Tight housing inventories to continue

Welcome to 2014.

It wasn’t that long ago that the Boulder Valley housing market felt the sting of the national housing bust. While some submarkets such as Boulder weathered the storm fairly well, maintaining price stability or even appreciation, other communities such as Longmont experienced high foreclosures, rising inventories and downward price pressures.

Today, the Boulder Valley is experiencing significant upward pressure on prices, as inventories decline and home builders struggle to keep pace with demand. The result? Prices are climbing, and residential agents might find themselves competing for increasingly precious listings.

At the Boulder Valley Real Estate Conference & Forecast, conducted recently at the Stadium Club at Folsom Field, Re/Max of Boulder’s D.B. Wilson highlighted some of the challenges facing the residential sector.

“This spring is going to be even tougher than last spring,” Wilson told the audience. “When you think of the number of multiple offer transactions (that occurred last spring), I think that’s what we’re going to see again. … I think we’re going to have a strong market but I think we’re going to be fighting over the same listings.”

Two numbers tell the story, at least in the case of Boulder: For the first three quarters of 2013, the city’s median home price climbed to $642,000, while the average sales price reached $747,233.

While five to seven months is considered a healthy inventory, Boulder County’s inventory of single-family homes stands at a mere 3.2 months.

That’s a buyer’s market. And it’s one that likely will continue in the year ahead. So prospective homebuyers might want to jump in while they can, before prices escalate even further. And sellers should consider whether now might be a pretty good time to place their homes on the market.