Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The GAP Narrows sales to listings

Watching the statistics about the Denver Real Estate market can make you cross eyed. I have been attempting to make sense out of it for over 24 years now, however, in 2003 I saw the 2 numbers that made the most sense for indicators: Closed SALES and New Listings.

Closed sales is pretty obvious but the choice of Denver's new listing count was harder to come by, especially choosing to use ONLY the single family home statistics for Denver Metro. And then the data base got changed to include the entire state of Colorado and the metro area has grown. So one needs to finesse these data point a little...but not too much.

The truth is there are some reports that say there are 23xxx listings on the market in Denver today leading one to believe every other house is for sale in Denver! We know this is not true as the signs telling us all those houses are for sale are not there. The physical signs in the front yard. Actually, this morning, there were 12,311 single family homes listed for sale as active listings in the Denver MLS system known as Metrolist.

And then the final part of the question: How do you 'chart' the data to give a true picture of the Denver area's economic real estate health? That hit me a few months ago...look at how this month compares to the same month in 2003, 2004, 2005, etc. I know rudimentary, but now some of it looks like it makes sense. As an example the red bars are the closed sales and it looks like they are the best we have seen in over 4 years for November in Denver. The purple bars are the competition, the new listings coming on the market and they are down. Think of it like this: Red bar is demand (UP), purple bar is supply(DOWN). That is good for Sellers and buyers need to know to act quickly, before prices start to edge up any more!




Pete Doty has been a Full Time Licensed Colorado real estate broker since 1985. "I go to work everyday for you & your friends, learning about our home town!" It could be Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Littleton, Castle Rock, Centennial, Englewood, Parker, Elizabeth, Larkspur, Franktown, Kiowa, or anywhere in metro Denver Colorado. Talk to me for real estate advice, properties for sale, multiple listing service, all available at www.DenverRelocation.com. Drop me a note to pete@Denverrelocation.com

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