Denver Housing Market Still Booming But Pricey
The Denver housing market is improving, according to recent news, but the costs still remain as high as the city’s altitude.
The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, CO, reported that high demand for residential and commercial property in the Denver area will stay steady throughout 2016, according to predictions from the Leeds School of Business in Boulder.
However, researchers from the university found that the demand’s pace may slow throughout next year.
Brian Lewandowski, a research associate on the team, said that new construction can’t keep up with growing demand, and with the population boom in Denver, home sales volumes are expected to rise.
Local brokers in the Grand Junction area say that real estate investors may want to sell at peak prices in Denver in order to move to the more affordable area outside the city, where inventory is high and prices are low.
As for buyers of these high-priced properties, the costs they pay up front don’t include expenses later on down the road in the form of home improvement upgrades. For instance, some new homeowners might need to replace an old shingle roof with a metal one; although this could save them 25% off their annual home energy costs over the long term, it’s still a substantial short-term investment.
Buyers of both new and existing properties can expect to pay record high down payments, according to a recent analysis from Zillow.
The real estate listing site found that Denver residents buying homes in the $314,000 range can expect to spend $62,760 on a typical 20% down payment. That’s apparently well above the national average of $36,500, said the Denver Business Journal.
That doesn’t seem to be stopping buyers in Denver, however, according to the Re/Max National Housing Report. Of 53 cities studied in the report, Denver was found to tie with San Francisco nationally for quickest-selling homes, staying on the market for just 28 days. The national average for home listings is 62 days.
