I read an interesting article the other night talking about San Francisco and their housing market. It referenced how the market for rents was beginning to see a slow down. Meanwhile, the median rent is $4,500/month (Denver, you think you have an affordability issue in the Denver Housing Market?). And the median home price over $1.1M as well. Though, as a friend John Valdez with Greatway Real Estate put it; “I wonder if the changes to laws on overnight rentals through AirBnB in San Francisco affected these numbers” One of the other three cities mentioned was Denver, for potential slowing of the market.
I also came across an article in Denver Business Journal about the market. In this article Ben Miller writes about the Denver Housing Market and gave some stats from Zillow, Redfin, and Trulia with respect to year over year home value appreciation. However, the point that stuck out to me, was Trulia reporting 2.8% more homes available in the last quarter compared to a year ago.
And so yesterday I was talking to a client who so happens to be in property management for a larger management firm in Denver. When I posed the question to him, about seeing a slowing in the rental market in Denver, he agreed. He said his landlords aren’t able to just raise the rents as they were in the past.
A bit later I picked up the phone and called a friend Nicole Rufener of mine who is a Managing Broker of the premier Real Estate companies in Denver, Live Urban Real Estate. She has been in the Denver Real Estate Market for over a decade and is definitely a rising star in the industry. In talking to Nicole I asked her if she felt there was a slow down in the Denver Real Estate market. She did say she has noticed a bit more inventory, and felt now is a great time to buy a home.
I don’t have time to chase down all the fancy stats about the Denver housing market. So for me picking up the phone to get a pulse on the street is the best temperature check I can do, being in the industry.
Here is what I know. The local economy in Denver is doing well. The housing market is doing well. Interest rates are silly low. If there was a bump in inventory and I had been waiting until next spring, I may hop to and buy now because the time could be right to score, when an unknown about the spring is where will interest rates be? Food for thought Denver!
Ray Williams; Branch Manager; Mortgage Maestro Group @ Summit Mortgage
