Ups, downs seen as improvement over 2009
Loveland and Fort Collins real estate brokers are projecting a relatively flat market for 2010, an improvement to the declines they saw last year. “We’re just not through with this market,” said Jerry Crawford, owner/broker of Re/Max Action Brokers at Centerra. “I think we have to anticipate a flat real estate market with a little up and a little down for the next two years.”
Crawford expects to see one of the little ups over the next three months. He said he anticipates a slight increase in the number of homes sold and their selling prices, primarily from the extended benefits of the federal first-time homebuyers tax credit.
The $8,000 tax credit was extended to April 30, 2010, for first-time homebuyers to enter into contracts. The program includes a $6,500 credit for buyers who have lived in the same home for at least five years and want to move.
Home prices in Larimer County declined 7 percent in 2009 from what they were in 2008, Crawford said. The main cause for the price decline came from the number of short-sale, foreclosure and bank-owned properties that were on the market, he said. In Fort Collins and Loveland, the rate of mortgage loans in some stage of the foreclosure process was 1.32 percent in November, an increase of 0.65 percentage points compared with November 2008, according to First American CoreLogic, a national real estate database.
Nationally, the foreclosure rate for outstanding mortgage loans was 3.09 percent for November 2009. “It is not a normal market for us,” Crawford said. Crawford expects prices to decline another 5 percent to 7 percent in 2010 from a pent-up supply of short sales and foreclosures, he said. “We’re seeing more activity in the lower price ranges (of $150,000 to $200,000),” said Eric Thompson, president of The Group Inc., which has six offices in Northern Colorado.
Unit sales in Loveland dropped 5 percent from 2008 to 2009, representing approximately 70 transactions. “It doesn’t necessarily mean your house is losing value,” said Chris Hardy, managing broker of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, which has 13 offices in the Front Range. “What the numbers show is that a larger number of lower-priced homes sold than higher-priced homes.”
In Loveland, along with Berthoud, homes priced at $200,000 or less are selling at a faster rate than homes $300,000 and above, Hardy said. “The lending restrictions are far more stringent, and fewer people qualify,” Hardy said. People who qualify are taking advantage of the first-time homebuyers tax credit, he said. According to First American CoreLogic, home prices in Fort Collins and Loveland declined 0.6 percent in November 2009 from the same month in 2008.
The decline was more significant for October year-to-year, at 3.62 percent. Nationally, the decline for November year-to-year was 5.7 percent, an improvement over October’s year-to-year price decline of 7.6 percent. Month-to-month prices nationally present a more positive picture, with a 0.2 percent decline from October 2009 to November 2009.
Home prices are not expected to increase until November 2010, when First American CoreLogic expects to see a 0.23 percent increase. “I think we will see our market stabilizing this year as the national economy improves and stabilizes,” said Thompson of The Group.
The real estate market is expected to improve in 2010, but in small increments, said David Powell, managing broker of Re/Max Alliance in Loveland. “Under $250,000 is still what I consider a strong market,” Powell said. “The lower price ranges are doing better than the upper.”
By Shelley Widhalm
Loveland Reporter-Herald
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