The Latest Market Trends For Real Estate – October 2018

The latest market trends report for the real estate industry was released this week and it holds the key to some pretty interesting insights into the local market.  We know that you look to people like us to help provide meaning to all of the statistics and trends so that you can make smart decisions about your real estate investment.  Here are a few highlights from the latest trend report and what they mean for you:

• Inventory is up!  Inventory is up 7.04% over August and 16.10% year-over-year.  It’s no secret that it has often felt like slim pickins’ in some areas and price points throughout the Denver Metro and all along the Front Range.  However, that is starting to change and give home buyers more options.
• Appreciation is normalizing and dropped from 8.04% to 6.53% year-over-year.  (Remember 3.6% is normal appreciation.) This means that the rate at which a property is appreciating (or gaining value) is leveling off.  As homeowners this means you will see smaller jumps in property value estimates that you might get from Zillow and the like, but keep in mind that the number of 6.53% is still WAY more than what is considered normal appreciation.  The takeaway:  It’s still a GREAT time to invest in real estate to build wealth.
• Mortgage purchase applications are up 4% and NAR’s foot traffic was up just under 1% (.9%).  We talk about foot traffic a lot and this simply is a stat that we use to help understand how many homes will be going under contract and sell in the near future.  Both of these stats tell us that buyers are still looking for their dream home, but with increased inventory they aren’t feeling the urgent timeframe that we felt in the past.

Our goal is to ultimately educate YOU.  We want you to be armed with as much knowledge as you can to make wise financial and investment decisions.  We believe real estate is one of the best ways you can grow wealth and we want to help you do just that.  If you have any questions about how we can help or about the latest trends in real estate and what it means for you, please reach out to our team!