Area home sales in record-setting territory

September home sales in the four-county BizWest region continue the robust pace with 1,816 closed sales representing an 18.2 percent increase from September last year and the median price was up 10.5 percent to $295,000.

These figures are taken from Information & Real Estate Services (IRES), which is the local multilist and does not include sales for homes that are not listed with the MLS. We note that several of the figures reported in our last column were incorrect because the wrong data was posted to the website. For example, we reported sales of 3,973 homes in Weld County to the end of August 2014, and the correct figure was 3,472. This meant we showed a year-to-date increase in sales of 11.1 percent when it should have been 21.9 percent. There were several other incorrect figures, but we believe the current totals to the end of September 2014 and 2015 are correct.

It is interesting to note that Weld County, the area with the lowest median selling price, also is the area with the highest increase in sales, while Larimer County, the area with the highest increase in selling price, also is the area with the lowest increase in sales. This would seem to be textbook economics. And we still find it amazing that with the low inventory – a current 2.6 month supply – and the double-digit increase in the median selling price, that there was enough demand to push up sales by 13 percent.

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With three quarters of the year in the books, we are in record-setting territory. It is possible we will record 20,000 homes sales for the year compared with 17,052 last year, and with a median price of $305,000 we would exceed a total market of $7 billion compared with the record $5.6 billion achieved last year.

The net active inventory actually increased slightly to 3,253 homes listed for sale, and with a normal slowdown in demand over the next few months it may take some pressure off the prices and give buyers a bit of a break. With mortgage interest rates remaining at historically low levels and rents at historically high levels, home ownership is an attractive alternative particularly when you calculate the benefit of writing off mortgage interest and property taxes from your income.
Generally speaking, if you are paying $2,000 per month rent it is costing you $24,000 per annum off your gross income. If you pay the same amount for a mortgage and property taxes the net cost could be in the range of $1,500 per month or $18,000 per annum. This does not include appreciation and other benefits of home ownership. It might be time to check it out!

Dave Pettigrew is a real estate broker at Ascent Real Estate Professionals, 155 E. Boardwalk, No. 475, Fort Collins. Contact him at FCRealtor@msn.com or 970-282-9305.