Real estate: Longmont home sales, prices leap

Boulder County home sales up, but sales prices lag in last quarter of 2009Fourth quarter results show improvement over 2008, but lack of job growth could slow recoveryHome sales in Boulder County picked up in the last quarter of 2009, while median sales prices declined slightly, the Boulder Area Realtor Association recently reported.

Area Realtors said buyers and sellers remain cautious, but people who have been sitting on the fence, watching the market, seem more inclined to take action.

“I’m hopeful this signifies the beginning of a slow, steady return to confidence,” said Ken Hotard, senior vice president of the area Realtor association.

There were 752 single-family homes sold in the last three months of 2009, compared to 604 in the last quarter of 2008. The percentage increase is 24 percent.

There were 261 sales of condominiums and townhouses in the same period, compared to 203 in the 2008, a 28 percent increase.

Those increases still leave total home sales for 2009 lagging behind 2008. There were 3,069 single-family homes sold countywide from Dec. 1, 2008, to Nov. 30, 2009, compared to 3,606 homes during the same period the year before, a 15 percent decrease.

Condo and townhouse sales were down 11 percent, from 1,345 sales from Dec. 1, 2007, to Nov. 30, 2008, to 1,193 sales during the period that ended Nov. 30.

Realtors like to portray a positive image of the housing market, but Hotard said the last year has been a difficult one. He said that when area Realtors saw the fourth quarter numbers for 2008, they were the worst that anyone could remember seeing.
“Then we saw the first quarter of 2009,” he said.

Hotard said the decline in median sales price in Boulder and some other markets reflects pressure on the higher end of the market. So-called “jumbo mortgages” above $400,000 remain hard to come by.

“It’s not a matter of prices being down so much as a matter of what’s selling,” he said. “The middle part of the market is stronger than the high-end market,” he said.

But Longmont saw 3.3 percent increase in the median price of homes sold during the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to the same quarter a year ago, from $201,000 to $217,000. Other county communities saw changes in median price from an 8.4 percent decrease in Boulder to an increase of 14 percent in Lafayette.

Realtor Nick Jeanette of Borg Real Estate had two closings in the last quarter. He sees signs of improvement, like buyers competing for a home and paying a higher price. Still, he said, buyers and sellers remain on edge.
“If there’s no equity, you don’t have an incentive to sell,” he said. “The only people selling are those forced to sell.”

And success for sellers depends on pricing to move the home, he said.

Buyers are much less likely to stretch to buy, he said, because people no longer assume they’ll get raises or bonuses — or even keep their job.

Hotard said January has seen brisk showings so far, but recovery in the housing market depends on recovery in the rest of the economy, particularly job growth.

“People need to have confidence that they’ll be able to continue to work, support themselves and pay their mortgages,” he said.