Home prices increase 7.1% in January

Posted by puguh on Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Home prices increase 7.1% in January. The median price hits $225,000, but volume dips, and sales prices for condos decline 4.2 percent.



Denver-area home prices showed signs of improvement in January, even as the number of houses sold declined from the same month a year ago.

The median price for a single-family home was up 7.1 percent in January to $225,000, compared with $210,000 a year ago, according to an analysis of Metrolist data.

However, the median price for a condo declined 4.2 percent to $124,995, compared with $130,500 a year ago.

"With the exception of condos, the pricing is pretty stable," said independent real-estate consultant Gary Bauer. "A lot of lower-priced condos closed in the month of January than in the previous month."

Meanwhile, sales of existing homes in metro Denver dropped 8.4 percent in January compared with the same month a year ago.

Last month, 2,156 homes sold, compared with 2,353 in January 2009.

"January was not as robust as we would have liked to have seen, but quite frankly with everything that's going on out there, it's just now that we're seeing consumer confidence increase, increase in use of credit cards, and we're seeing positive news on the employment front," Bauer said.

The number of homes on the market increased 5.7 percent to 18,804, up from 17,785 in January last year.

"There is more inventory than there was last year, but it's not necessarily desirable inventory," said Larry McGee, broker/owner of the Berkshire Group. "Because of that, people are paying a bit more for nicer properties."

Mike Burns, broker/owner of ReMax Professionals Inc. in Littleton, said sales in November and December were the best they had been in four years and that it isn't surprising that January was slow. There has been an uptick in sales in recent weeks, but Burns doesn't think prices will get much better than they are right now.

"We've already had a significant increase in traffic in the last week of January and first week in February," he said. "I think that those numbers will turn back around. We'll be as good or better than we were last year."

Source: http://www.denverpost.com

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