Jude's Real Estate Rumblings

Spring home sales likely to surge from January levels - The Denver-area home market in January, while it did not book shoot-the-lights-out activity, appears to have set the stage for a much stronger spring season, as consumers are expected to take advantage of tax credit that are expiring, and lock in low mortgage rates, widely  expected to shoot up in the coming months.  “The market has opened up; it is huge,” said John Lucero, principal of the Denver-based Lucero Financial Group.  “The market seems to be night and day from where it was even 60 days ago.  I am seeing multiple offers on properties again; the phone is ringing off the hook.  Investors are as hungry as heck right now.”  Consumers were surprisingly quiet in the first three weeks of the year, but activity increased a lot the last week in January, and has continued at a rapid pace ever since, said Chris Mygatt, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Colorado.  Showings are way up, he said.
http://insiderealestatenews.com/2010/02/spring-home-sales-likely-to-surge-from-january-levels/

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Zillow.com: Denver leads U.S. in 2009 dollar gain of home values - Denver and its suburbs recorded the biggest dollar gain in home values of any metro area in the country last year, according to Zillow.com.  Denver home values rose by $7.87 billion in 2009, recouping some of the $20 billion shed in 2008.  Denver home prices increased 0.5% last year, Zillow reported, to an estimated value of $211,500 per home.  That value remains 9.1% below the peak reached in May 2006.  The country as a whole is 22.2% below its peak value, reached in June 2006.  About 35% of metro Denver homeowners have a mortgage that is "underwater," and 27.3% of all sales in metro Denver in December were below what the seller originally paid for the property, Zillow estimates.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_14370134

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Median home prices in metro Denver soared in January compared with the same month a year ago, even as sales during the same period declined, according to data released Tuesday.

The median price for a single-family home was $210,000, up nearly 16 percent from $181,500 in January last year, according to an analysis of Metrolist data. The median price for a condo was $130,500, an increase of 15 percent over last year's January price of $113,000.

US mortgage rates dip below 5 pct again-Freddie Mac - The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.97% for the week ending February 11, 2010, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.  Last week, it averaged 5.01%, and a year ago it averaged 5.16%.  Mortgage rates are expected to rise when the Federal Reserve stops buying mortgage-related securities at the end of March.  The Fed's agency MBS and agency debt purchase programs, aimed at lowering borrowing costs, will have reached more than $1.4 trillion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1124374220100211

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Brokerages Slow to Adopt Digital Marketing - According to a recent survey, 76% of real estate companies spent less than 40% of their marketing budgets on digital marketing, devoting the rest of the money to more traditional media.  Approximately 58% don’t use search-engine marketing.  Of those that do, only 33% invest in search-engine optimization.  The report found that 53% of the respondents expect to increase their digital marketing budget in the future.
http://www.realtor.org/rmodaily.nsf/pages/News2010020205

Denver Union Station: Portal to Progress - The Denver Union Station: Portal to Progress film premiere will be held this Friday, February 5, at the Hyatt Regency Denver – Convention Center Hotel.  Fundraising is underway to bring back the Welcome/Mizpah Arch to the Union Station site.  The relocation of IMA Financial’s headquarters to the Union Station site was recently announced.  Design work for the massive project is nearing completion and the project authority, DUSPA, has a new website (www.denverunionstation.org/) with all the latest renderings, plans, and diagrams.
http://denverinfill.com/blog/2010/02/denver-union-station-portal-to-progress-film-premiere.html

FHA Relaxes Anti-Flipping Rule - As of yesterday, FHA began providing mortgage insurance for some purchases in which the seller bought the property and held it for fewer than 90 days.  The agency is changing what is known as the “anti-flipping rule” to speed up sales of renovated homes in communities with too many bank-owned and foreclosed homes.  Waiving the rule will encourage private investors to buy vacant properties, fix them up, and quickly sell them to buyers who will be eligible to buy them using FHA financing.
http://www.realtor.org/rmodaily.nsf/pages/News2010020102

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Denver-area luxury home sales slip in 2009, but median price rises - Luxury home sales in metro Denver ended 2009 with a 9.5% boost in median sales price from 2008, but a decrease in sales, according to Metrolist data released Monday.  In December, 33 homes sold for $1 million and more, while in November there were 39 sales.  Median sales price for December increased 9.5% to $1.35 million year over year.  Boulder had the most $1 million-plus home sales at 13, followed by Denver with 8 and Cherry Hills Village with 6.  Million-dollar homes were on the market an average of 145 days, up from 119 in November and from 106 days in December 2008.
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2010/02/01/daily17.html?s=industry&i=resi_real_estate

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