Tom Kalinski – RE/MAX of Boulder
BOULDER – Residential sales in the Boulder area declined significantly for the first month of 2016, while inventory continues to be a challenge and prices hold strong.
Sales of single-family homes in Boulder County dropped by 41.5 percent in January 2016 compared to December 2015 with 205 units sold versus 351.
The number of condominiums and townhomes sold in Boulder County fell 40.8 percent in January 2016 compared to December 2015; 45 units versus 76 units.
“January is historically a slow month, but the year got off to a reasonable start,” says Ken Hotard, vice president of public affairs for the Boulder Area Realtor® Association.
Year-to-date sales improved two percent for Boulder County’s single-family units home sales through January 2016 compared to the prior year; 205 units versus
201 units.
Attached home sales dropped 38.4 percent year-to-date through January 2016 compared to the prior year through January 2015; 45 units versus 73 units.
“I’m somewhat encouraged that we saw some improvement over last January in single-family home sales. I’m anticipating that with some negative economic forces out there, we may not have the same robust type of year that we had in 2015,” Hotard says.
The ongoing issue for Boulder County continues to be a shortage of inventory.
Inventory of single-family homes for sale in the Boulder-area markets dropped a slight 1.7 percent in January 2016 compared to December 2015; 574 units versus 584 units.
Condominiums and townhomes for sale in the Boulder area improved 11.9 percent, with 75 units sold versus 67 in January 2016 compared to December 2015.
Citing a recent listing of cities nationwide most challenged by shrinking inventory, Hotard notes that Denver comes in as the No. 9 city most plagued by a lack of available housing stock. In price appreciation, Denver is ranked No. 1.
“I think the Denver ranking reflects other parts of the metro area as well,” Hotard says noting that inventory and price are “two really strong indicators of the type of market the Boulder area has been dealing with for the past several years.”
“It doesn’t look like we’re going to see much change there,” Hotard says.
Prices in the Boulder area continue to “reflect a strong seller’s market, particularly in the city of Boulder,” he adds.
The city of Boulder’s average sales price topped $1 million dollars and the median sales price exceeded $975,000 in January 2016.
But Hotard says these figures are somewhat skewed since they are calculated “over a low number of sales (45) with more than a third of them selling for $1 million
or more.”
He expects price and inventory pressures to persist and be driven in large part by job growth.
“Even if the economy nationwide is not as robust as 2015, Boulder has some stabilizing economic factors such as a strong entrepreneurial base and a number of large institutional employers.”
For more information contact Tom Kalinski at RE/MAX of Boulder. Call 303.441.5620 or e-mail [email protected].
