Got mud? We do! In Grand County, it is pretty customary that April snowshowers bring May snow and rain showers. However, we are also witnessing our landscape turn green at a rapid pace, some bike trails are drying out and the sun reveals itselffor at least 2minutes most days.
If the real estate market governed our weather patterns, we could call this month hot and sunny with long bright days. Typically shoulder season is a quiet time of year for us butbuyers are flocking to the mountains earlier than usual to make their move.Here are the numbers: Winter Park area condo inventory is still low especially under $250,000. The number of units listed is down 20% vs this time last year, sales units are up 14% and the net sales volume $ is up 22%. Ironically, the "days to close" (aka days on market) are up 5%. If you ask any of us, this number should be down as condos are going under contract at a much quicker rate. If you read this update regularly, I hope you can answer this question because it hasn't changed from the last 6 months: appraisals are taking much longer than they used to which delays the loan/closing. There is no such thing as a 30 day close on a condo, home or townhomewith financing these days. Another result of less inventory, the average sales price is up 16% and the average percent of list vs sales price has gone from a margin of 4% in 2015 to 2% in 2016. That is good news for Sellers, especially those who purchased in 2006-2008.
Winter Park area single family home sales remain flat. While flat has still been good, it is curious why these sales aren't increasing and haven't over the last 2+ years. My theory is that there is not a lot of new construction in single family homes so we're effectively reselling existing properties rather than having an influx of new homes in the pool. This may change over the next 12-18 months as builders and developers scramble to fill the void.
Townhomes in the greater WP area are down in number of listings (-27%), up in overall sales dollars (64%) and "days on market"isdown (-33%).Vacant Land numbers are all over the place. While the number of listings are down 9%, the number sold this year vs this time last year is 23 vs 14 (-39%). Sold dollars are down (-23%) but average list price is up 25%.
Our Granby and Grand Lake neighbors' single family numbers are performing better. Granby sales are slightly better than flat with an increase of sales volume of 5%. Grand Lake sales, which were stellar in 2015, are up again with 16% in number of homes sold and up 28% in sales dollars. The inventory is down 25%, however, this is typically when we see a lot of new homes hit the market as Grand Lake gears up for it's busiest season.
Another bright spot for buyers and sellers is interest rates. In early May, interest rates were tracking as some of the lowest in the last two years. The latest prediction (based on lender newsletters and videos I follow) is that interest rates will remain low through the summer and likely through the rest of the year. Some of this is due to a lackluster recent jobs report and the fact that this is an election year.
Come see us at REWP at our annual client appreciation BBQ extravaganza on June 24 from 4-8PM and we'll give you more of the skinny with real estate trends, new projects, the new transit system, etc. We also hope to celebrate the departure of ol' man winter...fingers crossed!
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