while many other metro areas with Top 50 foreclosure rates reported sharp increases in foreclosure activity.

“Rising unemployment and a new variety of mortgage resets continued to gradually shift the nation’s foreclosure epicenters in the third quarter away from the hot spots of the last two years and toward some metro areas that had avoided the brunt of the first foreclosure wave,” RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said in a statement. “While toxic subprime mortgages drove much of that first wave of foreclosures, high unemployment and exotic Alt-A Option ARMs are spreading the foreclosure flood to more metro areas in 2009.”

Among the top 50 metro foreclosure rates, the three biggest year-over-year increases were in Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, and Provo-Orem and Salt Lake City in Utah. In several states, the largest increases were posted in cities not previously a focal point for foreclosure activity.

Boulder, for example, experienced a 34 percent increase in foreclosures compared with the previous quarter, and a nearly 46 percent increase compared with the same quarter a year ago, according to RealtyTrac’s data. Boulder had 551 properties with foreclosure filings in the first quarter, or one in 224 households, and ranked 98th out of 203 cities, RealtyTrac said.

Colorado Springs ranked 56th on RealtyTrac’s list, and Fort Collins-Loveland ranked 52nd.

Greeley, at No. 33, was the highest-ranking Colorado city on the Q3 list, with 1,234 properties in foreclosure, or one for every 75 households.

Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., topped the national list with one out of every 20 properties in foreclosure, followed by Merced, Calif. (1 in 27); Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. (1 in 27); Stockton, Calif. (1 in 28); Modesto, Calif. (1 in 30); and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. (1 in 30).

RealtyTrac listed 203 metro areas with populations of 200,000 or more.

RealtyTrac’s metro-areas report parallels its much publicized state-by-state foreclosure rankings. The company’s Q3 ranking for Colorado showed the state had the ninth-highest foreclosure rate in the nation.

Colorado officials for years have disputed the state’s high position on RealtyTrac’s lists, particularly after Colorado’s foreclosure rate was described as the worst in the nation for most of 2006.

State officials have argued that the way Colorado’s public trustees report foreclosure data leads private entities like RealtyTrac to overcount foreclosures here. RealtyTrac has said its methodology is fair. But RealtyTrac officials won’t reveal many details of how it counts foreclosures, saying that it’s proprietary information.

State lawmakers last session passed a bill that would standardize the way Colorado reports foreclosure numbers. The state Division of Housing now reports monthly foreclosure data for selected areas within the state, as well as statewide quarterly foreclosure data.

On Oct. 8, state officials reported a 71.9 percent surge in Colorado urban-area foreclosure filings in September — to 3,480 filings, from 2,024 in September 2008. The big increase was partly due to a change in laws that temporarily reduced new filings last year, state officials said.

The report covered the seven counties of the Denver metro area, plus El Paso, Larimer, Mesa, Pueblo and Weld counties.

RealtyTrac’s numbers may differ from the state’s in part because the state numbers reflected only September, not the entire quarter, said Ryan McMaken, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Housing, on Tuesday.

State-reported data also distinguishes filings from completed foreclosures, while RealtyTrac counts foreclosures at all stages of the process.

(Mark Harden contributed to this story)

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Denver fares better than nation in home resale prices

Denver Business Journal - by Paula Moore

Denver-area home resale prices dropped in August year over year, but were down far less than the national average, according to a First American CoreLogic Inc. report released Thursday.

According to First American’s LoanPerformance Home Price Index (HPI), metro Denver’s average home-resale price — including sales of distressed homes such as foreclosures and short sales — decreased 1.44 percent in August from the same month of 2008.

Nationwide, resale prices dropped 10.1 percent in August from August ’08.

Resales are sales of homes that have been sold at least once before.

First American’s HPI data doesn’t include actual selling prices. The types of housing the index covers include single-family homes, condominiums and townhomes.

By comparison, July home prices in the Denver area dropped 2.64 percent from those of July 2008, and June prices were down 3.21 percent year over year.

But excluding distressed sales, August home prices were down less than 1 percent — .58 percent — from the prior-year August.

July prices, not including distressed sales, decreased 1.26 percent and June’s prices dropped 1.68 percent year over year.

First American CoreLogic predicts Denver-area home prices will decrease 2.63 percent from August through August 2010.

In Colorado, the HPI index shows average resale home prices, including distressed sales, dropped 3.44 percent in August from the same month of 2008. Prices not including distressed sales were down only 2.83 percent.

Looking at other Western states, Nevada had a 24.4 percent drop in resale prices, including distressed sales, while Arizona had a 19.5 percent decrease.

First American CoreLogic expects overall Colorado resale prices to be down 1.87 from August to August 2010, and down 3.07 percent excluding distressed sales.

Based in Santa Ana, Calif., First American CoreLogic provides real estate information, including mortgage-related data and market trends.

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Media Dropping Ball on Housing-Market Trends

Media Dropping Ball on Housing-Market Trends
by M. Anthony Carr

I clicked a link to the Wall Street Journal's market data chart, called the Hagerty's Quarterly Housing Report and was really taken aback by what they are reporting in the Washington, D.C. area (my home base). Again, they have labeled our market as a "buyers" market and reported that more foreclosures are on the way. The problem I have with both those statements is that they are created out of data provided by the real estate industry; and they are accurate, but not truly reflective. The real estate industry is its worst enemy when it comes to reporting sales data to the media and, ergo, the public. The reporters call, asking for the latest sales information and that's exactly what we hand them, latest solds, the houses that actually settled in the last month. Then the media take that report and extrapolate a trend (in their minds) of what's going to happen in the local markets. The problem is they are usually wrong. The Journal's report is a good example. While they are reporting that the Washington, D.C. market has a 6.4 months supply (considered a normal to buyer market) any agent working the Washington suburbs will tell you that is far from the truth. We are sitting on hardly any inventory and in many of our pocket markets, we have just a few days' supply, much less weeks. Split it up by price range, and some communities have less than 7 days' supply. The houses come on and sell in a day at or above listing price. The challenge for the media (or something they refuse to really look at) is that when they go to these "local" MLS organizations that serve a particular metropolitan area, they just lump it all in the same bowl and come out with one large biscuit and label it Chicago; or Washington, DC; or Big City Name here. If you know the geography of Washington DC, then you'll probably be a little confused when you find out what's included in our MLS: Parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia. If those areas are included, then, yes, the DC market has a 6.4 months' supply. In Pennsylvania there's an absorption rate of 13.5 months currently. In W.Va., it's a 10.8 months' supply and in Delaware, those good people have a 12.7 months' supply. Right around the Beltway, however, which is DC-proper, the absorption rate is at 2.8 months. (That would be only Active properties, divided by pending sales written in the last 30 days). A buyer can see all the homes in their price range in about 15 minutes because there just aren't enough houses on the market. So when the consumers around Washington (or Miami, Chicago, New York, etc.) read about the months' supply on Hagerty's Quarterly Housing Report in the Wall Street Journal – what's an agent to do? Who's the buyer going to believe – the Wall Street Journal, or the agent driving them around trying to sell them a house and earn a commission. I mean, hey, what would the agent know? They just look at me as a big fat commission check, right? The market is turning in many metropolitan areas around the country – DC is at the head of the curve and many will follow. (In fact, at this writing, foreclosures make up only 18 percent of Fairfax County – one of the larges suburban markets in the DC area – 82% are regular sales.) But before you swallow the charts from the Big Media about absorption rates, talk with the agent who's actually working the area.

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