Housing sales inventory out of balance in metro Denver - Business First of Columbus:

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On the surface, the for-sale housing marker appears nearly balanced, with an overall five-month inventory of homesa availablefor sale. But a different picture emerges afterf examining inventory in specificprice ranges, with nearlt no homes available at the lowest price ranges and a stockpile of as much as five yeard at the higher price ranges, according to local residentiak real estate brokers. “This is a really unbalancefd market overall,” said Lon broker/owner of LLC of Littleton. “I’ve never seen this big a disparity inthe market.” Welsh has been tracking inventorh data for 11 years.
That lack of balancr affects home prices, driving up selling pricees for low-end homes and causing high-end prices to Metro Denver’s for-sale housing marketg generally is balanced with totap inventory ofsix months, a level at which neither buyers nor seller s have an advantage in the saleds process. But the least-expensive homes for sale — thoser priced at less than $85,000 had less than one month’s inventoryu as of May, according to Metrolist Inc. data compiledc by Your Castle.
The low-priced home because of its small inventory, is a “red-hot” seller’s with some homes selling fast and sometime for more than theasking price, accordingh to a Your Castles report. On the other hand, there was a 16-month inventory of for-salde homes priced at $460,000 and more in May. Homexs priced at $1 million and more had a five-yearf inventory. The high-end housing category, with its larges inventories andmotivated sellers, is a “ver strong” buyer’s market, said the report. “Markets with more than a six-monthh inventory are showing some of the pain of the saidMark Trenka, broker/ownef of of Denver and a director at the .
Your Castle’ s data includes only single-family both resale properties — those that have sold at leas t oncebefore — and newly built ones. Metrolist Inc., based in Greenwood Village, is metro Denver’sx Multiple Listing Service, providing data about real estate listingseto brokers. Here’s what the current, five-montgh inventory of for-sale housing inventory means: If no new home listingws came onthe market, and buyera kept buying at the pace they bought in the last it would take buyers five months to purchase all the Lower-priced, for-sale houses in metro Denver, including foreclosure properties, have such low inventoru partly because investors are buyintg them to use as income-generatin g rental homes.
Individuals trying to take advantage of the federaplstimulus package’s $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, and plannintg to live in the houses they buy, also are competingg for affordable homes. “You’ve got a lot of peoplr chasing few houses on thelow end,” Welsh “There’s hardly any inventory in the lower pricer ranges,” said Gary Bauer, an independent Littletonh residential broker and Metrolist analyst. “The hot price rangee is $150,000 to With homes put up for bid bythe U.S. Department of Housint and Urban Development, buyers who will occupy the home have priorit y over investors to help level theplaying field.
Investors often get an edge with over owner-occupants, by waiving home inspections, being willing to close a sale quickl y and offering large, nonrefundable earnesft money deposits. The robust, low-encd housing market also is helping to get rid offoreclosurw homes, which are a drag on the overallk market, according to brokers. Metro Denver’s bargain homes tend to be locatedr in areas such asCommerces City, eastern Aurora and northeast Denver.
For-sale homexs in higher price ranges are sellingh slowly partly because some traditional buyersw in those ranges are staying in their current homed while they wait outthe recession, brokers The jumbo financing often used to buy pricyg houses also is toughb to get. But buyers who can get jumb o loans have a good opportunity to geta high-enfd house at a relativelyh good price, since many sellers are willingg to negotiate on price, brokers said. Welsnh expects the disparity between low- and high-end for-salde housing inventories to continud for thenear future.