Tight inventory keeps driving housing-price gains

We’re still early in the year, but the signs are pointing to another red-hot rise in Northern Colorado housing prices for 2016 — possibly even over and above last year’s double-digit rate of home-price appreciation.

In February, the average sale price was $329,776 across the region, up 8.5 percent over the month last year. But for two of the region’s submarkets, Fort Collins/Wellington/Timnath and Loveland/Berthoud, the rate of increase is approximately twice the regional average.

Last month, average prices in Loveland/Berthoud were up 17.2 percent, and up 16.4 percent in Fort Collins/Wellington/Timnath. Greeley/Evans, which…