Looking for a luxury home in Denver ??

Looking for a luxury home in Denver? The average selling price for homes over $1m held at $1.58M in October, demonstrating a 1% increase from September, and an increase of 15% year-over-year (Source Denver Post).

 If you are looking to purchase in the $1m plus market, click the picture below and contact me for a private tour

More homes are avaliable in Denver Metro

The real estate market in metro Denver continued its now familiar patterns in October according to data just released. Prices are up. More homes are changing hands.

As reported last month, the inventory of homes available for purchase is also showing some improvement. That trend continued in October. There were 41% more homes on the market at the end of October this year versus the number available at the end of October in 2014. Rising inventory is good news for buyers.

Here’s the summary of current market conditions with just two months left in 2015:

The numbers above are for homes handled by real estate agents through the metro Denver MLS system. We lump all of the single family and multi-family homes sales together to give you a feel for the overall market. We also do 12-month averages for certain stats as it helps show true market trends.

You can see a more extensive breakout between the single family and multi-family segments of the market by clicking on the links at the end of this post.

If you like the look of those reports, we can produce one for you that is specific to your zip code and property type. The market is not uniform. Your part of town may be doing better or worse than the metro-wide averages.

While the trend is undoubtedly upwards, the actual numbers just might give you a little adrenaline rush.

Source - Mike Cooke @ Colorado Home Realty

RADON – BIG DEAL OR NO BIG DEAL?

 

Radon. It’s colorless, odorless, deadly … and easily addressed.

What Is Radon? It’s a naturally occurring gas. It’s given off by the decay of trace amounts of radioactive materials in almost all soils. You can’t see it, taste it or smell it.

Is Radon a Health Hazard? Yes and no. In outdoor spaces, the gas dissipates just as fast as it is produced and has almost no impact on us as we wander around the great outdoors of Colorful Colorado.

Indoors, the issue is different. As the gas builds up under the foundation of your house, it finds its way in through crawl spaces, sump pump pits and through joints and cracks in basement slabs and sub-floors. Your furnace and central AC (if you have one) tend to cause the build up to be worse as they actually create a bit of suction that draws radon out of the soil into the lowest level of your residence.

Radon can accumulate to the point that it poses an increased risk for lung cancer. It is the second leading cause of lung cancer behind smoking.

How Much Is Too Much Radon? The Environmental Protection Agency has set limits for radon in dwellings and the limit is expressed in “picocuries per liter.”

What is a picocurie?

We have no idea. But those folks at the EPA think that you should have less than four of them in every liter of volume in your house. At 10 picocuries per liter, your risk of developing lung cancer over your lifetime is about the same as a person smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

How Is Radon Detected? You can easily test for radon. Do-It-Yourself testing kits can be obtained at Home Depot or Lowes for $10 to $30. You let the tester sit for at least 48 hours and send it in to a lab that will report back to you on the radon levels in your place. This works great if you are testing a home you already own.

If you are buying a property, you’ll want a more sophisticated testing method that assures no tampering. The DIY test kits can be fooled but home inspectors use a machine that has hidden, tamper-proof mechanisms to make sure the seller is not fudging the results. Those tests run $125 to $150. A bit of good news with the testing machines is that they give results on the spot as soon as the 48-hour test period is over.

How Do You Get Rid Of Radon? Radon is easy to mitigate and the mitigation methods are not expensive. Costs can run from $200 up to $1500, with $800 to $1000 being an average cost. The systems themselves are simple and reliable and require almost no maintenance. Depending on market conditions, you might be able to get the seller to pay the costs of mitigation when you are buying a home. It’s tougher to do so in our current seller’s market.

What Action Should You Take? Check out the “Home Buyer’s and Seller’s Guide to Radon.” It has a wealth of additional information from the EPA.

And, if you’ve never tested your house, consider getting a DIY test kit from your local big box home supplier and test your house following the instructions that come with the test kit.

Compliments : Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty

Up, Up and Away .....

The 1967 song entitled Up, Up and Away is a good summary of the Denver real estate market. 

The fact that the singing group, The 5th Dimension recorded it makes it even more appropriate. Denver real estate has definitely entered another dimension. It is a new and uncharted realm.

Prices? Yep - they're up. Average sale price in March was $355,462 and that is a 14.79% increase from the average sale price in March of last year. As we always say, the 12-month moving average is a better measure of true price appreciation and it indicates an 8.38% rise in prices over the last year.

Closed Transactions? Yeah - there are more of them. We had 4,522 deals close in March versus 4,077 closed in March of 2014. That is an increase of almost 11%.

Inventory? Even it is up a bit from the previous month. There were 5,288 properties on the market at the end of March, which is a tad higher than the 4,910 that were on the market at the end of February.

What does it all mean? Prices are moving up nicely. Plus, lots of buyers are being successful at finding the place they want despite the relatively low inventory.

Click on the links below for more details on market trends for both:

• Single Family Homes March 2015
• Multi Family Homes March 2015

Want a report like this for your little corner of Denver?Give me a call and we can send you a report with detailed stats on the market in your zip code. 

Julie Reddington

720 226 4168

(c) Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty

How to successfully get moved in the current Denver Real Estate Market

Lots in the press at the moment about the current market here in Denver.  Don't let what you hear put you off.  I have all the tricks to get you moved successfully!

Julie Reddington - 720 226 4168

STUNNING HOME IN WEATHERSTONE, HIGHLANDS RANCH

CALL ME FOR A PRIVATE TOUR OF THIS HOME - 720 226 4168

Stunning semi custom home in absolutely immaculate condition in the sub-division of Weatherstone. 

The interior has been tastefully decorated throughout - you can just move straight in! The home has had many upgrades including Wainscoting in formal living room and dining room, skipped trowel throughout the home, antique lighting, hardwood floors, and built in cherry cabinets. 

Fabulous gourmet kitchen with granite and stainless steel appliances. 

4 upstairs bedrooms plus loft. The master has a fireplace and his and her closets. All closets have either antique or canned recess lighting. 

Finished walk out basement offering family/games room, kitchenette with refrigerator, dishwasher and microwave, bedroom (with its own heat source), bathroom plus fitness room. 

The yard has a firepit, children's playset, trampoline and basketball hoop.

THE DENVER POST NEEDS A BIT OF CHEERING UP OVER LOW INVENTORY

The Denver Post had an article recently about the low inventory in the metro Denver real estate market: "Metro Denver Struggles with a Record Low Supply of Homes for Sale", dated February 13, 2015.

They are feeling a bit "gloomy" about the whole matter.

If you are a regular reader of the CHR Buzz, the news of low inventory comes as no surprise to you.

The Denver Post was accurate about the historically low inventory. However, they failed to comment on the cause. The cause is not a DECREASE IN SUPPLY. In fact, about 3% more properties have changed hands in the first 45 days of this year versus the same period last year.

The cause of the low inventory is a significant INCREASE IN DEMAND, which causes the slightly increased supply to get sucked up as soon as it comes on the market.

There is good news in these supply & demand patterns!

The increased demand is a sign of a healthy economy. In addition, agents are finding ways for buyers to be successful in spite of the low inventory challenge as evidenced by more sales actually occurring so far this year.

We don't want you to be depressed!

Courtesy of Mike Cooke, Colorado Home Realty (c)