It's Not A Waiter's Market

On Tuesday NAR, the National Association of Realtors released their third quarter report on real estate sales in every MSA in the country. The headline for Denver was "prices drop 11% in the last year!" Watch out the sky is falling!

Now, let's look at the facts. Yes, median prices dropped 11% from September 2007 thru September 2008. But, what's happening recently? For the 3rd quarter prices were unchanged from the 2nd quarter. And prices actually rose .7% in the 2nd quarter. That's two quarters in a row of good news!

Almost all of the 11% drop occured in the 4th quarter last year when prices dropped 9.5% in those 3 months.

Home prices are firming up in Denver and the Case-Shiller Index reveals that March 2008 was probably the bottom of the market here in Denver. It's a buyer's market, NOT a waiter's market!

Denver Market One of the 7 Best

According to Smart Money Magazine November 2008 issue they named Denver one of the 7 most promising cities for a real estate rebound in the near future. I would agree.

In the magazine they quoted the PMI Group’s quarterly risk survey which might be the best risk assessment survey in the business and here is what they said,

“According to PMI’s ‘Risk Index,’ which estimates the odds of prices falling in a given market, at least 65 percent of the nation’s 386 metro areas have less than a 10 percent chance of seeing lower prices two years from now." Denver’s risk is under 2%!

I believe there is a lot of pentup demand in Denver from homeowners who want to move up or to a new neighborhood. 2009 could be a great year for home sales in Denver.
To read the story yourself, click below

http://www.smartmoney.com/Personal-Finance/Real-Estate/Now-for-the-Good-News-on-Home-Prices/