A 2.5% decline in the nations median homes price brings the price to $219,800. A 2.2 % decline in the Denver area’s median home price to $243,500. The Denver Real estate market has seen a 13% decline in sales over the last year. There are 31,450 homes waiting to be sold, a near record. “The housing market correction is in full swing but it probably has another year to go before it bottoms out,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “It is going to be painful because there are a lot of price declines to come.” Other analysts say further price declines are probable for both new and existing homes. A glut of unsold homes is forcing builders to throw in expensive incentives such as granite countertops and swimming pools in order to sell homes.
The high foreclosure rate in Colorado, which has led the nation for the past seven months, is part of a downward trend in the overall housing market. For the past five years, home prices haven’t appreciated in a “foreclosure belt” stretching from Weld to Adams to Arapahoe County, said Lou Barnes, a mortgage banker with Boulder West Financial Services in Boulder. A Large numbers of borrowers who took out three-year adjustable-rate mortgages in 2004 could fuel another wave of foreclosures, according to economist Patricia Silverstein at Development Research Partners.
27th Oct, 2006
