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2021 was a year of challenges and trials, but also there is hope. It has been uplifting to see our Boulder County community come together in the face of extreme challenges after the fires last week. Our hearts go out to all those impacted, to those who lost their homes, and who lost their beloved pets. While it's difficult to talk about stats and numbers while so many in our community are facing extreme hardship, understanding the market conditions in which the healing from the fires will take place will help in creating the path forward- both the displaced and those who will be making a move for other reasons this year. So in the name of education, let's dig into the stats and see where our market was at the end of last year and also, what we might expect for 2022. These stats are from December of 2021 so they are pre-fire. |
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Median Closed Price-Boulder County |
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Boulder County-Single Family Homes |
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Click on the graphs to enlarge them. The above graph is for single family homes in Boulder. Median Closed Price was up 29% year-over-year in Boulder, 17% in Louisville, 20% in Lafayette, and 15% in Longmont. These are all record or near record increases for a single year for these areas.
Boulder County- Attached Dwellings |
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The above graph shows Median Closed Price for attached dwellings in Boulder County. While the numbers are not as large year-over-year as compared to the single family home statistics, these are still strong gains overall. |
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Showings per Listing-Boulder County |
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The Showings per Listing graphs are interesting because they show that even through the holiday season, buyer demand remained at very high levels. The effects of those high levels of demand are seen in the graph below.
Months Supply of Inventory-Boulder County |
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Months Supply of Inventory is a metric Realtors use to evaluate the number of buyers vs. sellers in the market. When Months Supply is very low, we know the market is unbalanced and market conditions favor sellers. You can see, the inventory number are very low as of the end of last year. With inventory numbers like this, sellers should continue to have a strong upper hand in negotiations. It is likely that buyers will need to utilize every advantage that they can in order to win the best homes in the spring of 2022.
Median Closed Price-Denver Metro Denver Metro- Single Family Homes |
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The above graph shows Median Closed Price for single family homes in the Denver metro. Gains in the single family home market in the Denver metro mirror those in Boulder County. Strongest year-over-year gains were posted in Westminster, which is an indication that some folks are choosing to move outside the city center for larger, somewhat more affordable properties. This makes sense as we hear frequently of people wanting and needing more room due to life changes due to COVID. Regardless, all areas saw record, or near record, price growth in 2021. Denver Metro- Attached Dwellings |
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The above graph shows Median Closed Price year-over-year in attached dwellings in the Denver metro. Again, we see the strongest year-over-year gains in the suburbs.
Showings per Listing-Denver Metro |
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Showings per Listing in the Denver metro also remained strong throughout the holiday season.
Months Supply of Inventory-Denver Metro |
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Months Supply of Inventory in Denver is also extremely low. There are many more buyers than sellers in the marketplace.
So given all of this information, what conclusions can we draw? What can buyers and sellers expect with regard to the market? As you can see from the numbers, inventory remains low across our entire metro area. As mentioned, these numbers reflect inventory before the Louisville and Superior fires, and so we can expect inventory to be further limited in the aftermath of that disaster. Some of the people displaced by the fires will become renters, some will become buyers, and some will move away all together. The ramifications from this will be felt for years to come. We can likely expect that Lafayette, Broomfield, Westminster and what remains of Superior and Louisville will likely see higher demand in both the purchase and rental markets as those impacted by the fire disperse. Buyers should be coming in to the year expecting to compete on most homes that are listed and, at least for the foreseeable future, buyers will need to be aggressive to win. Buyers should get pre-approved early, get out to see homes quickly, and might need to consider changing inspection and appraisal verbiage to be in the running. If you have questions about what these items mean, just drop us an email or give us a call and we can fill you in! Sellers can expect a busy spring time. Lots of showings and high buyer demand will characterize their experience when selling a home. One reason we have limited inventory is that sellers are concerned about selling their homes and having no where to land. There are companies in the market offering products to assist in this situation. They are offering "buyer before you sell" programs so that sellers don't need to write offers contingent on selling a home. Also, sellers may be able to take advantage of other financing options to pull equity out of their homes so they have down payment funds available to them. If you have questions about these kinds of programs and financing, we can fill you in. While we have very high demand and low inventory, the Fed has indicated several interest rate hikes this year. That will likely initially boost demand prior to the rate hikes and then as the rates increase will serve to slowly cool the market. However, it isn't expected the hikes will be large enough to have a significant effect on buyer demand this year. Overall we don't expect to see this impact our market conditions much at all in 2022. In our upcoming newsletters we will be talking about upping insurance coverage and also updating with Curbio before you sell. As always, if you have questions about homes or the market, don’t hesitate to reach out. Until next time~ Allison Benham and Ken Crifasi with K&A Properties |
