The meaning of “home” has been redefined by this pandemic and, as Americans look to stay “safer at home” as we are doing here in Colorado, key information and metrics have never been more important. For 8 consecutive weeks and counting WK Real Estate continues to deliver meaningful data and analysis to help our community understand what’s happening. Our WK associates will play a pivotal role in restoring normalcy to our local economy through the critical backbone of real estate.
This week Moody’s Analytics named the Denver metro area as one of the top 10 areas in the country positioned to recover economically from the pandemic. (Click HERE to read the article in Forbes.) Our region was already a growing tech hub, with a highly educated population, bolstered by reputable institutions of higher education such as University of Colorado, Colorado State University and University of Denver. We see indications of this recovery already in our local real estate market as this week new listing activity was met by strong buyer demand.
Over the course of the last week ending May 13th, new listing activity in Boulder and Broomfield counties was UP over 1.1% compared to the same week in 2019, and almost 5% from the prior. Under contract activity was still down over 9% compared to 2019, but up over a whopping 26.5% from the week before as pent up demand catches up after a confusing array of restrictions on real estate showing and marketing activity.
First-time home buyers continue to benefit from the new inventory listed in recent weeks. Last week almost 43% of all listings in Boulder and Broomfield Counties were in the $300,000-$599,999 range, keeping many homes within reach of first-time home buyers looking to enter the market in our area. Listings in the outlying areas of Boulder County continue to be slim pickings - over 63% of the properties listed last week were in the area’s hubs of Boulder and Longmont.
Boulder and Longmont can hardly be considered high density communities, but we could see a trend in popularity of other areas, considered more sparsely populated, as some who live in more populated city limits today begin to rethink their current neighborhoods. Being walkable to local amenities is definitely a perk, however the trade-off is that highly populated areas lack access to open space, larger yards, and other desirable features. A recent Harris Poll surveyed 2,000 Americans, and 39% of the respondents who live in urban areas indicated the COVID-19 crisis has caused them to consider moving to a less populated area.
The sell-through rate is a key indicator of market activity, revealing how fast the market turns over (i.e. puts under contract) new listing inventory within a certain timeframe. A high or increasing sell-through rate means that most of the new inventory is contracted during that period. A low or declining sell-through-rate means that demand may not absorb new listings, or could simply reflect seasonal fluctuations.
Nationally recognized real estate industry analyst Mike DelPrete reported this week that pending sales are beginning to rebound in some markets across the country as restrictions ease. According to the data for our market the bottom for pending sales occurred around the week of April 15th and then began to rebound steadily. The 7-weeks chart above confirms that the checkmark Mike predicted a couple of weeks ago might indeed be the likely course of our recovery. We are fortunate that the Boulder/Denver area markets were strong to begin with as other areas around the country have yet to see recovery take hold.