We’ve all heard the statement, “It’s a Buyers’ market, buy now,” when referring to the current state of the real estate market. In February, Warren Buffett was quoted saying, “If I had a way of buying a couple hundred thousand single- family homes I would load up on them.” Locally, we’ve seen potential Buyers emerging in Summit County. In 2011, there were nearly 25% more property showings by our office alone when compared to 2010. Additionally, 2011 Breckenridge real estate sales were up 20% over the previous year.
What are current trends in the Breckenridge market? Below, we take a closer look at sales prices, mortgage rates, inventory and foreclosures and what they mean in our local real estate market.
Question: Are prices still dropping or has Breckenridge stabilized?
Answer: Pricing in the Breckenridge market seems to have stabilized. Due to the greater number of transactions in 2011, the real estate community is able to establish value, which gives both the Buyer and the Seller good comparables for making decisions on pricing.
Question: What do low mortgage rates mean?
Answer: Sellers will have greater sales appeal while mortgage rates are low. Buyers will get more bang for their buck in today’s market and could even enter into a higher dollar bracket of loan pre-qualification. Sellers may have a wider-range of Buyers viewing their home than in years past due to this broader appeal. This could be the last summer for these historically low rates.
Question: How does real estate inventory affect home sales?
Answer: In Breckenridge, the first quarter residential real estate inventory of 2012 decreased by more than 15 percent over 2011. Shrinking inventory means fewer homes are competing for the same Buyers. Overall, lessening of supply should increase demand.
Question: How do foreclosures affect local real estate?
Answer: A low amount of foreclosures sets the Summit County market apart from the region and nation. There are roughly 33,000 total properties in Summit County. Summit County had 1,271 properties sell in 2011, Summit County had 145 foreclosures. In Colorado, there are 2,212,898 housing units. Colorado had 19,622 foreclosures. Nationally, there are 131,704,730 housing units. Nationally, there were 1,900,000 foreclosures. The significance of these low Summit County foreclosure numbers may attribute to price stabilization locally.
Price stabilization, low mortgage rates, shrinking inventory and a low number of foreclosures in our market appear to be positive signs of recovery in Summit County. While we don’t expect prices to increase any time soon, supply is down slightly and demand appears to be on the upswing.
Contact our team of Brokers to learn more about how we can best represent you and the sale of your mountain home. Breckenridge Associates Real Estate – World Class Service. Home Town Team. 800.774.7970 or 970.453.2200. Click here for the latest news about Breckenridge Real Estate.
Sources: “Foreclosure Homes Account for 24 Percent of All U.S. Residential Sales”, RealtyTrac® on RISMedia.com, March 1, 2012; “Foreclosures Down 25 Percent In Colorado in 2011”, DenverPost.com, February 1, 2012, Stewart Title Company, March 28, 2012; UPI.com, January 12, 2012; 2010 U.S. Census; Local MLS Data, April 9, 2012
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