Lafayette Real Estate Market Overview

Posted by Phil Boren on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 5:33pm.

The residential re-sale market in Lafayette ended 2009 with mixed results, but those results indicate that the market above $500,000 may have some bright spots (based on data is from IRES, as of 1-22-10). Overall, the Lafayette real estate market ended 2009 with the median price of a sold listing actually up 26%. However, much of that increase is likely due to the fact that some of the more expensive homes in Lafayette have been selling - driving the median price up. In fact, if we look at the overall average price/sf in Lafayette in 2009, it was only up 6%.

Lafayette Real Estate Market In terms of the number of sales or sales volume in Lafayette, overall volume was down. The number of units listed for sale was down 9%, the number of units under contract was down 12%, and the number of units sold was down 5%. So we appear to have slightly increasing values overall, but with reduced sales volume. With the sales volume down, the months' supply of inventory (MSI) actually rose 4% and the percentage of Lafayette's inventory that ended the year under contract was down 3%. Actually, the percentage of inventory under contract in December '09 was the lowest it's been in over a year, at 7.5% - that is only 7.5% of the listing inventory was u/c. There's likely to be some seasonality built into these numbers, but I thought it would be interesting to compare the overall Lafayette numbers to the over-$500K market in Lafayette to get an idea of how that market segment performed. That generally is the Indian Peaks area.

During the same time period, the over-$500K market in Lafayette also posted some mixed results, but some of the figures were pleasantly surprising. The median price of a sold listing in this category increased by 12% over the year, but the average price/sf actually declined by 7%. Same logic as above, only more pronounced in this category. In other words, there were some good deals made on higher-end homes in Lafayette in 2009.

Lafayette Real Estate The number of units sold was down more than the overall Lafayette market at 14%, but the number of units u/c was up 33% - a good sign. This could also be a function of how low the number was in December '08, but still a positive. The number of units sold in this category was flat, reflecting at least consistent demand. Encouragingly, the months' supply of inventory (MSI) actually declined 34% and the percentage of inventory u/c increased 56%. Both of those numbers are positive for this market segment and might indicate that buyers are recognizing the current value(s) in this price range.

As always, if you're interested in Boulder real estate, Lafayette real estate, or in market data for any area in Boulder Valley, please feel free to contact us.

Phil Boren
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Email: pboren@remax.net
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