Denver Real Estate to the world: "I'm still standing!"
It's a weird time for real estate in Denver. While the rest of the country shakes their collective heads at our dismal foreclosure rate, some of us local real estate agents trudge on closing deals and making people on both sides of the aisle happy.
If the Denver real estate market is so bad, then why did three of my listings just go under contract for 99%, 99%, and 100% of their list prices respectively? It’s a good question. I think that part of the reason is that people just love a good story. And right now the hot story is the housing market. Not a day goes by that I don't read somewhere in Inman News that the bottom is falling out of the real estate market, and that it will, at the very least, be a drag on the economy.
Yes, it's true that there are lots of foreclosures in Denver right now. Many of them are due to unscrupulous lenders selling people loans that they never should have been in in the first place. But is it all gloom and doom in Denver? No, not by a long shot.
The market has its pockets of strength, and overall has not taken a nose-dive like areas of Florida have. One reason is that we never really got the bubbly double-digit housing appreciation rates that some of the hot spots got over the past few years.
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And the fact of the matter is that the local economy is doing quite well, we're still a real tourist draw,which is always good for Denver real estate prices, and folks will always move here because...well, it's Colorado. And this is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. We'll always be a draw for the outdoors types. There is a hot tech market here. We've got a great downtown. The list goes on.
Having said that, I am currently working on several deals which involve foreclosures. Foreclosures can be a rewarding purchase for the savvy investor or experienced homebuyer, but they are certainly not for the first-timers. See this blog article that I just posted if you'd like to read more on first-time buyers and foreclosures. The take-away is that foreclosures can be a real pain if you are emotionally attached to the transaction. This makes them no-no's for most first-timers because of the heightened emotions surrounding a first purchase. Banks are often no fun to deal with, as they make you wait 10 days or more just to respond to an offer. And then there is the fact that you are purchasing the property in "As Is" condition. It is definitely a place for the experienced to travel, and I council all of my first-timers to think twice when it comes to foreclosures.
But the rest of the Denver real estate market marches on. I've got lots of buyers, lots of sellers, and the phone is ringing. Those seem to me to be signs of a healthy market. I would offer the clichéd advice that you should not believe everything you read when it comes to real estate. This is especially true when we're talking about Denver real estate.
