Boulder Home Prices: Up or Down?

Posted by Phil Boren on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 5:42pm.

boulder home prices, boulder real estate, boulder homes for sale Boulder home prices are on the rise . . . that's the headline I read in an article today. Looking a little deeper it appeared as though they were simply comparing results from one month - June of 2009 with another month - June 2010, which may or may not present the whole story. So, we wanted to take a closer look at how the Boulder real estate market has performed recently.

Our analysis is based on data from IRES as of 8/17/2010, and includes single-family resale statistics across all price ranges during the previous 12 months. The first indicator we looked at was the median price of a sold listing during this period, which reflected a relatively flat market with a decrease of 0.4%. The average price was actually up about 8.5% but we believe the fact that the average is more heavily influenced by extremes than the median, makes this a less reliable number. The real performance is likely much closer to the median.

The dynamics of the Boulder market over at least the last 12 months has been that the higher-end market (say $1M and over), has underperformed and tends to skew overall numbers such as days on market, sales-to-list-price ratio, absorption, etc., down. There are several years' worth of inventory in that segment right now, for example, far different from the lower-end market.

Sometimes buyers and sellers will ask about the price-per-square-foot data, which reflects an increase of about 7.5% in Boulder over the past 12 months. However, there are so many factors that affect the price per square foot - particularly in Boulder, CO, where there can be wide variances in age, lot size, quality, etc., that this indicator is hardly reliable across the board. With the price reductions that we've seen in some of the higher-end homes, we may be seeing those homes that sell infulence this particular indicator and, again, skew the results.

Our inventory in Boulder tends to be seasonal and the past 12 months has been no exception. The overall volume of units for sale is down by 0.7%, but overall that part of the market has not see any wild swings. The number of units under contract and the number sold are both up, 1.28% and 25.7%, respectively, which is a good sign. And, the days on market, or DOM, has consistently come down over the past 12 months to an average of about 70 days at the end of July, the lowest level in over a year.

You can review individual charts reflecting Boulder home prices, but in general, what we see right now in Boulder is a real estate market that has not been immune to the broader economic downturn, but one that has also performed better than many markets across the country. It's important to remember that different segments of the Boulder market reflect varying results, but Boulder can still tout the fact that it's a great place to call home!

Interested in what's happening in your neighborhood? Contact us and we'll provide you with some of these same stats for your specific area. You can also review our Boulder Real Estate Market Update. If you have any questions, please contact us at RE/MAX of Boulder.

Phil Boren
Direct: 303-441-5647
Email: pboren@remax.net
My Profile on Google.com